Cleared of murdering his wife, Donald McPherson has a lengthy criminal history. Photo / Supplied
Cleared of murdering his wife, Donald McPherson has a lengthy criminal history. Photo / Supplied
The twisted tale of Donald McPherson, the New Zealander cleared of murdering his heiress wife, has taken another dramatic turn.
A UK newspaper has revealed that McPherson, born Alexander Lang in Auckland, has also gone by another name and had another wife who died in tragic circumstances.
The Daily Mail reported details of McPherson's chequered past, revealing his involvement in global bank fraud and the name he also used to commit fraud back home in New Zealand.
The Mail revealed that Donald McPherson, cleared of murdering Paula Leeson for her "vast fortune" was also known as Donald Somers and was convicted under that name for stealing more than $23 million from a German back in 2000.
The newspaper also published details of the deaths of his first wife and their young daughter, who died in mysterious circumstances in Australia.
Earlier this month, a UK judge ruled there was "insufficient" evidence for the jury to convict McPherson for the murder of his second wife Paula Leeson.
Paula Leeson. Photo / Supplied
Prosecutors alleged that McPherson killed Leeson after taking out a series of insurance policies against the life of the wealthy heiress.
During the trial, the court heard allegations that 47-year-old McPherson killed Leeson while the couple were on a mini-break at a remote cottage in Denmark, before staging her death to appear an accident.
Her father, businessman Willy Leeson and his son Neville reacted angrily after Justice Goose said there was not enough evidence for jurors to safely convict the Kiwi, despite previously saying that foul play was "more likely" than an accident.
Willy Leeson and his wife Betty reportedly broke down in tears, and Leeson shouted: "Oh God, oh God, unbelievable".
The dead woman's brother Neville shouted to the judge: "God Almighty. You are making a big mistake."
The judge told the jury: "I have come to the conclusion that as a matter of law that the evidence in relation to how Paula Leeson came to drown is not sufficiently strong to allow you to reach a proper verdict in relation to the defendant causing it by killing her".
Mysterious deaths
What was not raised in that UK court room was McPherson's long history of fraud, a criminal career that spanned the globe.
In 2000, while working for Commerzbank in Germany, McPherson (then known as Donald Somers) was part of an international plot to steal more than $23m.
When he was suspected, he fled Germany with his Swedish wife Ira Kulppi and ended up in Australia, where he settled down and had a daughter, Natalie.
But his past caught up with him five years later, and McPherson was extradited back to Germany and jailed for three years and three months on an embezzlement charge.
While he was locked up, his wife and child died at the family home in Cairns, in a suspected murder-suicide.
The bodies of Kulppi and 4-year-old Natalie were found after neighbours became concerned about them, with emergency services finding a smouldering fire lit in the room where the bodies were found, the Cairns Post reported.
An autopsy showed mother and child died from smoke inhalation.
German police would later investigate after McPherson told them that his wife had been threatened prior to her death.
A senior officer told the Cairns Post in 2008 that McPherson's claims "concurred with our opinion as to the circumstances of the deaths".
Fraud in New Zealand
After McPherson served his time, he returned home to New Zealand, only to fall foul of the law again.
Going by the name "Donald Somers" at this time, in 2009 he appeared before a judge in Invercargill where he admitted obtaining electrical goods valued at $6009.92
Stuff reported at the time that McPherson was told by the judge: "You appear to me to be someone who lives by your fraudulent and criminal acts."
The court also heard that he had 27 convictions for dishonesty.
Donald McPherson, also known as Donald Somers. Photo / Supplied
The Daily Mail reports that by 2010, McPherson was holidaying in Egypt and touting himself a property developer.
It was here that he met the British builder who would go on to introduce him to his second wife, Paula Leeson, who was the heiress to a successful civil engineering business worth millions.
The pair were married in 2014 at a lavish wedding in the English countryside.
By 2017 she was dead, drowned in the swimming pool of a remote cottage rented by the couple in Denmark.
His previous convictions for fraud were never raised during the trial and Mark Callaghan of the UK Crown Prosecution Service told the Daily Mail: "We understand the upset at the termination of this trial, but do not believe introducing an unrelated fraud conviction would have made any difference to the outcome."
The Mail also reported that McPherson himself did not respond to a request for comment on these latest revelations.
His only public statement remains the one he made after he was cleared of murder: "A tragic accident is what it was and it saddens me, deeply, that the events in question should ever have been seen differently and that I was ever suspected of playing a part in Paula's death."
