A convicted fraudster cleared in court of killing his wealthy heiress wife murdered her, a coroner said today.
Conman Donald McPherson, 53, was ordered to be found not guilty of the murder of his wife Paula Leeson, 47, on a judge’s direction to the jury halfway through his trial at Manchester Crown Court in 2021.
He had taken out £3.5million life insurance on the mother-of-one shortly before her death on June 6, 2017, and within hours of her ‘accidental drowning’ was emptying her accounts of thousands of pounds to pay off his debts.
In 2024 Ms Leeson’s family, who run a successful plant hire business in south Manchester, blocked him inheriting his late wife’s £4.4million estate.
A judge in civil proceedings brought by the Leeson family at the High Court ruled McPherson had unlawfully killed his wife for money by throttling her unconscious then drowning her in the swimming pool while on holiday in Denmark in 2017.
At the inquest into the death of Ms Leeson, delayed until today by the murder trial and civil hearings, a coroner ruled she agreed with the unlawful killing verdict.
Alison Mutch, senior coroner for Manchester South, told Stockport Coroner’s Court McPherson was heavily in debt and he was the only person to benefit from his wife’s death.
She added: ‘I am therefore satisfied he did murder his wife.
Paula Leeson pictured at her lavish 2014 wedding to Donald McPherson (right) at Peckforton Castle in Cheshire in footage uncovered by Channel 5 documentary The Drowning of Paula Leeson – unaware that he is a convicted fraudster who has already secretly taken out £2.5million in life insurance policies
Donald McPherson was cleared of murdering Paula Leeson, 47, on the orders of a judge after prosecutors were unable to disprove his defence that she had fallen or jumped in to the pool
Paula Leeson, 47, from Sale, died in a swimming pool at a villa in a remote village in Denmark, on June 6, 2017
‘Her death occurred because her husband compressed her neck to render her unconscious, causing her body to enter the pool, causing her to drown, to financially benefit from her death.
‘Her death was as a result of an unlawful killing.”
Detective Chief Inspector Daniel Clegg, of Greater Manchester Police, had told the hearing: ‘There’s no doubt this was a homicide.
‘She died at his hands. I have not looked for anyone else.’
The coroner asked the officer: ‘You don’t believe this was an accident. There’s too many coincidences and only one person benefited from her death?’
He replied: ‘That’s right.’
Sophie Cartwright KC, representing the Leeson family at the inquest, asked the officer: ‘Your firm belief is that Donald McPherson murdered Paula Leeson?’
Mr Clegg replied: ‘That’s correct, yes. Donald McPherson had backed himself into a financial crisis and the only way out was with the death of his wife.’
Paula died in a swimming pool at a remote holiday chalet in Denmark (pictured) in 2017
The officer said he agreed with the Leeson’s family view that this had been a miscarriage of justice and McPherson, currently living in New Zealand, should be serving a life sentence for murder.
The inquest heard no retrial for murder can take place unless compelling new evidence is found.
Ms Cartwright said ‘investigations are ongoing’ and the Leeson family hope police – having in the last 12 months gained access to McPherson’s old laptop – will uncover evidence to ‘get them over the line for a retrial.
‘Their fight will continue after today,’ she added.
Ms Leeson’s brother Neville told the hearing her life had been taken by McPherson’s ‘greed’
He added: ‘Now the man who murdered her is walking around free.
‘Paula has repeatedly been let down by the criminal justice system.
‘We will never accept that and will continue fighting for her.’
In 2024 a High Court judge ruled that Donald McPherson (pictured) ‘deliberately and unlawfully killed Paula (Leeson) by compressing her neck in an arm lock, rendering her unconscious and causing her body to fall into the pool, ensuring her drowning and death’
Ms Leeson drowned in the swimming pool at a remote holiday cottage, booked by McPherson for a summer break in Denmark in 2017.
She was 5ft 5in and could swim but drowned in the pool of a depth of 4ft, the murder trial heard.
McPherson told police he awoke to find Ms Leeson face down in the pool.
Her death was initially treated as a tragic accident by the Danish authorities – though she had 13 separate external injuries.
Within hours McPherson was transferring thousands of pounds from her accounts.
Soon after, McPherson cleared their home in Sale, Greater Manchester, of his late wife’s possessions and joined bereavement group Widowed And Young – which he called ‘Tinder for widows’.
Ms Leeson’s elderly father Willy sat in the inquest hearing with his son Neville, and Ms Leeson’s son Ben.
Ms Leeson oversaw the skip hire part of her family’s successful ground-working business that her father had built up in Sale after emigrating from Co Wicklow, Ireland, in the 1960s.
Ms Leeson and brother Neville stood to inherit the business.
She had the ‘misfortune’ of coming across McPherson, a failing and indebted property developer, who came in to hire a skip in 2012.
Two years later the couple wed at a no-expense-spared ceremony at a Cheshire castle after a ‘whirlwind romance’.
He has always denied any involvement in his wife’s death, describing it a ‘tragic accident’.
After it emerged that the New Zealander – whose real name is Alexander Lang – had forged her will and secretly taken out life insurance policies that would pay him millions in the event of her death, he was charged with murder.
But halfway through his trial in 2021, a judge directed jurors to return a not guilty verdict after prosecutors were unable to disprove McPherson’s defence that she had fallen in or jumped.
Her furious relatives condemned him as ‘the devil incarnate’ and pledged never to stop fighting for justice – and to prevent him getting his hands on the money.
The Leeson family have spent over £1million uncovering crucial new evidence about her final minutes.
It resulted in them bringing a landmark civil case against McPherson, who had by then returned to his native New Zealand.
In a stunning victory, a judge in 2024 ruled he had ‘deliberately and unlawfully killed Paula by compressing her neck in an arm lock, rendering her unconscious and causing her body to fall into the pool, ensuring her drowning and death’.
Mr Justice Richard Smith added: ‘His motive for killing Paula was clear – money.’
Lawyers representing the family subsequently sent the Crown Prosecution Service what they described as ‘new and compelling evidence’ justifying McPherson facing a retrial in the criminal courts.
However to their fury, in December 2025 DPP Stephen Parkinson rejected their plea on the grounds that the evidence was available in the original trial, even though prosecutors did not use it.
During their marriage, McPherson – who claimed to be a property developer but was in reality £65,000 in debt – funded an extravagant lifestyle thanks to the largesse of Ms Leeson, regarded as frugal and unflashy by friends.
She was unaware he had secretly taken out over £3million in life insurance that would pay out in the event of her death.
A Daily Mail investigation later exposed how – unbeknown to the jury in his murder trial – McPherson had been jailed over a £12million bank fraud in Germany in 2006.
In addition, his previous wife died along with their four-year-old daughter during a mysterious fire while he was behind bars.
Investigators concluded they had been overcome after the 35-year-old deliberately started the blaze.
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