How family won court battle to stop 'killer' inheriting wife's £4.4m

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 For the past seven years, the family of Paula Leeson have fought to prove she was murdered by her husband, a serial liar and convicted fraudster who they dubbed ‘the devil incarnate'.

And today a High Court judge ruled the Walter Mitty conman had unlawfully killed her - in an attempt to pocket her £4.4million from insurance policies. 

As the only daughter of Willy Leeson, who founded a multi-million pound civil engineering business in Manchester after leaving his native Ireland in the 1960s, she was known for her financial prudence and simple tastes.

Responsible for handling invoices at the family firm - which she and her brother Neville stood to inherit - her modest pleasures were a weekly visit to the hairdresser with her mother Betty then a trip to the shops.

But her life was to be transformed when she was introduced to a stocky New Zealand-born self-proclaimed property developer going by the name Donald McPherson via a client of her family's firm.





'Serial liar' Donald McPherson, 50, unlawfully killed his wife, a judge today ruled 





Heiress Paula Leeson died in 2017 and was found in a swimming pool in Denmark





Paula died in a swimming pool at a remote holiday chalet in Denmark (pictured) in 2017 





Despite the fact that his 47-year-old wife 'hated' swimming and preferred city breaks, in 2017 McPherson booked them a property with an indoor pool (pictured) in a remote part of Denmark, Manchester Crown Court heard

After a ‘whirlwind' romance, they married at Peckforton Castle - a stately pile set in rolling Cheshire countryside - in 2014 in what a court would later hear was ‘a grand affair' with ‘no expense was spared'. 

While a ‘besotted' Ms Leeson's family were out in force after swallowing their suspicions about him, no relatives of McPherson attended the ceremony.

This he variously put down to being an orphan or growing up in a foster home - just some of his many lies.

The couple bought a three-bedroom detached house in the comfortable Manchester suburb of Sale - later worth £650,000 - just around the corner from her parents' house, a gated £1million property.

However his lavish lifestyle soon began to arouse suspicion - falsely claiming to be doing up his properties while paying in cash for flying lessons, and running up thousands of pounds in debts.

Unbeknown to his wife, 비아그라 정품 he had taken out insurance policies worth £3.2million on her life - in addition to trust funds worth £800,000 and joint money and property worth £506,000 from which he also stood to benefit.

Despite the fact that his 47-year-old wife ‘hated' swimming and preferred city breaks, in 2017 McPherson - by now £65,000 in debt - booked them a property with an indoor pool in a remote part of Denmark.

Before leaving for the trip, Ms Leeson - who was in robust health - told her family she wasn't even planning on buying a swimming costume.

But on the day they were due to fly home, McPherson called an ambulance, saying he had found his wife's lifeless, 비아그라 정품 fully-clothed, body in the 4ft deep water.




Paula's elderly father Willy Leeson outside Manchester Civil Justice Centre today





Brother Neville, who long campaigned for justice for Paula, was seen today, too





Neville (left) and Willy (right) were inside with Paula's son Ben when the judgement was given





Paula's brother and dad, pictured in 2021, have been fighting for years to prove her death wasn't an accident  

 A paramedic called to the scene in Nørre Nebel on June 6, 2017, was surprised to see McPherson's ‘very bad' efforts at resuscitating her, 비아그라 효과 Manchester Crown Court was told.

After breaking the devastating news to her horrified family in an ‘unemotional' phone call, McPherson checked into a hotel, where he began transferring around £20,000 out of a joint account operated by his wife.

He finished the evening by ‘tucking into' a steak dinner, a murder trial would later hear, also joining online support group Widowed and Young which the jury heard he later referred to as ‘like a Tinder for widows'.

Willy Leeson was convinced that his daughter had been murdered by her shady husband as soon as he heard the tragic news, saying: ‘He's killed her, he's killed her, he's killed her.'



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Wealthy heiress found dead in pool was unlawfully killed by her husband, High Court judge rules


After her body was returned to England, her brother Neville viewed the body along with Mr McPherson - and said he was shocked to see ‘a big black mark on her head'.

He asked the mortuary assistant if it could have come from the post mortem - ‘She said no, you don't bruise when you've died.'

He was also able to examine her phone after successfully guessing the passcode - and discovered that photographs and messages from the trip had mysteriously been deleted.

A pathologist in Denmark concluded she had drowned accidentally - despite 13 injuries being found on her body including bruises and grazes to her head, arms and legs.

As a result the case was closed by the Danish authorities.

But Greater Manchester Police began their own investigation and McPherson was charged with his wife's murder.

However halfway through a trial at Manchester Crown Court in March 2021, 비아그라 정품 in a rare legal move, Mr Justice Goose directed jurors to find him not guilty.

He explained that he had no choice because the prosecution had been unable to disprove his claim that her death had been an accident - but in a sensational intervention, the judge made it plain that it was ‘clearly more likely' that the serial liar had killed her.



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In court, Willy Leeson could not contain his anger.

Looking across to the dock he shouted: ‘Shame on you Don!'

Then, directing his fury at the judge, Miss Leeson's brother Neville shouted: ‘God Almighty. You are making a big mistake.'

For his part, after being cleared, McPherson insisted his wife's death had been ‘a tragic accident' and said it ‘saddens me, deeply' that he was suspected of involvement.

Following the dramatic outcome, a Daily Mail investigation made a string of discoveries about the past of the man Paula Leeson knew as Donald McPherson but who was born Alexander Lamb.

Unbeknown to the jury in his murder trial, he had adopted the name under which he was to marry after being jailed over a £12million bank fraud in Germany in 2006.

At that stage he was calling himself Donald Somers.

In addition, his previous wife Ira Kulppi died along with their four-year-old daughter during a mysterious fire while he was behind bars. 

On July 24, 2006, police found the bodies of Miss Kulppi and her daughter, with investigators concluding that the 35-year-old mother deliberately started a fire.

This was all kept secret from Ms Leeson and her family.



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Heiress found dead in a Danish swimming pool was drowned by her convicted fraudster husband to cash in on £4million insurance pay-outs, court hears


 Neville Leeson later told the Mail people should be given a legal right to know if a new partner has a serious criminal past under a previous identity.

‘If we had known his identity and his past, Paula would have run a mile,' he said.

‘She would still be alive now.