A MILLIONAIRE businessman from Oxshott wanted over the murder of his girlfriend in a Paris hotel has been ordered to be extradited to France.
Ian Griffin, 41, was seen leaving the French capital in a Porsche 911 just hours before the body of 36-year-old Kinga Legg was found naked in a bath on May 23 last year.
He was discovered sleeping in a tent in woods in Cheshire two weeks later, but has since then fought extradition proceedings with the case repeatedly postponed due to mental health problems.
But at City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday,?deputy chief magistrate Daphne Wickham ruled Mr Griffin should be returned to France.
"It would not be oppressive to extradite him and I find that extradition would be compatible with his human rights," she said.
Mr Griffin, who lived with Miss Legg in a rented house on Oxshott's Crown Estate, was absent from court with kidney problems linked to a drug overdose.
The?hearing was told that in recent months he has been held at Wandsworth Prison's healthcare wing, and had made a series of attempts to commit suicide, including slashing his wrists twice and stabbing himself in the chest with an electric toothbrush.
During the lengthy extradition proceedings, which began in summer 2009, experts have argued over his fitness to plead and stand trial.
Last month, on behalf of the French Judicial Authority, consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Philip Joseph claimed he believed Mr Griffin was "certainly fit to understand the nature of the charges he is facing, [and] to plead and participate in the trial".
But Dr Knightly Seneviratna told the court that?he was suffering from fluctuating mood disorder and would benefit from a three-month adjournment to try and become more stabilised.
He said that though Mr Griffin was fit to plead, he was unfit to stand trial and would be unable to follow proceedings.
District Judge Wickham however said that having observed?the defendant?via video-link at two hearings, she found him to have a "remarkable ability to absorb information and comprehend what is being said".
It had also been argued that it would be oppressive to extradite Mr Griffin due to fears over his mental and physical condition, but the judge said she believed this was not the case.
She said: "It is my belief that on all the evidence before me I can't accept in this case that there’s a certainty of suicide.
"He fails on at least three counts."
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