Why I've Been Hounded Since Katy's Death

It’s almost two years since the model Katy French’s tragic death, but the man who frantically drove her to hospital after she collapsed feels he is still being harassed by the press.

Speaking exclusively to Hot Press, Kieron ‘Wolf’ Ducie says he’s incensed with the way he is still being subjected to negative coverage by certain newspapers.
After Ducie spoke at length to Hot Press last year about the mysterious circumstances surrounding the model’s collapse in his home, the Dubliner vowed he was never going to speak to the media again on the subject, in an effort to move on with his life.
But it’s almost a year since that interview, and Ducie is still being hounded. For example, the news that Ducie’s girlfriend, Elaine Buggle, was pregnant, sparked stories in the tabloids that they were planning to call their child – if a girl – Katy in memory of the model. Other publications announced the news by saying the “big bad wolf” was expecting a cub!
Ducie says he was “disgusted” by the stories.
“I cringed at that. I didn’t even know the sex of the baby! The most hurtful thing was that I hadn’t had the opportunity to tell my granny the wonderful news about the pregnancy before it broke in the papers. And the tone of these stories was disgusting,” he said.
He also points out that Elaine didn’t know the famous model, and that it’s absurd that she’d want to christen their child after Katy French. So how did his girlfriend react to the hullabaloo surrounding the story?
“It was very upsetting for Elaine. It really was. That was the first time she experienced bad press like that – and it was all so untrue. It wasn’t nice to see her upset. Honestly, 99% of all this is rubbish and sensationalism. It’s an awful lot to ask anybody to take on, but thankfully I’ve got a strong girl,” he adds.
“As I said to you last year, I wanted to go into 2009 by moving on with my life. I don’t want my name being dragged into the papers. I don’t want to do interviews – I don’t want to even talk about it (Katy French’s death) anymore. Unfortunately, it’s something that will be forever linked with me. The last two years of my life have been very tough.”
Ducie’s name popped up in the press again last month, when some tabloids ran a story that he was going to be selling what they dubbed the “death house”.
“It was a very crude statement. The terminology the papers are using now is bordering on libellous. It’s very frustrating,” he says.
According to these same reports, Ducie is planning to move to Malahide this September in an effort to start afresh with his new family. He dismisses this as well.
“That’s the first I ever heard about it,” he sighs. “It’s all news to me.”
However, Ducie does concede that he’ll “eventually” sell his home in County Meath.
“I want to move on with my life, that much is true – and perhaps moving home will help. Eventually, Elaine and I do want to start afresh in our own house. But that’s down the line. I’m not going to say when because I don’t know when. My priority now is – there’s a little baby on the way. That’s what I have to focus all my attention on.”
Some publications claim that Ducie is seeking publicity by being constantly pictured by the paparazzi with either celebrities or a bevy of women at nightclubs. But Ducie dismisses this attitude as nonsense.
“I’ve been doing this – going out socialising – for a long time before this ever happened to me. I was going out for 10 years before that tragic night. Nothing has changed. Some people say I’m putting myself out there. I don’t. I go out only one night a week, but it’s portrayed in the papers as if I’m out every night clubbing.
“I go out to a club and people are taking pictures with cameras or their phones. Now the newspapers want to blame me because paparazzi are taking my picture, when they’re paying these guys. I cringe when I see all this stuff up on Facebook or MySpace.
“There’s probably a hundred Kieron Ducies going out there and doing the same things as me every night of the week. I’ll be honest with you, I’m probably a by-product of the Celtic Tiger generation – of all the excesses that we had, you know? I run a successful recycling company – one of the top recycling companies in the country – and I get paid very well for it. So, why shouldn’t I be entitled to go out and enjoy myself once a week? This is not a popularity contest. People say to me when I go to nightclubs, ‘You’re famous!’ I’m not – I’m infamous, if anything. The truth is that I’m dedicated to my job and my family.”
Ducie was also criticised in some quarters – particularly by some high profile models like Rosanna Davidson – for telling his side of the story last year in Hot Press.
“Everybody’s entitled to their opinion. I think an awful lot of those people who do slag me off don’t understand exactly what I went through. In fairness, the likes of Gerry Ryan and others did stick up for me after they read that interview. There were too many misconceptions out there before I had the opportunity to tell my story in Hot Press. I wanted somebody to just tell the truth and not change the words.
“I think when I told my story it baffled the media – because it clarified everything and showed up all the absurd innuendos and outrageous allegations made against me. I feel telling my side of the story helped to right all those wrongs,” he concludes.

The original Hot Press interview with Kieron Ducie can be read in Jason O’Toole’s Crime Ink: Interviews With Notorious Criminals And Other Note From The Irish Underground (Merlin Publishing), a collection of interviews first published in Hot Press.