Paula Leeson: Viagra and ring found after heiress drowned – court

A cleaner for a wealthy heiress who died found Viagra and a wedding ring shortly after her death at the home she had shared with her husband, a court has heard.

Paula Leeson, 47, drowned in a swimming pool in Denmark in 2017, while on holiday with her 50-year-old husband Donald McPherson.

Mr McPherson was found not guilty of the murder of his wife halfway through his trial in 2021 due to insufficient evidence.

While cleared of murder, Ms Leeson’s family has now brought legal proceedings against Mr McPherson at Manchester Civil Courts of Justice, asking for a ruling of unlawful killing, so he forfeits any entitlement to his late wife’s will and estate, worth £4.4 million.

Property developer Mr McPherson had claimed to be sleeping when Ms Leeson drowned at a remote cottage on 6 June, 2017.

Ms Mairs told the court she cleaned the couple’s family home in Sale, Greater Manchester, and found the open packet of Viagra and Mr McPherson’s wedding ring, as well as empty champagne bottles and bedding shoved behind a headboard, “to stop the headboard banging against a wall”.

She said she suspected Mr McPherson had been sleeping with someone at the marital home.

Ms Mairs also told the court that Mr McPherson, who had taken out “secret” life insurance policies on Ms Leeson worth £3.5 million, was “cold” and showed no emotion when he began clearing the house of his late wife’s possessions.

After Ms Leeson’s death, Mr McPherson joined a bereavement group, Widowed And Young – that he called “Tinder for widows” – Ms Mairs told the court he began going out in Manchester and London.

Her husband, Frank, once got a photograph message from Mr McPherson at 2am picturing “a fancy champagne bucket with a nice looking bottle of champagne in it”, which Mr McPherson later said he had sent to the “wrong Frank,” the court heard.

The court heard Mr 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.

Mr McPherson’s murder trial 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.

After he was acquitted, in a statement through his solicitors, Mr McPherson denied any involvement in his wife’s death, saying it was a “tragic accident”.