Husband guilty of wife's unlawful killing blocked from her £4.4m fortune

A SERIAL fraudster cleared of murdering his wife has been blocked from inheriting her £4.4million estate after a second judge ruled he did actually drown her.

- Chris Riches

"Serial liar" Donald McPherson, 51, was cleared of killing wife Paula Leeson, 47, after a jury was directed halfway through his trial in 2021, to the devastation of her family.

That Manchester Crown Court trial heard Paula drowned in a pool at a holiday cottage booked by McPherson in Denmark in 2017 after he took out life insurance policies on her worth almost £4million.

Paula's family later brought proceedings against McPherson at Manchester Civil Courts of Justice to stop him getting her estate.

Oblivious

And yesterday Mr Justice Richard Smith ruled that on the balance of probability he had murdered his wife.

The senior judge said: "He deliberately and unlawfully killed Paula by compressing her neck in an arm lock, rendering her unconscious, and causing her body to enter the pool to ensure her drowning and death.