"It's wonderful to be back," said Mike Lynch three weeks ago after spending time at his home in Suffolk.

The tech entrepreneur was enjoying some welcome respite on his family farm near Wickham Market having faced his accusers in a San Francisco jury trial and - against the odds - won.

It was August 1 - two months after his acquittal on June 6 - and he had agreed to be interviewed by the East Anglian Daily Times. It was one of his last interviews before his fateful voyage off the coast of Sicily this month.

Although not born in Suffolk - he was brought up in Ilford in Essex - it was very much his adopted home. He lived here for more than three decades making many friends in the county, raising Red Poll cattle, and bringing up his two daughters with wife, Angela Bacares.

As a mathematician - he had a PhD in mathematical computing - he appreciated how much the probabilities were stacked against him during his court case. Vanishingly few federal cases such as his don't end in conviction.

He took a proactive role in mounting a robust defence against the 15 fraud charges he faced in the US - and had a lot to say about what he saw as an unfair legal system which resulted in his extradition to the US to face trial.

But he had resources, he said, and was used to dealing with complex problems.

Having finally prevailed he was tremendously relieved and happy - but also tired.

"It's a lot warmer than I remember it," he said. Arriving back home he was still acclimatising and decompressing from years of stress.

"It was very strange. The first thing you realise is how tired you are," he said of his return to England.

Little ailments which had been waiting in the wings appeared. "I ended up getting an horrendous cough," he said. "I went to sleeping 12 hours a day."

But it was "wonderful" seeing his beloved dogs - the family has six - again after 13 months under house arrest. With him was Faucet, a young Shetland sheepdog, which his wife gave to him to keep him company during his ordeal in the US.

Now the young pup was a "handsome young Yank arriving in Suffolk and hanging out with the ladies", he joked. His guards during his house arrest in San Francisco would take him out for walks - "now he's got the whole of the Suffolk countryside", said a delighted Dr Lynch.

It was clear that he loved the county. "Suffolk sometimes we take it for granted but it's a wonderful place," he said. Arriving home to "a garden filled with people" who had come to welcome him back to the county was one of the highlights of his return - along with being reunited with his beloved pets. "The dogs were very pleased to see me," he said.

The entrepreneur had many plans - including campaigning against the UK's one-sided extradition laws with the US which meant he could be sent off to trial there - even after the Serious Fraud Office here found no case to answer.

"The government has to look after its citizens," he argued. He was "looking at really starting to marshal people in the autumn," he said.

There was still a civil case brought by Hewlett Packard - the tech giant which bought out Autonomy, the company he founded - outstanding. It was this sale which was the source of all Dr Lynch's legal woes across the Atlantic.

The UK civil court found against him but a judgement on costs has yet to be decided - and his plan was to appeal anyway. He felt that after the witness statements were properly tested in the criminal case in the US, the UK civil case fell apart.

"At the end of the day I would much rather just move on and spend more time just doing much more useful things. If it has to continue, we'll appeal it and bring it in," he said.

But most of all he was enjoying being home. "Obviously it's a massive relief - it's wonderful to be home and to be back in Suffolk is phenomenal."