‘Our sister was murdered but we can’t have retrial’

The family of a millionaire who drowned have been told her husband cannot be retried for her murder despite their claims to have uncovered “new” evidence from her smartwatch.

Paula Leeson, 51, of Sale, Greater Manchester, was found dead in a shallow swimming pool at a holiday home in Denmark in 2017.

Her husband Donald McPherson was cleared of murder at a trial in 2021 but a judge in a civil case in 2024 ruled he unlawfully killed Ms Leeson by compressing her in an armlock and placing her in the pool.

Ms Leeson’s brother, Neville Leeson, said newly-analysed smartwatch data should form the basis of a retrial, but the Crown Prosecution Service said the legal test for one had not been met.

Mr Leeson told the BBC that while pursuing the civil case, they recovered data from her smartwatch that suggested she died 29 minutes before Mr McPherson claimed to have tried to rescue her.

He said this should be considered new and compelling evidence under the Criminal Justice Act 2003 and allow for a retrial.

The Director of Public Prosecutions has written to the family to inform them that the evidence was available at the first criminal trial, but was not used by the prosecution for “tactical” reasons, meaning it was not considered as “new” for the purposes of an appeal.

Mr Leeson said the evidence was “new in some respects and it should be able to be used”.

He said: “We’ve got to try and live with the fact that we have evidence which proves that Paula’s been murdered, but nothing’s been done about it.

“It’s like her life means less than anybody else’s life.”

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said that, “following an extremely detailed review of all the material in the case”, Stephen Parkinson, the director of public prosecutions (DPP), concluded the legal test was not met to enable consent to be given for an application to the Court of Appeal for a retrial.

“The DPP recognises how deeply disappointing this is for Mrs Leeson’s family, and he wrote to them to explain his reasoning in detail,” a CPS spokesperson said.

The statement came before the DPP met with the family to discuss the case on Tuesday.

Parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Ministry of Justice, Jake Richards, has also agreed to meet with the family.

“The Criminal Justice Act 2003 clearly has to strike a balance between ensuring there is finality in criminal proceedings and, as the Act attempts to do, offering a recourse to look again when it is appropriate,” he said.

“I am happy to have that conversation and look again at whether that legislation strikes the right balance.”

Mr Leeson said: “It can’t be right that you have evidence which proves somebody’s been murdered, but a piece of legislation is preventing justice being done.

“No piece of legislation should undermine the value of someone’s life, and if it is, then there’s a problem with it.”

Mr McPherson, a convicted fraudster, was described in court as a “Walter Mitty” character who had changed his name several times.

Born Alexander James Lang in New Zealand, Mr McPherson met Ms Leeson in 2013, using a “cover story” of being an orphan to hide his past.

In reality, he had been jailed for an £11m bank fraud in Germany.

He had also been married before, but his previous wife and their child died in a house fire.

Mr McPherson had 32 convictions over 15 years in three countries, and the Leeson family believe he is now living in New Zealand.

The judge at Mr McPherson’s murder trial at Manchester Crown Court in March 2021 directed the jury to return a not guilty verdict, saying the prosecution case was built on circumstantial evidence.

However, Mr Justice Richard Smith ruled in the civil case at Manchester Civil Justice Centre in September 2024 that Ms Leeson had been drowned by Mr McPherson.

This ruling blocked her husband from inheriting Ms Leeson’s £4.4m estate.

Connor Rand, Labour MP for Altrincham and Sale West, said he had been supporting the family in their call for the law to be changed.

He said: “I think anyone looking at this case… thinks that if these are the parameters and the settlement of our current legal justice framework, then it just cannot be right what the Leesons have had to endure.”

Mr Leeson said his sister’s death and the subsequent legal processes had “destroyed” the lives of their family.

He said she was “completely family-orientated, and devoted to her son Ben, 35.

“She worked in the family business with us, we were all very, very close,” he said.

“We lived quite plain, ordinary lives, just went to work all day, did family things together, but then this extraordinary thing happened all through meeting Donald… and Paula has been [taken] from us.”