Husband ‘unlawfully killed’ heiress and cannot inherit her £4m fortune, judge rules
Donald McPherson, 51, was previously cleared of Ms Leeson’s murder half way through his trial in 2021
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A judge has ruled wealthy heiress Paula Leeson was unlawfully killed by her husband, blocking him from inheriting her £4.4m estate.
Ms Leeson, 47, was found dead in a swimming pool while staying at a holiday cottage with husband Donald McPherson in remote western Denmark in 2017.
McPherson told police he awoke to find Ms Leeson face down in the shallow swimming pool at the holiday home he had booked for them.
Her death was initially treated as a tragic accident by the Danish authorities – though she had suffered 13 separate external injuries.
Ms Leeson, who was 5ft 5in tall, drowned in the pool that was less than 4ft deep, though she could swim and was an otherwise healthy mother-of-one.
Lawyers for the Leeson family argued to save herself from drowning she could simply have stood up, so must have been choked before being put into the water unconscious.
Within hours, McPherson was transferring thousands of pounds from her accounts to cover his debts and he had taken out life insurance policies before her death worth £3.5million, a court previously heard.
But he was ordered to be found not guilty of the murder of Ms Leeson on a judge’s direction to the jury halfway through his trial in 2021.
The judge ruled that despite circumstantial evidence, a jury could not be sure to the criminal standard – beyond reasonable doubt – that he had killed her.
Since then, her family brought legal proceedings against McPherson at Manchester Civil Courts of Justice, which has now ruled he unlawfully killed her.
Following hearings earlier this year, Mr Justice Richard Smith said on Friday: “Don deliberately and unlawfully killed Paula by compressing her neck in an arm lock rendering her unconscious and causing her body to enter the pool to ensure her drowning and death. Don’s motive for unlawfully killing Paula Leeson is clear: money.”
Born Alexander James Lang and originally from New Zealand, McPherson met Ms Leeson in 2013, using a “cover story” of being an orphan to hide his past after serving jail time for an £11 million bank fraud in Germany, a court previously heard.
He claimed to be a property developer and Ms Leeson oversaw the skip hire part of her family’s successful ground-working business her father had built up in Sale, Greater Manchester, after emigrating from County Wicklow, Ireland, in the 1960s.
Mr Justice Richard Smith added: “It is no exaggeration to say that lies and dishonesty pervade every aspect of Don’s life. Don lies to anyone if it might serve his interests.
“I cannot begin to comprehend the pain and heartache that the Leesons have experienced as a result of Paula’s death.”
Her elderly father, Willy Leeson, and brother, Neville, sat with her son, Ben, were in court as the judgment was given.
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