R (on the application of Leeson) v His Majesty's Area
Coroner for Manchester South [2023] EWHC 62
Paula Leeson was married to Donald McPherson. In 2017,
whilst the couple were in holiday, she drowned in a relatively
shallow swimming pool. Mr McPherson was prosecuted for
Paula's murder based on the existence of blunt force injuries
to her body that were identified at post-mortem. The
prosecution also relied on the fact that Mr McPherson was the
beneficiary of life and travel insurance policies to the tune of
about £3.5 million upon Paula's death. After a
submission of no case to answer by the Defence, the trial collapsed
in 2021.
An inquest touching upon Paula's death was resumed after
the collapsed criminal proceedings. A narrow issue- based
scope was set, focussing predominantly on the events that occurred
on the day that Paula died, as relevant to the question of
‘how' she came by her death, pursuant to section 5(1)
of the Coroner's and Justice Act 2009.
