Donald McPherson joined ‘Tinder for widows’ a week after his wife’s death (Picture: GMP/PA)
The family of a wealthy heiress who drowned in a swimming pool have launched a desperate bid to stop her husband from getting her £4.4 million fortune.
Donald McPherson, 50, had denied the murder of Paula Leeson, 47 in 2017 and a jury was ordered by a judge to find the property developer not guilty at his 2021 trial, as there was ‘insufficient evidence for a safe conviction’.
Leeson’s family have said they want a judge to rule that McPherson killed her, so the 50-year-old forfeits any legal entitlement from benefiting from his late wife’s will and other assets worth £4.4 million, Manchester Civil Court of Justice heard.
Leeson was the heir to a successful family business (Picture: PA)
McPherson took out seven ‘secret’ life insurance policies before the death of his ‘besotted’ wife, and would gain £3.5 million from the policies if she died, his murder trial in 2021 heard.
He has claimed he was sleeping when his late wife drowned in the pool at a remote cottage in Denmark where they were staying on June 6, 2017.
McPherson began transferring large sums of money from his late wife’s accounts the day after, and a week later joined a group, Widowed and Young, which he described as, ‘Tinder for Widows’.
Leeson’s family have brought a case against him in the civil courts, with her father, brother, and son attending the hearing.
Her family have asked a judge to rule she was unlawfully killed (Picture: BRUCE ADAMS/DAILY MAIL)
McPherson, who is believed to be living in several countries in the South Pacific, including French Polynesia and Fiji, had previously told the judge he would attend the hearing, was not present and the case went ahead without him.
The court has been told McPherson has been convicted of 32 criminal offences of dishonesty or fraud in New Zealand where the 50-year-old was born.
In Germany, he was jailed for his involvement in an £11.8 million bank fraud.
The family’s lawyer, Lesley Anderson KC said that Ms Leeson must have been unconscious before she got in the water.
Ms Leeson, was 5ft 5 inches tall and allegedly drowned in the pool that was under 4ft deep, even though she could swim and was otherwise healthy.
‘Essentially our case is that Paula must have been unconscious when she went into the water, otherwise her natural reaction would be to stand up to save herself.
‘Therefore, she must have gone into the water unconscious. We do say it probably was a choke hold or a neck hold.’
Ms Leeson was found in a Danish summerhouse (Picture: esmark.dk/sommerhus-30547)
Ms Anderson said that despite the fact McPherson would walk around with wads of cash and present himself as a ‘man of means’ he was ‘running out of money’ which ‘supercharged the financial motive’ and ‘had to do something’.
Thirteen separate injuries were found on Ms Leeson’s body, which jurors heard may have been sustained while being restrained or in a rescue and resuscitation attempt.
Prosecutors alleged that while Ms Leeson’s death was a pre-planned killing by her husband, made to look like a tragic accident.
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McPherson and Ms Leeson were wed following a ‘whirlwind romance’ in a ‘no expense spared’ in Cheshire, in June 2014.
Ms Leeson would have inherited the family business owned by her father, who had built up a successful groundwork and skip hire firm in Manchester.
Leezon oversaw the skip hire business, which is where she met McPherson, who renovated and sold on property.
After McPherson was acquitted in a statement through his solicitors, he denied any involvement in her death.
The hearing continues.
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