Family's bid to stop husband inheriting Paula's millions

CIVIL CASE LAUNCHED AFTER MURDER TRIAL COLLAPSED

- DAMON WILKINSON

THE family of a wealthy heiress who drowned in a swimming pool are attempting to stop her husband benefitting from her £4.4 million will after his murder trial collapsed.

Property developer Donald McPherson, 50, denied the murder of Paula Leeson, 47, from Trafford, in a remote part of Denmark in 2017.

Four years later, a judge ordered the jury to find him not guilty at his trial as there was insufficient evidence.

Her family now want a judge to rule he killed her so he will not benefit from his late wife's will and other assets worth £4.4m, Manchester Civil Court of Justice heard.

Before Paula's death, Mr McPherson, of Sale, had taken out seven "secret" life insurance policies on his "besotted" wife and stood to gain £3.5m from the policies if she died, his murder trial in 2021 heard.

He claimed to be sleeping when she drowned in the pool at the holiday cottage in western Denmark in June 2017.

The next day he began transferring large sums of money from her accounts to clear his debts and a week later joined a group, Widowed and Young, described as "Tinder for Widows".