Family’s bid to stop husband inheriting Paula’s millions

CIVIL CASE LAUNCHED AFTER MURDER TRIAL COLLAPSED

THE family of a wealthy heiress who drowned in a swimming pool are attempting to stop her husband benefitting from her £4.4 million will after his murder trial collapsed.

Property developer Donald McPherson, 50, denied the murder of Paula Leeson, 47, from Trafford, in a remote part of Denmark in 2017.

Four years later, a judge ordered the jury to find him not guilty at his trial as there was insufficient evidence.

Her family now want a judge to rule he killed her so he will not benefit from his late wife’s will and other assets worth £4.4m, Manchester Civil Court of Justice heard.

Before Paula’s death, Mr McPherson, of Sale, had taken out seven “secret” life insurance policies on his “besotted” wife and stood to gain £3.5m from the policies if she died, his murder trial in 2021 heard.

He claimed to be sleeping when she drowned in the pool at the holiday cottage in western Denmark in June 2017.

The next day he began transferring large sums of money from her accounts to clear his debts and a week later joined a group, Widowed and Young, described as “Tinder for Widows”.

Ms Leeson’s family have brought a case against him in the civil courts.

Her father Willy, an Irish businessman and owner of the family construction firm, brother Neville and only son Ben, attended the hearing as Lesley Anderson KC, opened their case to the judge, Mr Justice Richard Smith.

Mr McPherson was not present and the case went ahead without him.

He is believed to be living in several countries in the South Pacific, including French Polynesia and Fiji.

The court has been told Mr McPherson has been convicted of 32 offences of dishonesty or fraud in New Zealand, where he was born, the UK, and in Germany, where he was jailed for involvement in an £11.8m bank fraud.

Ms Anderson said: “The central issue still stands: What happened in Denmark? The cause of death was drowning. The only issue is the manner of death. It is the manner of death that causes the death to be unlawful.”

Paula, who was 5ft 5ins tall, drowned in a pool that was under 4ft deep, though she could swim and was an otherwise healthy mother-ofone. Ms Anderson continued: “Our case is that Paula must have been unconscious when she went into the water, otherwise her natural reaction would be to stand up to save herself. We do say it probably was a choke hold or a neck hold.”

Mr McPherson was struggling financially, it was alleged. Ms Anderson said at the time of the death he was “running out of money” which “supercharged the financial motive” for him so he “had to do something”.

She said Mr McPherson had given “inconsistent and dishonest” accounts of what had happened in Denmark. He had “systematically” deleted data from his wife’s phone which may have explained what happened, Ms Anderson claimed, and was a man who had shown “almost no upset or remorse” over her death.

The murder trial was halted in March 2021 by trial judge Mr Justice Goose, ruling there was insufficient evidence for jurors to safely convict as the prosecution case was based on circumstantial evidence.

Crucially, an accidental death could not be ruled out.

He directed the jury to return a not guilty verdict to murder. Pathologists found 13 separate injuries on Paula’s body, which jurors heard may have been sustained while being restrained but also may have occurred during a rescue and resuscitation attempt.

Prosecutors had alleged Paula’s death was a pre-planned killing by her husband, born Alexander James Lang.

He and Paula were wed following a “whirlwind romance” at Peckforton Castle, Cheshire, in June 2014. Paula had stood to inherit the family business owned by her father in Sale. She oversaw his skip hire business, where she met Mr McPherson, a property developer.

Mr McPherson has denied any involvement in his wife’s death.

● The hearing continues

Convicted fraudster Donald McPherson was cleared by a judge of murdering his wife Paula Leeson, left

Our case is that Paula must have been unconscious when she went into the water Barrister Lesley Anderson KC