Polish Heiress Battered to Death, Boyfriend Arrested

LONDON, June 4, 2009 — -- The father of a Polish heiress whose dead body was found battered and left in a bathtub in a Paris hotel has finally spoken about his daughter's untimely death.

"She was always smiling, pleasant, full of ideas," said Jan Wolf, breaking down in tears while speaking to ABC News on the phone about his daughter, Kinga Legg. Wolf, who lives in the Polish town of Opatowek, went on to say, "She helped a lot of people locally [in Poland.]"

Legg's tycoon boyfriend, Ian Griffin, a former male model, was arrested on suspicion of her murder and appeared at the City of Westminster Magistrates' Court on Wednesday, but he refused to consent to extradition to France. District Judge Daphne Wickham ordered an extradition hearing for June 10, according to the London Times.

Griffin, 40, is said to like the fast living, fast-car lifestyle -- and women. At one point, he claimed to be worth over $50 million and once ran a string of businesses including a chain of tanning salons, according to the Times. Griffin reportedly mingled with soap stars and pop music celebrities, until losing his fortune with a failed business deal and filing for bankruptcy in 2006.

Polish-born Legg and her British boyfriend were seen as a glamorous, flamboyant couple- whose relationship was described as "turbulent" by friends who spoke to the media.

The professional couple's champagne lifestyle included, according to the Daily Mail, a rented $5 million mansion just outside of London, a customized Mercedes car worth over $100,000, and Legg had just booked a $2 million Mediterranean yacht called Overdraft to sail on for a month, at a cost of almost $10,000 per day.

The former model turned tycoon resumed his high living after he and Legg began their relationship about three years ago; they were a fixture on the social scene in Cheshire, England, where Legg was described as "vivacious and popular", according to the Daily Mail.

Legg's fortune came from the family-owned tomato exportation business called Vegex; it was originally a local plant in Poland which she inherited from her father and grandfather. She expanded the tomato business to the international market: United Kingdom, Sweden and France.

During her relationship with Griffin she was still married but separated from British-born Peter Legg, a career civil servant in England. The union ended after two years, but her business thrived as did her social life.