HE’S the man who shamelessly fled from accusations of murder.
But now his wife’s family believe evidence from her Fitbit watch proves Donald McPherson killed her.
Paula Leeson died in mysterious circumstances in Denmark in June 2017[/caption]
It was a shock whirlwind romance followed by a fairytale wedding when wealthy Manchester woman Paula Leeson fell in love and wed charming New Zealand property developer McPherson.
But the dream turned into tragedy three years later, when he found Paula drowned in their Danish holiday home.
Now a new Channel 5 documentary, The Drowning of Paula Leeson, tells how McPherson turned out not to be the man he seemed to be at all.
He was full of dark secrets and dozens of aliases – and police and the Leeson family uncovered a complex story of organised crime and deaths that spanned decades across the globe.
And thanks in part to evidence from her Fitbit watch, Paula’s family and a civil court judge now believe that McPherson killed her.
He has now disappeared without trace, but the family hope that this new film will help to find him in a bid to bring him back to the UK to face justice.
Leeson family solicitor Alison Rowley says: “Ideally the family want to see McPherson punished for his crime, and there is still hope at this stage that the new and compelling evidence that has been uncovered can be used to reopen a criminal case.
“I would like to think that with a charge of murder most countries with an extradition pact with us would be on board in assisting.
“This film is two-fold – to get his face out there in the hope that someone will come forward with information as to where he is and what name he is using.
“But also to flag to other people that this is a very dangerous person, someone to be wary of.”
Heiress Paula had married McPherson in 2014 after a three-month romance. Three years later they travelled to a remote part of Denmark for a weekend break.
McPherson said he woke up in their holiday home and found Paula dead in the swimming pool.
When her body was taken for post-mortem examination the pathologist found bleeding on her neck and informed police.
But the death was deemed to be an accident and McPherson returned to the UK to begin life as a widower.
But the family were convinced that Paula’s death was no accident at all – and from the beginning of the marriage there were alarm bells.
Red flags
McPherson had no wedding guests at all. He said his best man couldn’t fly from New Zealand, because his wife had died in childbirth.
Journalist Pat Hurst said: “The Leeson family, the way they described it was that it was like he’d just dropped out of outer space into their lives.
“He didn’t seem to have any past. I think there was a lot of red flags, if you like, about Don McPherson, as far as the Leeson family was concerned. But obviously Paula loved him.”
Paula lived in the affluent area of Sale, Manchester. McPherson was a property developer who was buying houses in the area, doing them up and selling them on at a profit.
But while he seemed to be wealthy, in reality he had a lot of debt. Whereas the Leeson family had a successful skip hire business.
And Paula’s friends and family were not convinced.
Nicola Wardman says: “The speed of the relationship, to the marriage and things, to me that was not Paula. I was surprised that she fell for him, ‘cause she was extremely clever. He told her obviously a load of rubbish, and she’s fallen for it hook, line, and sinker.”
Paula Leeson’s brother Neville Leeson (left) and father Willy Leeson (right) outside Manchester Civil Justice Centre[/caption]
Paula’s brother Neville said in a statement: “He didn’t seem to look after her, and was cold towards her. I would see him put his arm around her, but he didn’t have any affection with her. It was always very cold. I thought that was strange.”
When the couple set off to the remote part of Denmark, friends were surprised at their choice of destination as it wasn’t Paula’s thing – she preferred city breaks and shopping.
She spoke to her brother Neville regularly during the trip and she said she was bored as there wasn’t much to do.
But on the day they were due to return home the family got a call not from Paula, but from McPherson.
Journalist David James Smith said: “When he phoned them up to tell that Paula had died, he did it in such a way that Paula’s brother Neville said it was a bit like he was phoning to talk about the weather.
“He was very unemotional, very monotone, and didn’t really seem to care very much that his wife had drowned, and that he was, you know, telling the family that this beloved member of their family had died.”
Her brother Neville says: “I remember my dad shouting, ‘He’s killed her!’ Dad was hysterical.”
Changing story
Soon McPherson’s version of events started to change. At first he said he was on the balcony when it happened, then he said he was putting bags in the car, then he said he was asleep.
Solicitor Alison Rowley says: “He said he was in bed, he’s woken up, she’s not there, she had been ill, she’d had stomach problems and toothache beforehand.
“Because of that, I think he said she’s vomited in the morning, so she’d been using the bathroom furthest away, which happened to be in the pool area.”
But the family found his story highly suspicious and told police that it was strange for Paula to use the toilet near the swimming pool as she was so afraid of water.
When he phoned them up to tell that Paula had died, he did it in such a way that Paula’s brother Neville said it was a bit like he was phoning to talk about the weather
Don told police he dived into the pool to try to drag Paula out, but he wasn’t strong enough because of a sore shoulder, so he went to try to get help from neighbours.
Nobody answered, and therefore he came back, and then managed to pull Paula out of the pool when he started CPR and then called emergency services.
Paula’s funeral took place on July 4 in Sale and McPherson did not shed a single tear.
Just three days later he went to his local gym and offered personal trainer Jack Richardson £1,000 cash to sign his passport form.
Janelle Owens, former neighbour of Donald McPherson and his partner Ira Kulppi, holding a photo of their daughter Natalie[/caption]
Jack recalls: “He told me about his wife. Just said that she died in a fatal, tragic accident. He was planning to move to Japan, and he was just waiting for his life insurance money.
“He asked me to sign his passport. He wanted me to do it quite quick. He offered me a grand, grand cash, to do it, which I thought was a bit fishy.
“He said that he needed a passport to leave the country. He’d not even filled the form out. And I said, ‘It’s like, you’ve not even filled your part out. I’m not signing this, man, I don’t even know what’s going on.’
“So, I obviously told him no. He seemed to want to get to Japan was quick as possible. Like, you know, selling all his stuff. He was living just on a mattress in a bedroom. I think he wanted to get rid of everything, you know, any trace of the house.”
Paula’s cleaner told the family she’d found Viagra tablets and empty bottles of champagne in the house. Then the family became aware that McPherson had a new girlfriend, the daughter of the owner of a string of pharmacies.
And he was making it hard for Paula’s family to get hold of any of her possessions.
Her brother Neville asked McPherson for Paul’s mobile phone and was fobbed off several times. When he eventually got hold of it he realised lots of things had been deleted after her death.
Life insurance plans
Paula Leeson’s alarmed family asked Greater Manchester Police to take a closer look at what had gone on, and they discovered a number of life insurance policies – and the beneficiary would be McPherson.
Alison Rowley says: “Paula knew nothing about these policies. They’d been obtained through financial advisors that hadn’t had any contact with Paula, hadn’t met her.”
Chillingly, the police discovered that McPherson had taken out most of the insurance policies even before he married Paula. By the day of the wedding he’d already insured his wife for two and a half million pounds.
Paula’s dad William and brother Neville outside Manchester Civil Justice Centre[/caption]
Digital forensic scientist Dr Matthew Sorell who analysed data from Paula’s Fitbit[/caption]
The police had a body, and now they had a motive. By April 2020, they felt they had a strong enough case for a murder charge.
McPherson had also taken out travel insurance policies, with hefty cover for repatriation of a body.
David Jones, Head of UK Legal at Glaisyers ETL, says: “The travel insurance policies were also taken out by Don McPherson in the lead-up to the Denmark trip. Not one, but three.
“I think it went up to £10.5million.”
Only hours after his wife had been officially declared dead, McPherson had driven away from the holiday home. What he did next seemed unusual for a man recently bereaved.
Alison Rowley says: “He started paying off debts, transferring money from the joint account straight away. I think there was around £40,000 that was used from the joint account to satisfy various debts, and I’m talking this starting within 18 hours of Paula dying.
“He also joined a young widows group whilst he was in Denmark, which again isn’t what you would normally expect someone to be thinking of in those circumstances.”
Crucial evidence
But the evidence of the pathologist who examined Paula’s body was to prove critical.
Pathologist Peter Leth says: “There were two possibilities. Either she had been pushed in the water and held under, and that she had accidentally fallen, and you couldn’t rule out the latter. And so, it was based on what you, in Britain, I believe call reasonable doubt.”
The judge dramatically stopped the trial, and Donald McPherson walked free.
Journalist David James Smith says: “The judge even said, ‘It is clearly more likely that he did drown her, but he jury must be sure.’ The central point, whether or not McPherson had actually drowned Paula, just couldn’t be proved.”
Pat Hurst adds: “The family erupted, and stood up and started pointing at the judge saying, ‘You’re making a big mistake.’ One of them shouted, ‘He’s done it before.’”
The family knew something that most other people in the court didn’t know. That McPherson wasn’t Donald McPherson at all. He was actually New Zealander Alexander James Lang.
The travel insurance policies were also taken out by Don McPherson in the lead-up to the Denmark trip. Not one, but three
David Jones, Head of UK Legal at Glaisyers ETL
In his early 20s Alex started getting into financial trouble. But he found a way out – he would change his name. Again and again.
By the time he was 21, he’d clocked up 27 criminal convictions. And now he had his sights set on somewhere bigger, where his crimes could be more lucrative – London.
In a 2005 Australian police interview he said: “I went over to the United Kingdom in 1996, and changed my name. I changed it to Donald Somers. I started working in the banking industry. I lied my way through, basically. I just put a crock of s*** on my CV.”
Soon he moved to Frankfurt as an agency worker where he and two others noticed that large sums of money sat untouched in some bank accounts for years. They calculated they could steal it, undetected.
Somers and his two accomplices carried out an audacious financial theft, by moving $15.5million out of Commerzbank in Frankfurt, into a fictitious company they had set up.
But then they made contact with some serious organised criminals to launder the money so it looked legitimate.
The vast majority of the money was moved to Australia – and so did Somers.
Chilling deaths
He and his partner Ira and daughter Natalie were lying low in Cairns. But he had no idea that police forces in Germany, the UK, and Australia were closing in on him.
Somers was deported back to Germany, and jailed for three years and three months for his part in the Commerzbank theft.
His wife and small daughter left behind in Cairns were to find themselves sacrificed in the pursuit of money, in a chilling prelude to the death of Paula Leeson.
With Somers in prison on the other side of the world, Ira told friends that she was scared for their safety.
Around this time, Somers claimed someone inside the prison started making threats against the lives of Ira and Natalie. He would need to pay several millions to guarantee their safety. He refused.
Who are the UK’s worst serial killers?
THE UK’s most prolific serial killer was actually a doctor.
Here’s a rundown of the worst offenders in the UK.
- British GP Harold Shipman is one of the most prolific serial killers in recorded history. He was found guilty of murdering 15 patients in 2000, but the Shipman Inquiry examined his crimes and identified 218 victims, 80 per cent of whom were elderly women.
- After his death Jonathan Balls was accused of poisoning at least 22 people between 1824 and 1845.
- Mary Ann Cotton is suspected of murdering up to 21 people, including husbands, lovers and children. She is Britain’s most prolific female serial killer. Her crimes were committed between 1852 and 1872, and she was hanged in March 1873.
- Amelia Sach and Annie Walters became known as the Finchley Baby Farmers after killing at least 20 babies between 1900 and 1902. The pair became the first women to be hanged at Holloway Prison on February 3, 1903.
- William Burke and William Hare killed 16 people and sold their bodies.
- Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe was found guilty in 1981 of murdering 13 women and attempting to kill seven others between 1975 and 1980.
- Dennis Nilsen was caged for life in 1983 after murdering up to 15 men when he picked them up from the streets. He was found guilty of six counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder and was sentenced to life in jail.
- Fred West was found guilty of killing 12 but it’s believed he was responsible for many more deaths.
In July 2006, neighbours called police to say they hadn’t seen Ira or Natalie for some time, and that the edges of the door frame were blackened. The pair were found dead in a house fire.
Three years later, Somers was released from prison and flew to the UK, reinventing himself as Donald McPherson.
Knowing all this, the Lesson family decided to pursue a civil claim to try to prove that he had been responsible for Paula’s death.
Their legal team spent three years gathering evidence against him – and only a finding of unlawful killing would stop him getting Paula’s money.
The first breakthrough came when they realised the pathologist had based his findings on details the Danish police had got directly from McPherson.
He was told that the pool was 1.8 metres deep, whereas in fact it was only 1.2 metres deep, and so it was below Paula’s height, meaning she would have been able to stand up and get out of the water herself if she had fallen in.
Crucial clue
The legal team brought in a new expert pathologist, who confirmed another explanation for the bleeding on Paula’s neck.
He said it could be evidence of a headlock, or an armlock, around Paula’s neck to render her unconscious, and then put her in the pool to drown.
But that alone wasn’t enough to prove their case. They had to disprove McPherson’s story that Paula’s injuries were caused by him trying to rescue her.
Alison Rowley explains: “You need a beating heart to cause a bruise. To me, that was critical.”
This evidence was to prove elusive – until a final piece of the jigsaw was uncovered – Paula’s Fitbit watch.
Police had sent the watch to one of the world’s leading digital forensic experts, Matthew Sorrell, in Australia.
He analysed the data, but when the trial collapsed it was left – until Paula’s family legal team got in touch in March last year.
The final photograph of Paula was taken at 1.07pm outside the house – this was recovered from her phone. The Fitbit data showed her heart rate spring up just four minutes later and her heartbeat stopping at 1.17pm.
Barrister Tim Goslin says: “The moment that those graphs and Dr Sorell’s report became available, it seemed to be a great shaft of sunlight that made a violent death, sadly, incredibly much more likely.
“That showed that there was only an eight-to-ten-minute period between the taking of photographs outside the cottage, and Paula’s untimely death.
“That did not fit with Donald McPherson’s suggestion that he had been asleep for 20 minutes before discovering Paula had accidentally fallen in the pool. It simply wasn’t possible.”
There were two possibilities. Either she had been pushed in the water and held under, and that she had accidentally fallen, and you couldn’t rule out the latter
Pathologist Peter Leth
In September 2024, the civil trial brought by the Leeson family ruled that Donald McPherson had unlawfully killed Paula. McPherson wasn’t in court to hear it. He had left the UK in July 2021, with no forwarding address.
The family’s quest for justice continues. But first, they have to find McPherson.
Alison Rowley says: “The most important thing for the family was to get the declaration of unlawful killing and to get an explanation as to what happened to their mother, daughter, sister.
“Finding out things like the Fitbit evidence, finding out from the pathology side of things that there was a manoeuvre that could have caused the injuries on her neck and rendered her unconscious and enabled her body to be out in a pool and drowned, whilst it is awful to think that that has happened, it provides the answers that the family never got. They just wanted the truth.”
David Jones says: “The main reason that we’re doing this film is to make his face as famous as possible, in as many far-flung corners of the world, so that there’s nowhere for him to hide.”
The Drowning of Paula Leeson airs on Channel 5 tonight at 8pm