The manhunt for a fugitive businessman intensified yesterday when it emerged that he had turned up at a Thames boatyard the day after his girlfriend was found battered to death in a bath at a Paris hotel.
Ian Griffin, 39, originally from Cheshire, called at Shepperton Marina in Surrey last Wednesday — and appeared to be planning a seaborne getaway.
According to Ruby Lewis, an employee at the yard, Griffin bought a marine satellite navigation system and charts of British, Irish and European waters. He also asked if anti-fouling work under way on his 18ft motorboat could be completed urgently.
When told that it would take some time, he asked if he could buy a cabin cruiser instead.
urrey police confirmed last night that they were aware of the sighting and were investigating. They have carried out searches of a house in Surrey.
It is the first positive identification of Griffin since Tuesday afternoon when he was seen driving away in a Porsche from Hotel Le Bristol in Paris hours before the body of Kinga Legg, his 36-year-old Polish-born girlfriend, was found naked in the bath of their room.
The hotel is a regular haunt of President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla.
Legg, a businesswoman who made a fortune selling tomatoes and vegetables from Poland to British companies such as Tesco and McDonald’s, died from internal bleeding. The room was spattered with blood and littered with broken furniture.
“No weapon was used other than bits of furniture and fists,” said Henri Moreau, a French detective.
The couple were said to have been drinking copious amounts of champagne in their room.
Before attention returned to Britain this weekend, it had been thought that Griffin had headed south from Paris to the Mediterranean, where Legg had recently taken delivery of a £1m Sunseeker yacht, now moored at Port Leucate, near Perpignan.
In a further development this weekend, police in Cheshire have impounded a black Porsche belonging to Griffin. It is believed to be the same as the one seen leaving the Bristol. According to unconfirmed reports the car was found at the home of Griffin’s parents in Winwick, near Warrington.
Lewis, 19, a sales administrator with her father’s company at Shepperton Marina, said Griffin had arrived shortly before 2pm last Wednesday dressed in jeans, a grey T-shirt and a beanie hat. Days earlier he had asked for his £25,000 18ft Sea Ray boat to be taken out of the water and treated with anti-fouling paint.
Lewis said: “He seemed quite agitated when I told him anti-fouling work had not been completed. He then asked if it was possible to buy a cabin cruiser.
“He decided to take away a marine sat nav system and some electronic navigation charts that he also asked us to fit.”
Lewis showed an invoice for the goods made out in the name “I Griffin” and said that he had given the e-mail contact ian@vegexuk.co.uk an address at Vegex, Legg’s vegetable trading company.
Last night the boat was tied up at its moorings after the yard impounded it and called the police. Legg’s Polish family and friends are mourning her in the town of Opatowek, west of Lodz.
Her father Jan Wolf, a former mayor, would only say: “It’s too difficult for me to comment at the moment.”
Another resident of the town, where Vegex is a pillar of the local economy, described her as “a friendly person, always smiling. She had a lot of bright ideas and helped a lot of people”.
In an interview in the French media, Legg’s mother, using the pseudonym Magdalena, described Griffin as “a badly brought up man who likes to drink and is very interested in money”.
Griffin has made money in a series of ventures including tanning salons, gadget shops and mobile phone ringtones, although he has a string of failed companies behind him.
He was once briefly arrested on suspicion of fraud in Spain, but was later released without charge.
Although his record has been mixed, Griffin is proud of the money he has made.
An entry in his name on the Friends Reunited social networking website describes “my incredible successes over the past 17 years” and says to his former school colleagues: “I have read all your notes and to be quite frank none of you sorry lot have accomplished anything apart from babies, dogs and goldfish.”
One photograph of him on board an executive jet includes the tag: “The only way to guarantee a pleasent \ flight home with no mingers is to purchase all the other seats!”
Joel Edgerton, his cousin, described him as “dead good-looking and charming with everyone”. He said he did not believe he could have murdered Legg because “it’s so out of character, he’s a lovely bloke”.
Typical of his style, according to Edgerton, was when he used to visit one of his tanning shops in a run-down part of Wigan driving an orange Lamborghini said to have once belonged to Eric Clapton, the rock star. His acquaintances included Anna Friel, the Hollywood actress.
Griffin and Legg had an on-off relationship said to date back some 15 years before her brief marriage to a Blackpool council official. They lived in Cheshire before moving to Leatherhead, Surrey, where they rented a £1.4m house on an executive estate.
A neighbour said yesterday they had lived there for about nine months: “He used to take his golden retriever for a walk tied behind his quad bike.”
Additional reporting: Tom Hendry, Matthew Campbell, Phil Cardy, Kamil Tchorek
Monday, May 25 Kinga Legg checks into the £1,000-a-night Hotel Le Bristol, Paris
Tuesday Ian Griffin arrives. In the afternoon he is seen driving away in a Porsche
Tuesday evening A cleaner finds Legg’s battered body
Wednesday afternoon Griffin calls at Shepperton Marina, Surrey, to see if his motorboat is seaworthy
Source:The times
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