Family of heiress plea to re-open murder case against her husband after judge ruled he killed her

The family of a wealthy heiress say they want police to reopen the murder case against her husband after a judge ruled he had unlawfully killed his wife.

Donald McPherson, 51, was ordered to be found not guilty of the 2017 murder of Paula Leeson, 47, on a judge’s direction to the jury halfway through his trial in 2021.

But Ms Leeson’s family successfully blocked his bid to inherit her £4.4 million estate by bringing legal proceedings against McPherson at Manchester Civil Courts of Justice.

Mr Justice Richard Smith emphatically ruled McPherson had unlawfully killed his wife by compressing her neck in an arm lock then putting her in a swimming pool leaving her to drown.

Giving his ruling he said: “Don’s motive for unlawfully killing Paula Leeson is clear: money.”

Following the ruling Ms Leeson's heartbroken family now say they will not rest until “serial liar” McPherson is back behind bars.

McPherson was not present or represented in court and is believed to be living somewhere in the South Pacific.

Ms Leeson oversaw the skip hire part of her family’s successful civil engineering business that her father, Willy, 80, had built up in Sale, Greater Manchester, after emigrating from County Wicklow, Ireland, in the 1960s.

Ms Leeson, a mother-of-one, and her brother, Neville, stood to inherit the business.

Outside court, the Leeson family said the ruling confirmed what they had known all along: that Donald McPherson killed Paula.

“Today is bittersweet. It has been very difficult for us to hear this outcome without it being followed by the sentencing of Donald McPherson to prison,” their statement said.

“This was a pre-meditated, cold-blooded murder, entirely motivated by Donald McPherson’s wicked greed, to seek to benefit from insurance policies totalling £3.9 million, the majority of which he had incepted dishonestly, deceptively and without Paula’s knowledge.”

McPherson had taken out multiple secret life insurance policies on his wife before her death, worth £3.5 million alone.

Ms Leeson, who was 5ft 5in, 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 argue that to save herself from drowning she could simply have stood up, so must have been choked before being put into the water unconscious.

Mr McPherson told police he awoke to find Ms Leeson face down in the shallow swimming pool at a holiday cottage in remote western Denmark he had booked for the couple, on 6 June 2017.

Her death was initially treated as a tragic accident by the Danish authorities – though she had suffered 13 separate external injuries.

Within hours Mr McPherson was transferring thousands of pounds from her accounts to cover his debts, the court heard.

He had also “systematically” deleted data from his wife’s phone which may have explained what happened and refused to give police access to his own phone.

Soon after, Mr McPherson cleared their home in Sale of his late wife’s possessions and joined a bereavement group, Widowed And Young – that he called “Tinder for widows.”

He was later arrested in the UK as police looked into his financial background.

Mr McPherson has always denied any involvement in his wife’s death and after he was acquitted of murder, in a statement through his solicitors, he described it as a “tragic accident”.

The family called on Greater Manchester Police and the Crown Prosecution Service to re-open the murder investigation.

They added: “As the judgement demonstrates, Donald McPherson is an evil, dangerous man and a long-standing fraudster. He has convictions worldwide for dishonesty offences.

“We hope the judgment also serves as a warning to all who unwisely chose to associate with Donald McPherson or whatever he may now call himself. He is an extremely dangerous individual.”

The family said they will not rest until McPherson is behind bars for killing their loved one.