New Zealand property developer Donald McPherson accused of murder faces new civil suit in UK

Donald McPherson, born Alex Lang in Auckland, stood trial in 2021 for the murder of his wife, Paula Leeson. Photo / Frances Hardy

An English court has heard claims that the death of a British heiress on holiday was an “acquisitive killing” by her Kiwi husband as part of a life insurance scam.

Paula Leeson, 47, from Sale near Manchester died in a swimming pool while on holiday with Takapuna-born Donald McPherson, born Alexander James Lang, in Denmark in 2017.

Leeson’s family alleged he killed her as part of a life insurance plot in which McPherson stood to gain £3.5 million ($7 million).

In 2021, the Manchester Crown Court heard allegations that 47-year-old New Zealand man murdered Leeson before staging her death to appear an accident.

The case was thrown out in 2021 after the judge ruled there was insignificant evidence to reach a verdict.

Now, according to the Daily Mail, during a new civil suit, McPherson was described as a “Walter Mitty” - a man who 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.

The family of Paula Leeson who died in 2017 has filed a new civil suit claiming her former husband Donald McPherson is responsible for her death. Photo / Supplied

The KC who represented the Leeson family told the Manchester court: “We submit what happened here was an acquisitive killing.”

“The systematic setting up of policies was deliberate. This was in his mind since 2013. That’s why he’s planned Denmark,” Lesley Anderson KC said.

“He has a propensity to commit offences and then try to move on.

“The number of lies goes beyond Walter Mitty territory.

“What you have is a consistent pattern of dishonesty in furtherance of a financially acquisitive objective and to protect himself when he needs to.”

It’s claimed McPherson moved back to New Zealand in 2022.

A history of fraud

What was not raised in the earlier murder trial 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.

Paula Leeson, former wife of Donald McPherson who was born Alex Lang. Her death during a weekend break in Demark led to McPherson being charged with murder. Photo / Supplied

But his past caught up with him five years later and McPherson was extradited 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 Natalie, 4, 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 before 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”.

The four-foot-deep swimming pool at the house in Denmark where Paula Leeson was found dead. Photo / Supplied

Fraud in New Zealand

After McPherson served his time for the embezzlement, 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.”