Fraudster ‘planned killing’ of pool death heiress, court hears

McPherson had taken out multiple secret life insurance policies on his wife, worth about £3.5m, before her death.

He told police he woke to find Ms Leeson face down in the holiday cottage pool on 6 June 2017.

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

Soon after, he cleared their Sale home of Ms Leeson’s possessions and joined a bereavement group called Widowed And Young, which he described as “Tinder for widows”.

“The defendant is a morally corrupt individual and that dishonesty permeates every aspect of this case,” Lesley Anderson KC, representing the Leeson family, said.

“In our case, this was a plan almost the minute he met Paula.

“The defendant went about setting up policies with indecent haste.

“He killed her because of the significant motive of the insurance policies.

“This case is extraordinary because the defendant lies to almost everybody in this case.

“All of the facts, taken together, make it substantially more likely that he killed Paula.”