A UK coroner has ruled a New Zealander previously convicted of fraud who was cleared of killing his wealthy wife had in fact murdered her to \u201cfinancially benefit\u201d from her death in 2017.<\/p>\n
Donald McPherson, 53, was ordered to be found not guilty of murdering his wife Paula Leeson, 47, by a judge at Manchester Crown Court in 2021.<\/p>\n
The judge at the time asked for a not guilty verdict to be returned after prosecutors couldn\u2019t disprove the defence Leeson had jumped or fallen in a pool where she drowned at a remote cottage on a holiday in Denmark booked by McPherson at the time.<\/p>\n
Before Leeson\u2019s death on June 6, 2017, McPherson took out a \u00a33.5 million (NZ$8 million) life insurance policy. Within hours of her death, he was withdrawing money from her accounts to pay off debts.<\/p>\n
He also reportedly cleared their home of Leeson’s belongings in the town of Sale in the Greater Manchester area.<\/p>\n
It is now believed McPherson is living in New Zealand, Daily Mail reported. <\/p>\n
In 2024, Daily Mail reported Leeson\u2019s family blocked him from inheriting her \u00a34.4 million (NZ$10 million) estate. <\/p>\n
Leeson\u2019s family run a successful plant hire business in south Manchester, which she was set to inherit alongside her brother.<\/p>\n
Civil proceedings brought by the family in a UK High Court in 2024 ruled McPherson had killed his wife for money by drowning her in 2017. <\/p>\n
Justice Richard Smith said at the time: \u201cHis motive for killing Paula was clear \u2013 money.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the inquest into Leeson\u2019s death, which was pushed back by the murder trial and civil hearings, a Coroner ruled she agreed with the unlawful killing verdict.<\/p>\n
Coroner Alison Mutch noted McPherson was in debt and would be the only person to benefit from the death of his wife.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am therefore satisfied he did murder his wife. <\/p>\n
\u201cHer 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cHer death was as a result of an unlawful killing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Detective chief Inspector Daniel Clegg said at the hearing there was \u201cno doubt this was a homicide\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe died at his hands. I have not looked for anyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n
McPherson has been previously convicted over a \u00a312 million ($27.5 million) fraud in Germany in 2006.<\/p>\n
Sophie Cartwright KC, who represented Leeson\u2019s family at the inquest, asked Clegg: \u201cYour firm belief is that Donald McPherson murdered Paula Leeson?\u201d<\/p>\n
He replied: \u201cThat\u2019s correct. Donald McPherson had backed himself into a financial crisis and the only way out was with the death of his wife.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the inquest, the court heard no retrial for murder could take place unless compelling new evidence is discovered.<\/p>\n
Cartwright said the family will continue their fight for a retrial, and hoped police could uncover new evidence to \u201cget them over the line for a retrial\u201d after gaining access in the last year to an old laptop owned by McPherson.<\/p>\n
Daily Mail reported McPherson had claimed to be a property developer but was \u00a365,000 (NZ$149,025) in debt.<\/p>\n
McPherson has maintained he had no involvement with his wife\u2019s death, and has previously described it as a \u201ctragic accident\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Daily Mail said McPherson’s real name is Alexander Lang. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A UK coroner has ruled a New Zealander previously convicted of fraud who was cleared of killing his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561552,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[67,42,43,40,38,41,39,1745],"class_list":["post-561551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-crime-and-justice","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-uk-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}