Elderly Irish father weeps in UK court over daughter who died while on holiday with husband

Injuries found on a woman her husband was accused of drowning to claim £3.5 million life insurance could have been caused by a hand or arm around her neck, a court heard.

Paula Leeson, 47, was found to have 13 separate injuries on her head and body after she drowned while on holiday with her husband Donald McPherson.

The 50-year-old, who had taken out £3.5m in life insurance policies on his wife, was accused of her murder in 2017 and went on trial but was found not guilty in 2021 on a judge’s direction due to insufficient evidence.

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While cleared of murder, Ms Leeson’s family have brought legal proceedings against McPherson at Manchester Civil Courts of Justice, asking a judge to rule he unlawfully killed her by drowning in a swimming pool on holiday in Denmark, so he forfeits any legal entitlement to benefiting from the life insurance policies or his late wife’s will and estate, worth £4.4 million.

McPherson is not present or legally represented at the hearing and is believed to be living somewhere in the south Pacific.

Ms Leeson’s elderly father, Willy Leeson, an Irish businessman, wept as the Danish pathologist who carried out the post-mortem examination on his daughter answered questions from Lesley Anderson KC, representing the family.

Danish police initially wrongly told Professor Peter Leth that Ms Leeson was a non-swimmer.

Donald McPherson.
(Image: MEN Media)

He said if Ms Leeson could not swim it would have “enhanced” her chances of drowning but if she could swim, it would have reduced them.

Ms Anderson also said the depth of the pool was not 180cm as police had initially reported to him but in fact 120cm.

Prof Leth said if the pool had been 180cm deep then Ms Leeson would have been out of her depth – but not at 120cm as she was 168cm tall and could simply have stood up if she was drowning.

He added that it is possible to drown in shallow water but normally that involves children or vulnerable people but for an adult that was “highly unlikely”.

Prof Leth was then asked about the lesions or bruising found around the neck of Paula Leeson, which could have been caused by the rescue attempts to get her out of the pool.

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Ms Anderson asked what else could have caused the injuries.

Prof Leth said: “It could have been a hand or arm around the neck, some kind of blunt force trauma.”

Ms Anderson said: “Some kind of neck lock, using an arm?”

“Yes,” Prof Leth replied.

Ms Leeson’s death was initially treated as an accident by the Danish authorities but McPherson was later arrested in the UK as police looked into his financial background.

The court has heard McPherson being described as a “Walter Mitty” who had changed his name multiple times, had 32 convictions spanning 15 years in three countries, and whose previous wife and their child died in a house fire.

McPherson and Ms Leeson married at a no-expense-spared ceremony at a Cheshire castle in 2014, following a “whirlwind romance”.

Manchester Crown Court.
(Image: MEN Media)

He claimed to be a property developer and she oversaw the skip hire part of her family’s successful ground-working business that her father Willy, 80, had built up in Sale, Greater Manchester, after emigrating from County Wicklow, Ireland, in the 1960s.

Ms Leeson and her brother Neville stood to inherit the business.

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

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

Soon after, 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”.

But his murder trial at Manchester Crown Court was halted in March 2021 by Mr Justice Goose, ruling there was insufficient evidence for jurors to safely convict as an accidental death could not be ruled out.

His lawyers had argued Ms Leeson’s injuries could be a result of her rescue from the pool and resuscitation attempts and pathologists could not rule out that she could have fainted or accidentally fallen into the pool and drowned.

The hearing was adjourned until Friday morning.

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