Philip Polkinghorne murder trial live updates: Final Crown witnesses testify about Auckland surgeon’s arrest
WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT
Eye surgeon Philip Polkinghorne had an estimated $13,000 worth of methamphetamine scattered about his Remuera home when police arrived on Easter Monday 2021 to investigate the suspicious death of wife Pauline Hanna, jurors learned today as the first phase of his ongoing murder trial neared its end.
Jurors were also told Polkinghorne had been in Sydney – home of high-profile escort Madison Ashton, with whom he is accused of having established a “double life” – over Christmas 2019. He told his wife in a letter that he was attending an Auckland men’s retreat to contemplate the status of their marriage.
Both pieces of disparate information came as the prosecutors called Detective Senior Sergeant Chris Allan, the officer in charge of the investigation. He is expected to be one of the last witnesses before the Crown completes its case in chief. After the Crown closes, control over who testifies next will be turned over to the defence.
Polkinghorne, 71, is accused of having fatally strangled Hanna, 63, inside their Remuera home – possibly while high on methamphetamine – before staging the scene to look like a suicide on the morning of April 5, 2021.
STORY CONTINUES AFTER LIVE BLOG
Surprise Crown witness confident Hanna's phone not used to draft messages as alleged by defence
Helen Van Berkel
That's the end of the trial for today.
Court will resume at 10am tomorrow for Ron Mansfield's cross-examination of the final Crown witness, analyst Jun Lee.
Lee was a surprise addition to the witness list after Mansfield's contention yesterday that Hanna's phone was used to draft two unsent messages, to her husband and the daughter of a family friend.
Lee said the logs the defence IT expert used to come to this conclusion were from an automatic look-up process that occurs in the background without the phone being used.
He said that if the phone had actually been used to draft a message, there would be logs showing it had been picked up and unlocked.
These logs were missing, Lee said.
As a result, he told prosecutor Brian Dickey he was confident the phone was not used by Hanna or anyone else after 10.47pm.
Helen Van Berkel
Lee says the iOS operating system has no draft feature, so if someone exits the messaging app, a draft is discarded, unlike Androids, says Lee.
However, there would still be a record of the draft message being created, Lee adds.
Mansfield raises the possibility the text could have been deleted.
"So what's the question there?" asks Justice Lang.
"I'm just trying to learn, sir," says Mansfield.
Helen Van Berkel
Lee says the iOS operating system has no draft feature, so if someone exits the messaging app, a draft is discarded, unlike Androids, says Lee.
However, he says there would still be a record that a draft was created but it will be a blank spot - not a log that the message was typed and deleted.
Mansfield raises the possibility the text could have been deleted.
"So what's the question there?" asks Justice Lang.
"I'm just trying to learn, sir," says Mansfield.
Log accuracy questioned
Helen Van Berkel
Are you saying the entries relating to a phone turning on, being picked up and the screen coming on are always accurate? Mansfield asks.
"Yes," says Lee again.
Lee says he has never seen an example of such activity not being recorded when a phone is used.
Analyst to be recalled tomorrow
Helen Van Berkel
What if, asks Mansfield, someone goes into messages and simply selects a contact or number. Will that create a log entry?
Yes, says Lee.
Mansfield says that's as far as he take it without some further advice.
The witness, digital forensic analyst Jun Lee, will return for more cross-examination after Mansfield consults the defence IT expert overnight.
The Crown will then close its case, after a little over 22 days of evidence.
Helen Van Berkel
After Mansfield persists in this vein of questioning, Dickey objects that the witness is being asked the same question again and again.
Justice Lang interjects: "I think, Mr Mansfield, if you want to explore it further at this point you really should put it a bit more directly."
Mansfield then asks if there is always a record of the phone turning on and the screen coming on.
"Yes," says Lee.
He has already said Hanna could not have drafted the messages because there are no logs of the phone being picked up or turned on.
What the phone logs said
Helen Van Berkel
Mansfield's expert told the court yesterday that the phone logs suggested Hanna was drafting 4am messages on April 4 before she died.
Helen Van Berkel
Ordinarily, asks Ron Mansfield, if I start to type a message on my phone to a recipient using an Apple product, my phone will check their authority to receive an iMessage?
Jun Lee agrees.
So if Mansfield starts sending Brian Dickey an iMessage, his phone will check if Dickey's phone is authorised to receive an iMessage? he presses.
Lee agrees.
And would my phone start going through my contacts to check if Dickey is an iPhone user? the defence lawyer asks.
Yes, says Lee.
And if I decide I don't want to send a message to Dickey after all, would there just be a log of the phone checking through the contacts to verify if his phone can receive an iMessage? Mansfield asks.
Lee confirms that's right.
How iPhones communicate
Helen Van Berkel
Mansfield asks Lee to confirm that when messaging iPhone to iPhone, the iMessage facility shows when the other user is typing or drafting a message.
Lee agrees but says it only works between two iPhones.
Surprise Crown witness casts doubt on claim Hanna's phone was used to draft 4am messages
Helen Van Berkel
Lee says confirming Hanna did not use the phone after 10.47pm was a straightforward analysis.
Justice Lang explains to the jury that Mansfield isn't in a position to cross-examine Lee fully because he only got the analyst's brief this morning.
Mansfield will ask a few questions now, consult the defence IT expert, then finish his cross-examination tomorrow.
The Crown will then close its case.
Contradictory evidence
Helen Van Berkel
The surprise Crown witness is contradicting Ron Mansfield KC's claims that Hanna's phone was used to draft a message to her husband and the daughter of a family friend about 4am on the morning of her death.
Lee explains the phone would have been running in the background, checking the identity of various other devices it has communicated with as a security procedure, designed in part to counter phishing attempts.
Lee says the phone was not used again after 10.47pm on April 4.
Dickey asks what he'd expect to see if someone was drafting a message.
"There would be heaps of logs behind it," the witness says.
He explains a message would leave a trail of logs about 4am that were not apparent from the data found on the phone.
The logs would show it was picked up, the screen was unlocked and the SMS app was used.
Police found none of these, Lee says.
Helen Van Berkel
So from the time the phone is plugged in at 10.47pm on April 4, is it used again, asks Dickey?
No, says Lee.
Who was using Hanna's iPhone?
Helen Van Berkel
Lee says the logs show background services that do not relate to a user interacting with the device.
Is anybody using the iPhone? asks Dickey.
No, says Lee. There was no user interaction with the phone at all.
Helen Van Berkel
About 90% of the exhibits his team analyses are mobile phones.
Lee was asked overnight by Allan to comment on certain log entries presented at court yesterday.
Dickey refers Lee to Hanna's iPhone 8 Plus and whether its log entries suggest user activity. They are sourced from the identity look-up service, he says.
The date or time of the log entries are not immediately clear.
It appears Lee has been called to clarify questions that Detective Andrew Reeves was unable to answer yesterday.
Final Crown witness called
Helen Van Berkel
Prosecutor Brian Dickey calls what he says will be the final Crown witness.
Jun Lee is a digital forensic analyst with the police, and has been with the high-tech crime group for eight years.
He is not a sworn officer, he tells the court, but is qualified in computer and mobile phone forensics.
Pathologist call not played to jury
Helen Van Berkel
To clarify, this is a separate call, not the call from Polkinghorne to the pathologist. The call to the pathologist has not been played.
Under Mansfield's questioning, Allan confirms police had talked to work colleagues and family members at an early stage, including many on either side whom the trial has not yet heard from.
In the end, the jury did not hear the intercepted call between Polkinghorne and his pathologist after the Crown raised a legal issue with it being played.
Mansfield's cross-examination ends.
Helen Van Berkel
Allan's notes record talk by Polkinghorne of him not wanting Hanna sullied or her background dug up, although Allan clarifies that this relates to another call.
Allan says there was also reference in one call to Polkinghorne thinking his "premises" – his Remuera property – would literally be dug up.
Helen Van Berkel
Mansfield asks if Polkinghorne was advised of the preliminary views of the pathologist Kilak Kesha after his April 6 autopsy of Pauline Hanna's body.
He was not, says Allan, the officer in charge of the case.
Helen Van Berkel
The jury is back in and Ron Mansfield KC is resuming his questioning of Detective Senior Sergeant Chris Allan on an intercepted call between Dr Philip Polkinghorne and Auckland Hospital pathologist Dr Rexson Tse at 2pm on April 8, 2021, three days after Hanna's death.
The call was after Polkinghorne had been told he was a person of interest.
Allan says he was aware around this point there were "queries towards a second autopsy".
Afternoon session to get under way
Helen Van Berkel
Court is about to resume and the public gallery is filtering in.
Court adjourns for early lunch following concerns over playing intercepted recording
Vera Alves
After a session in chambers following concerns from the Crown prosecutors about playing the intercepted recording, court registrars are telling the jury and public that we are taking an early lunch, until 1.45pm.
Police intercepted Polkinghorne's communications before he was charged
Vera Alves
Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield continues his cross-examination of Detective Senior Sergeant Chris Allan, now focused on the walk-through the Polkinghorne home after Hanna's body was found.
Allan says the walk-through is very important.
"It's not a search is it, it's a walk-through, which you could do with photos or video, both of which were taken in excessive quantities?" asks Mansfield.
"The question is?" asks Allan.
Allan says the property was lawfully under police control for an examination. But not a walk-through, says Mansfield.
Mansfield takes aim at the timing of the walk-through.
"While the funeral's going on, you're having a walk-through in the address?" the defence lawyer asks.
Allan says they facilitated the retrieval of some items, but Mansfield says that was at the very last moment.
Mansfield says his client arrived at his home on the night of April 15 but was told to go away, and return the next day.
Allan says he contacted Polkinghorne's then lawyer Tony Boucher at 8am and waited there until 12pm for him to arrive.
The fact you had contact with the Auckland Crown solicitor's Office, and the Crown's walk-through, that indicates you're taking advice from their office about an allegation of homicide? Mansfield asks.
"Yes," says Allan.
So you were moving forward with the possibility of charging Polkinghorne with homicide? Mansfield asks.
We were moving through with a full collection of evidence, says Allan.
Well, says Mansfield, the Auckland Crown solicitor – then Brian Dickey – does not deal with an allegation of possession of meth or a meth pipe.
Allan agrees.
Allan says there was a "considerable delay" in the required testing due to Covid, before Polkinghorne was charged.
He was charged on August 16, 2022, 16 months and 11 days after his wife's death.
Police visited 79 neighbouring properties, interviewed several women he knew and intercepted his communications before he was charged, Allan confirms.
Allan says the search and surveillance device warrant was issued on the evening of April 6 and was for 21 days.
Part of the communications intercepted was a call made by Polkinghorne to a pathologist, Dr Rexson Tse, says Mansfield.
Allan says there were a number of calls intercepted.
Well, were you listening to his communications as of April 8, 2021? Mansfield asks.
Allan says he wasn't listening, it was other investigators.
Mansfield gets ready to play the intercepted call between Polkinghorne and the pathologist Dr Tse, from April 8.
But before it's played, Auckland Crown solicitor Alysha McClintock gets to her feet and says there may be a legal issue with the call and she needs to see the judge in chambers.
Vera Alves
Mansfield says the walk-through was with the then Crown solicitor and a colleague from his office on the morning of April 15.
"So was the address held from the 13th of April 2021 until 15 April 2021 at 10.56am just so you could walk through the then Crown solicitor [and] his colleague through the address?" Mansfield asks.
It was not just the Auckland Crown solicitor but a detective inspector and Allan, the detective senior sergeant says.
Allan adds there was an "inherent obligation" to clean the address, given the extensive fingerprinting and luminol use.
Mansfield asks if he'd consulted with Polkinghorne about the cleaning or if he'd offered to allow him and his family access before Hanna's funeral, given the scene examination had concluded.
Allan rejects the scene examination had finished, given they had not done the walk-through.
Vera Alves
Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield continues his cross-examination of Detective Senior Sergeant Chris Allan.
Mansfield asks if after another detective's "tension test" of the orange rope, Allan was called in.
Allan explains he was the duty detective senior sergeant for Auckland City that Easter weekend.
He was contacted after the crime squad, who conducted the initial look at the scene, raised some concerns.
Allan says his role was to look at whether those concerns were founded or could be alleviated.
He says he called pathologist Dr Kilak Kesha to come to the scene shortly after he arrived, followed by ESR scientist Fiona Matheson.
Mansfield says it was being treated as a homicide from that point, given ESR's involvement.
"I disagree," says Allan.
He also disagrees that it's uncommon for a pathologist to be called to a suicide.
"Presumably you received the typed or handwritten formal written statement of Dr Polkinghorne from one of the initial police officers who attends?" Mansfield asks.
Allan says he heard about what Polkinghorne had said and thought more information was required, so he assigned a detective to interview him.
He did not monitor that interview but received updates from staff monitoring the interview.
Allan says he did not participate in the interview.
It concluded at 4.57pm and then at 5.15pm, Allan told him his Upland Rd home would be held under the Search and Surveillance Act as a secure scene.
Mansfield says the scene examination was not finished until 5pm on April 13.
Allan says the home was returned around April 16.
Mansfield says he's interested in evidence already heard that the scene examination finishes late on the afternoon of April 13. Why wasn't the address returned at that point? he asks.
Because there is still an element of oversight required in terms of what happened in the scene examination, Allan says.
Mansfield says we've heard no evidence of what happened on April 14 at the scene, the day before Hanna's funeral. He asks Allan if he has any notes or record of what happened on April 14.
A long delay while Allan checks his notes.
The only note he has from around April 14 is an update and plan for the next three days and a reference to a walk-through.
Defence questions if police really had 'open mind' on Hanna's cause of death
Vera Alves
Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield refers to ESR scientist Fiona Matheson, who worked on the examination of the Polkinghorne home.
She was called there on April 5 and then there was a briefing on April 6, the day after Hanna was reported dead.
Mansfield asked her about that briefing in her evidence.
She was told to "move forward with homicide focus" on the morning of April 6, says Mansfield.
"I believe that's a reference to how the scene is actually treated," says Allan, instead of a lesser approach, which could result in missed opportunities.
Allan confirms ESR is not normally called in as part of a coroner's suicide inquiry.
"They were called in very promptly on the 5th of April and started their work then, correct?" Mansfield asks.
"Yes," says Allan.
Then there's a briefing the next day saying "move forward with homicide focus", says Mansfield.
Allan rejects that the homicide theory was predetermined, saying the homicide focus referred more to the method of evidence collection.
Court resumes with cross-examination of detective
Vera Alves
Court resumes after the morning adjournment.
Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield is resuming his cross-examination of Detective Senior Sergeant Chris Allan.
Before the break, Mansfield said the Polkinghorne home had panic buttons in both the master and guest bedrooms upstairs, where Hanna and Polkinghorne slept respectively on the night of April 4. But it appears police made no note of that, beyond the comments of an Auckland Eye worker who stayed at the home.
Mansfield begins questions on the taking of a hair sample from Hanna during her autopsy.
He refers to evidence heard earlier about testing of the sample in Australia.
Mansfield asks Allan about the chain of custody report for the autopsy.
It doesn't list the hair sample being received by the New Zealand Police on the day of the autopsy.
Allan says the hair sample was not handed over to the police as the other samples were.
It was retained at the mortuary with the other pathological samples that were taken, says Allan.
He believes it was "uplifted" by the police at a later date.
Correspondence from June 1, 2021, shows an email from Allan to the pathologist Kilak Kesha, thanking him for the hair sample.
Was it not received until June 1, then? Mansfield asks.
It was not, says Allan.
Now on to the testing of the rope samples.
Mansfield asks and Allan confirms the rope was initially only tested for DNA.
It was only a year later that ESR tested the rope for both male and female DNA.
Was there a concern given the delay there may not be enough DNA for that? Mansfield asks.
I think there was a general concern, says Allan, because of the "complex nature of the exhibit it was sampled from".
"We were really trying to keep an open mind about what that rope could tell us," Allan says.
"I wonder if we can just explore that open mind, it just happens to be my next topic," says Mansfield.
What the jury has heard so far this morning
Vera Alves
What did we learn in what could be the penultimate session of the Crown case?
- The prosecution alleges Polkinghorne lied in the letter to his wife, in which he said he was spending a few days over Christmas 2019 at a retreat course in Auckland called "moving on and up", during which time, he told Hanna, he wouldn't be able to reply to her messages. Police secured records from Customs showing he flew to Sydney while she was at what was meant to be their family Christmas at their Ring's Beach bach. At the time, his longstanding escort companion Madison Ashton was based out of Sydney.
- Polkinghorne's home had panic buttons, Mansfield says, in the master and guest bedroom. Based on the defence lawyer's questioning of Detective Senior Sergeant Chris Allan, it appears police did not make a record of this.
- Meth cost about $350 per gram in Auckland in 2019, meaning the 37g found in Polkinghorne's home would have been worth roughly $13,000, not taking into account any wholesale discounts.
Defence cross-examines detective
Vera Alves
Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield begins his cross-examination of Detective Senior Sergeant Allan, the officer in charge of the inquiry into Hanna's death.
He's on to the CCTV footage.
Mansfield says he's going to show a series of videos from Auckland Eye, starting at 8.42am. They show the same scene as the ones just played by the Crown, inside the clinic, but this time in the morning.
One shows a cleaner working at Auckland Eye, Mansfield says.
The cleaner vacuums down the hallway to the end and back, on the Sunday morning after the Saturday night covered by the footage just played by the Crown. Mansfield begins another clip.
Another clip from Sunday morning played by Mansfield shows someone who appears to be Polkinghorne arrive and go down the hallway with two people towards his consulting room.
The defence lawyer is playing another video, this time from 3.46pm on Sunday October 18, 2020. It shows what Mansfield describes as the "two patients" leaving. "Or a patient and a support person," says Mansfield.
"I couldn't tell if they're a patient, friend, whatever," says Allan.
Mansfield asks if Allan knows Auckland Eye provided all the patient records to Auckland Eye's solicitors (who conducted an investigation in 2020 that was unable to conclude who had left the meth pipe in the clinic, the trial heard earlier).
"Righto, thank you, the next one's at 3.49pm," says Mansfield, before firing up another clip.
It shows someone coming back into the clinic and proceeding down the hallway towards the consultation rooms.
Another from six minutes later shows two others heading back down the hallway.
Mansfield's questions, Allan's responses and earlier evidence show the Crown is trying to suggest Polkinghorne left the meth pipe in his clinic after visiting with friends over the weekend, but Mansfield says it would have been a patient and a support person, while also emphasising the inconclusive investigation from 2020 conducted by the firm's lawyers.
More clips are played and the jury watches more comings and goings down the hallway that Sunday four years ago.
Mansfield asks if early on Sunday, we see a cleaner or two, one vacuuming, the second collecting rubbish, from all of the rooms up and down the corridor.
"In a fairly cursory manner," says Allan.
So you're criticising the work of the cleaners? asks Mansfield.
No, says Allan, but they seemed to move quickly.
Have you ever actually been to Auckland Eye? asks Mansfield.
Allan says he has not.
So you don't know what sort of equipment Polkinghorne might need to use from various rooms as part of his work? asks Mansfield.
"I haven't been there, I haven't seen the equipment. I can't help you with those questions," Allan says.
Mansfield produces some photographs taken from police at the Polkinghorne home.
Then he asks Allan if police interviewed Sharon Jenkins, a staff member at Auckland Eye.
Allan's memory is hazy on this.
Mansfield offer to jog the detective's memory and says Jenkins had stayed at the Polkinghorne home in Remuera and had described there being panic buttons at the address.
"When she was interviewed by the police, she informed the police that there are a number of panic buttons around the house," Mansfield says.
Allan says he can't recall that.
Mansfield then refers to photos of the master bedroom.
There's a foot stall by a hair dryer and underneath the plug, there's a white panel with a red button, says Mansfield.
"So when your officers were doing an examination of the house, did they report on that and what it was?"
"I'm not too sure," says the detective in charge of the case.
Now on to the upstairs guest bedroom, where Polkinghorne is said to have slept.
"See the giraffe on the little side table?" Mansfield asks.
"Soft toys," says Allan.
There's another white panel with a red button, says Mansfield.
Allan tells the lawyer that question would be best directed to the officer in charge of the scene.
Mansfield says the officer in charge of the scene made no note of that.
And Justice Graham Lang calls the morning adjournment.
Polkinghorne lied about whereabouts to wife in Christmas 2019, Crown suggests
Vera Alves
Auckland Crown solicitor Alysha McClintock is now asking Detective Senior Sergeant Chris Allan about the price of meth.
He says it ranges from $200 to $1000 per gram.
Auckland's a bit cheaper, due to economies of scale, he agrees.
Three years ago it was going for about $350 per gram.
Now McClintock asks about travel documents the police sourced from Customs regarding Polkinghorne.
The dates on the Customs records show a departure on December 23, 2019 at 8pm, from Auckland to Sydney.
The trial heard earlier he had gone missing around this time and had not turned up to a family Christmas at their Ring's Beach bach in the Coromandel, leaving Hanna devastated and forcing her to lie to friends and family.
The return entry was on December 27, 2019 from Sydney to Auckland, the trial hears.
Now McClintock refers to earlier evidence showing a letter from Polkinghorne to Hanna in late 2019, in which he claimed he was intending to enrol in a retreat or course in Auckland called "moving on and up".
This was sent just before he apparently went to Sydney, and the letter said he planned to return to Ring's on the 27th, Allan confirms.
Jury watches CCTV footage from Auckland Eye
Vera Alves
Detective Senior Sergeant Chris Allan produces three photographs from his cardboard box.
Copies of the photographs are being handed to the jury.
McClintock asks if he's viewed himself the CCTV footage from Auckland Eye already discussed in evidence in trial to look at the part where it is said Polkinghorne is seen on the footage.
To recap: this is the footage filmed in October 2020, the weekend before the meth pipe was found in a Monday morning.
The court is about to be played a selection of clips where he can be seen walking down a corridor adjoining the laser room where the trial heard earlier the meth pipe was found.
Allan said in nighttime clips, you can see to the end of the corridor, but it's very obscured. And you can't see entranceways at the end oft he corridor.
The jury is now being played a clip from October 17, 2020, at 8.49pm. It appears on the five screens as a sort of fisheye image.
The court is peering into the hallway of the Remuera Auckland Eye clinic where Polkinghorne worked for many weekends.
Allan explains the clip shows a scene shortly after the alarm was deactivated using Polkinghorne's code.
Three people come in, one looking like Polkinghorne.
The clip is grainy, staccato and captures frames one-by-one like on older CCTV system, but you can see three figures entering the hallway in sequence and venturing down a hallway.
Another clip, from 8.58pm, is being played. It shows people coming back out, to the exit, back down the same hallway. They are moving as a group and walking close to each other.
A third clip starts at 9pm. It shows one person returning back down the hall that Saturday night nearly four years ago, and about six months before Pauline Hanna's death.
More of the same is played to the court, showing small selections of movement after 9pm in the clinic.
Auckland Eye is a large clinic and this hallway is long. Allan says there's a "light wash at the top of the sphere" indicating that the "figure object is emerging" around that area.
In other words, he is saying there is movement near the door to the laser room where the meth pipe is found.
Why the investigation was called "Operation Kian"
Vera Alves
Auckland Crown solicitor Alysha McClintock now calls Detective Senior Sergeant Chris Allan.
He's one of the officers in charge of the investigation.
Allan walks into court carrying what looks like a banana box.
He tells the court he's based at the Auckland City Police Station in College Hill.
The investigation was called "Operation Kian" – the name was generated by a computer as part of a selection of names.
"This one suited me because it was nice and short, easy to spell," says Allan.
Detective recounts the moment he arrested Polkinghorne
Vera Alves
Philip Polkinghorne's arrest happened at 7.55am on August 16, 2022.
It was by appointment at a police station.In the presence of his lawyer, Detective John Cleveland Kennedy arrested Polkinghorne and charged him with the murder of his wife, and possession of meth and a meth pipe.
He cautioned Polkinghorne and read him his rights.
Polkinghorne made no comment, Kennedy says.
Kennedy confirms he offered him the opportunity of an interview.
"He gave no comments."
He then processed him through the watch house.
Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield begins his cross-examination.
Kennedy confirms that ahead of his arrival at the police station, Polkinghorne and his lawyers had been told in advance the decision had been made to charge him.
That concludes Mansfield's cross-examination.
Kennedy is free to go after just a few minutes of evidence.
Crown calls first witness of the day
Vera Alves
Auckland Crown Solicitor Alysha McClintock has called former Detective John Cleveland Kennedy.
He was with police in August 2022 but has since retired.
He is standing in the witness box while McClintock questions him.
Trial about to resume after short delay
Vera Alves
The jury has returned to court to see the Crown call its last few witnesses as the public and Pauline Hanna's family filter into the gallery.
Vera Alves
There is a slight delay in proceedings resuming. It's not clear why. The public gallery have yet to filter into court.
Polkinghorne trial day 22 - the end of the Crown case following a Tuesday afternoon twist
Vera Alves
Welcome to the third day of the fifth week of the murder trial of Philip Polkinghorne, the Remuera eye surgeon accused of killing his wife and staging the scene to look like a suicide. He maintains she hanged herself and it won’t be too long until his defence team starts calling witnesses to support that version of events.
There is every indication the Crown will finish its case today and the jury know there are only a couple of prosecution witnesses left to go, after more than 50 were called over the preceding weeks.
They have not been told whether we will then take a break to allow the defence to prepare, or if we’ll launch right into the defence opening statement followed by their first witness.
What is certain is that Mansfield intends to call multiple expert witnesses for the defence. He’s already presaged several via cross-examination, including a power analysis expert and an Australian pathologist who concluded Hanna’s death was a suicide.
As proceedings appeared to meander to an end yesterday afternoon, Mansfield produced a new twist in the trial, delivered by foreshadowing evidence from another defence expert.
Mansfield said the defence IT expert had found Hanna’s iPhone had drafted, but not sent, messages about 4am to both her husband and then minutes later to the daughter of her colleague and family friend.
Justice Graham Lang quickly suppressed the name of the young woman when she was mentioned in evidence.
Mansfield said the defence IT expert had identified the drafted but undelivered messages from the police’s timeline of Hanna’s phone’s activity on April 5, 2021, the morning she was reported dead. He asked Detective Andrew Reeves if he looked at those entries.
"I did but I didn't understand them,” the detective said.
Reeves then said he couldn’t confirm if it was Hanna using her phone or not at this time, and that she had a “very simple” passcode on it. Mansfield asked if he was trying to advance the theory that someone else was using the phone and Reeves said he could only go by what the data told him.
Earlier, Mansfield revealed Hanna had once googled the term “asphyxia” – death via loss of oxygen to the brain. But prosecutor Brian Dickey emphasised in his re-examination of Reeves the search came amid a slew of searches on French history and literature, including Madame Bovary, its author Gustave Flaubert, The Dreyfus Affair and finally novelist and journalist Émile Zola, who asphyxiated accidentally due to gases from an improperly fitted stove pipe.
Reeves spent the majority of the day in the witness box undergoing at-times tense questioning from Mansfield, whose voice would rise as he took aim again and again at the work of the detective. Here are a couple of other notable moments from the morning sessions:
Detective admits he should have mentioned emails
Mansfield asked the detective why he had earlier told the court the phone data showed Hanna waking between 4am and 7am when her emails at times show she was up most of the night. Did he not think, asked Mansfield, that it left a misleading impression? "When you know damn well she was sending emails through these hours?" Reeves replied: "I realise now that I should have cross-referenced them."
Detective concedes messages show 'loving' relationship
Mansfield then took aim at the detective again, asking why he didn't mention in evidence the mundane messages before Polkinghorne and Hanna before her death.
Given you were looking through her phone history, is there any reason you didn't review the messaging between Hanna and Polkinghorne before her death? asked Mansfield. Reeves said he did review the messaging.
"It was uneventful," he said. Reeves said he did review the messages but "did not create a detailed report on them". "Was that because the messages did not support the police narrative?" asked Mansfield.
He said they weren't relevant. Did these messages suggest a working, loving relationship? asked Mansfield. Reeves said they did, and he did not see any evidence of conflict between the pair.
Mansfield asked why he did not include a review of the messaging between husband and wife or a review of her email messaging. "I reviewed the themes on Ms Hanna's phone... but not a detailed review, no," Reeves replied.
🎧 LISTEN | Accused: The Polkinghorne Trial
Vera Alves
STORY CONTINUES AFTER LIVE BLOG
Prosecutors have suggested Polkinghorne might have violently lashed out at Hanna as they argued over the hundreds of thousands of dollars he had spent on sex workers in recent years. Financial records show more than $100,000 went to Ashton.
The defence has focused intently on Hanna, described as an overworked healthcare executive with a history of depression and suicidal thoughts who was pushed over the edge by the most stressful work assignment of her life, helping to oversee the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine. The apparent suicide scene was exactly that – a suicide – lawyer Ron Mansfield KC has repeatedly insisted.
The first witness to testify this morning was Detective John Kennedy, who arrested Polkinghorne.
Kennedy, now retired, testified for less than 10 minutes. He recalled meeting with Polkinghorne and his lawyer by appointment at 7.55am on August 16, 2022. The surgeon was read his rights and asked if he wanted to make a statement as he was charged with murder, possession of methamphetamine and possession of a meth pipe.
“He made no comment,” the witness said.
Polkinghorne pleaded guilty to the methamphetamine charges at the start of the trial, but his lawyers have sought to characterise his usage as recreational while the Crown has suggested he had a significant habit.
The rest of the morning was filled with testimony from Detective Allan, the officer in charge. He said that the price of methamphetamine in Auckland at the time of Hanna’s death was about $350 per gram, with “a little bit of a wholesale aspect if you buy in bulk”. Police found just over 37g in the Polkinghorne home, which would put the value at roughly $13,000.
He played for jurors a series of CCTV clips from Polkinghorne’s workplace, Auckland Eye, on the night of Saturday, October 17, 2020. The following Monday morning, a meth pipe was found in a consultation room. The defendant’s lawyer has stringently denied it was his.
The grainy footage showed three people entering at around 8.49pm, one of them – bald, wearing a loud shirt and possibly shorts – resembling the defendant. Co-workers who have also reviewed the footage, although outside the jury’s presence, have indicated it was Polkinghorne. The group leaves about 10 minutes later and Polkinghorne is seen returning an hour after that.
The fisheye footage was barely discernable at the end of the corridor, near the entrance to the room where the meth pipe was found. But the figures could be seen moving left and right between rooms in that general area.
Mansfield later played CCTV clips of his own, showing cleaners and multiple other Auckland Eye employees entering and leaving the premises on Sunday, the day before the pipe was found.
Prosecutors also delved again into a December 2019 incident, alluded to by previous witnesses, in which Hanna was distraught after Polkinghorne vanished over Christmas – reportedly leaving her to lie about his whereabouts to family as they gathered at the couple’s Rings Beach bach in Coromandel. It was around that time that Hanna called her physician, and then a crisis hotline, to report that she was having suicidal thoughts but no plan to enact them.
Jurors last week were shown a letter from Polkinghorne to his wife just prior to the disappearance in which he said he had been feeling “increasingly devoid in the last few months from our relationship” before listing her perceived flaws – including extensive spending in travel and using his “airmiles”. He ended the letter by indicating he was leaving immediately for a “three-day course” in Auckland called “Moving on or Up”, where he planned to contemplate the future of their marriage.
“I don’t know what the outcome of this retreat will be but to be frank without some sort of insight I am sure I will not be able to continue,” he wrote. “If there is a pill to make it easier, don’t worry I would take the bottle!!
“My intention is to return to Rings on the 27th. I will not be contactable until then. The organizers’ of the retreat have agreed I can answer patient’s texts, but other stuff is out of bounds [sic].
“I don’t know where the bucketload of love went, but there you have it.”
But travel records, Detective Allan pointed out, showed Polkinghorne wasn’t at an Auckland retreat during that time. He left New Zealand on a flight to Sydney on December 23 before returning on December 27.
During cross-examination of Allan, Mansfield suggested that police had restricted Polkinghorne from accessing his home for an unnecessarily long time – until midday on April 16, the day after Hanna’s funeral. The home was toured by the investigator, along with the Crown solicitor and an ESR representative while the funeral was taking place.
Police spoke with people at 79 neighbouring properties and businesses and received permission to secretly monitor his calls for the next three weeks amid the investigation, Mansfield noted. The point was one the defence has attempted to hammer home repeatedly throughout the first half of the trial: that police reached an erroneous conclusion about foul play early on and failed to have an open mind about it having been a suicide.
Allan’s cross-examination is expected to continue when the trial resumes this afternoon before Justice Graham Lang and the jury.
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.
The Herald will be covering the case in a daily podcast, Accused: The Polkinghorne Trial. You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, through The Front Page feed, or wherever you get your podcasts.