Property developer murdered his wife to get hold of vast fortune, court told

A PROPERTY developer murdered his wealthy heiress wife in a holiday drowning “accident” to get his hands on a “vast fortune” a court heard.

Donald Mcpherson, 47, had wed Paula Leeson, 47, at Peckforton Castle in Cheshire, in June 2014, a “grand affair and no expense was spared,” Manchester Crown Court heard.

But less than three years later she was dead, David Mclachlan QC told the jury as he opened the case for the prosecution in a trial expected to last up to six weeks.

Mr Mcpherson, born Alexander James Lang and originally from Auckland, New Zealand, denies murder on June 6, 2017.

The jury heard the defendant had a “big secret” – that in the four years before Paula Leeson’s death he had taken out seven life insurance policies on his wife, who was to inherit a business worth “millions”.

She knew nothing about the insurance policies on her life, but they were worth up to £3.5 million, all payable to her husband if she died first.

Mr Mcpherson, who also had a private pilot’s licence, had also forged her will, according to forensic handwriting experts, making him the beneficiary, its alleged.

His wife was also to inherit “millions” from the family business her father owned.

In June 2017, Mcpherson and Paula, described as “generous to a fault”, had gone on a mini-break to a remote part of western Denmark, though her family noticed she was not herself and seemed “to have something on her mind”.

While there she drowned in the swimming pool of the house they had rented, three days into the trip. She had only gone on the trip to please her husband and “hated” the pool and the seaside.

Mr Mclachlan told the jury: “The prosecution case is, that whilst at first glance it appeared that her untimely death was an accident, the evidence will show that it was not.

“It was a sinister pre-planned killing and the person responsible for her drowning was none other than her husband Donald Mcpherson.

“The motive for the drowning was the oldest and simplest one in the book. It was financial.

“He stood to gain a vast fortune by her death. This was something which was not known by the

Danish authorities.”