Paula Leeson: Father of drowned heiress wins legal challenge

Paula Leeson drowned in an indoor swimming pool on holiday in Denmark

The father of a wealthy heiress who drowned while on holiday in Denmark has won a High Court challenge over the scope of an inquest into her death.

Paula Leeson, 47, drowned in a 4ft deep swimming pool in 2017 while on a break with her husband Donald McPherson.

He was prosecuted for his wife's murder but the trial collapsed in 2021 due to insufficient evidence.

Her father Willy Leeson took the case to the High Court over what evidence should be considered at the inquest.

Mr McPherson, who has always maintained his innocence, was charged after a post-mortem examination revealed blunt force injuries to Ms Leeson's body.

A jury was told these were either consistent with being caused by her being forced under the water, or by attempts to resuscitate her made by her husband after he found her in the pool.

In a ruling on Wednesday, Lord Justice Dingemans said the crown's case at trial was that he had taken out a number of insurance policies on the life of Ms Leeson to the sum of £3.5m, of which he was the beneficiary, and this was circumstantial evidence which meant the jury could be sure she was murdered.

But Mr McPherson was cleared at Manchester Crown Court in March 2021, after the trial judge upheld a submission of no case to answer on the basis that the jury could not be sure on the medical evidence which of the two scenarios was more likely.

The couple were on holiday in the small Danish town of Norre Nebel in 2017

Following the trial, the coroner for Manchester South held a pre-inquest review in August, of the same year.

He concluded that the inquest would only consider evidence from Ms Leeson's arrival in Denmark until the day of her death, but this decision was challenged by Mr Leeson in December.

Giving the High Court's decision, Lord Justice Dingemans quashed the coroner's ruling on the scope of the inquest, saying it was "not a lawful one".

The judge, who heard the case with Mr Justice Fordham and chief coroner Judge Edward Teague, said: "In my judgment it was not rational to limit the evidence to be called at the inquest to the period from when Ms Leeson arrived in Denmark until the day of her death.

"This is because the ruling excluded evidence about matters which had occurred before Ms Leeson's arrival in Denmark, and evidence about matters which had occurred after her death, which was relevant to the issue of whether Ms Leeson had suffered an accidental death or had been unlawfully killed."

The judge sent the case back to the coroner for the decision to be remade, in light of the observations in the High Court ruling.