Not guilty – that was the verdict the jury was ordered to return after Mr Justice Goose found insufficient evidence in the trial involving an alleged killing over millions in insurance payouts.

New Zealand native Donald McPherson, who had denied murdering his wife Paula Leeson while they were on holiday in Denmark in 2017, has been cleared on the grounds that the Manchester Crown Court case was based on circumstantial evidence.

“While the first of those alternatives is clearly more likely, that does not mean that a jury, on the face of the pathological evidence alone, could be sure of it,” a BBC report quoted the judge as stating.

Leeson, who was from a wealthy family in Trafford, died from drowning in a swimming pool. The accusation was made that McPherson deliberately drowned his spouse, while the alternative was also put forward that her death resulted from accidentally falling into the water.

Prior to the trial’s conclusion, the court was told that the defendant had taken out seven life insurance policies that would have awarded him £3.5 million (around NZ$6.79 million) in the event of Leeson’s demise.

It’s not clear how the ‘not guilty’ verdict would impact, if at all, McPherson’s insurance compensation.