Philip Polkinghorne murder trial live updates: Defence attacks witness who recounted prior strangling outcry by Pauline Hanna
WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT
When Philip Polkinghorne called up two of his wife’s closest friends in the days following her reported suicide, the Auckland eye surgeon was already crying as they answered the phone.
“My darling wife, she’s gone,” John Riordan recalled him starting off, explaning that Polkinghorne then continued to cry for several minutes as might be expected in such a situation.
But then the tears appeared to stop suddenly - a transition so jarring that Riordan still remembers it vividly three years later, jurors were told today at Polkinghorne’s ongoing murder trial.
“The police are going to charge me with murder. I didn’t kill my wife,” the witness recalled Polkinghorne saying in a flat tone.
“Then he went back to talking about Pauline and the crying started immediately. It didn’t feel real.”
The recollection came as Riordan spent a second day in the witness box at the high-profile trial, now in the third week of six in the High Court at Auckland trial. It was the last topic prompted by prosecutors before a lengthy cross-examination in which defence lawyer Ron Mansfield KC explicitly suggested he had been “gilding the lilly” and trying to “stick the boot” in a man the witness never cared much for.
STORY CONTINUES AFTER LIVE BLOG
Helen Van Berkel
The court session has ended as the trial is moving into another courtroom to make space for the Supreme Court, which is sitting in Auckland tomorrow.
The five-judge higher court needs this big room that has been the scene of the Polkinghorne trial until now.
Courtroom 13, the trial's new home for the next week and a bit, is a lot smaller so the 70 or so people who have been coming each day will not fit in the public gallery.
Tomorrow, Hanna's GP, who has interim name suppression, will return to the witness box for more cross-examination.
Helen Van Berkel
The notes refer to long-term alcohol abuse.
Stuart suggests it is "incredibly concerning" that Hanna continued to receive anti-depressants while having an obvious drinking problem.
"Yes, on paper," the witness agrees. "In real life, if you knew Pauline Hanna, you wouldn't say that. It's a reality of life that it can go together."
Helen Van Berkel
"She was given medication to maintain normal mental health," says the witness.
Asthmatics use inhalers; Hanna was using the anti-depressants to manage her mood and depression.
The witness says the 11-year period she'd used Prozac for by that point was not uncommon.
Stuart asks why the drugs were being prescribed if the patient was not depressed.
The witness replies that ongoing use is normal if the person is functioning well.
Hanna wanted a psychiatric referral
Helen Van Berkel
More Prozac and Duromine are prescribed in 2011. There's a record that year saying she's responding well to the Duromine.
In 2011, Hanna asked for a referral to a psychiatrist, the court hears, although there's no record of a referral letter.
"But it must have been done," the witness says.
"I don't know where it is."
More Prozac and Duromine are prescribed in 2012.
Helen Van Berkel
The evidence now moves into 2010, when the witness was Hanna's doctor.
On July 22 of that year, Hanna had not seen the doctor for over a year and was advised to make an appointment.
On September 13, there was a request for a Prozac script.
"She's asking for medication she's been on for years," the witness says.
Was it chronic depression? asks Stuart.
We don't call it chronic depression, the witness says.
Hanna then asked for Duromine to replace Reductil, a weight-loss drug.
Stuart asks if that was because Reductil was found to be too high-risk.
The doctor says she is not sure why it was withdrawn, or if it was because, as Stuart says, Medsafe deemed it unsafe.
Helen Van Berkel
Early in 2005 – also before the witness became Hanna's doctor – Hanna was prescribed another 180 capsules of Prozac, the court hears.
Then 180 more in August 2005 and in November. The records show she asked for more but was not happy to come in for a consult.
Helen Van Berkel
Stuart returns to references that Hanna was experiencing relationship strife with Polkinghorne's children.
She was prescribed an anti-depressant, Clonazepam, used to treat panic disorders, and Temazepam, a sleeping drug, which Stuart refers to as "quite a powerful cocktail of medications".
"It's not," says the GP, saying all the drugs are used for different things.
"You give different patients different medications on different occasions."
The GP offers that drugs are like children in a family, with one child being an engineer and another a doctor.
Helen Van Berkel
Hanna was later given an appetite suppressant, Reductil, a stimulant. Could this, Stuart asks, increase depressive thoughts?
The GP says many people who take it become happy, because they are achieving their weight-loss goals.
"It's similar to an amphetamine, is that right?" asks Stuart.
"In a way," replies the witness.
Helen Van Berkel
The witness agrees that 2004 was the first time Hanna was referred to any mental health support other than just being prescribed Prozac.
That Hanna was prescribed double the dose of Prozac was most likely as a result of a worsening of her symptoms, she agrees.
Stuart refers to another record showing Hanna had an alcohol dependence, and was prescribed Naltrexone to manage cravings and withdrawal symptoms.
These records, also from 2004, are from before the witness became involved in Hanna's care.
Helen Van Berkel
The witness wants to return to the earlier questioning about whether she referred Hanna to a psychiatrist, saying she was in fact referred in 2004.
"She was taken care of," the witness says.
Stuart asks about a note in the witness' records that said "not keen to come off".
Does that tell us there was a discussion about taking Hanna off Prozac? Stuart asks.
Possibly, says the witness.
Helen Van Berkel
Stuart tells the witness she is taking her through the records to work out her "prescribing practice with this particular patient".
"Anti-depressants are prescribed for years," the GP says. "So there's nothing unusual there."
Helen Van Berkel
"And it's a medication that needs to be prescribed with care?" Stuart asks.
"Yes," the witness replies.
Stuart asks if it should not be prescribed to someone who does not have depression or anxiety.
The witness says Hanna had depression: severe depression because she had "lots of relationship issues with her husband's children".
The witness pushes back at the suggestion that alcohol should not be taken with anti-depressants.
"On paper, everything is like that," she says.
Patients often took alcohol with anti-depressants, the doctor agrees.
Helen Van Berkel
Stuart asks the witness about the anti-depressant she prescribed Hanna.
It combats both depression and anxiety, the witness agrees, by keeping the serotonin level stable in the brain.
The GP refers to serotonin as the "happy hormone".
Helen Van Berkel
Hannah Stuart asks if the witness was the doctor who prescribed most of Hanna's medications from 2019?
Yes, the witness replies.
And you were primarily responsible for her care? Stuart asks.
Yes, the witness replies.
In April 2021, the witness agrees, police asked for Hanna's medical file.
Helen Van Berkel
McClintock finishes her questions.
Hannah Stuart, a barrister assisting Ron Mansfield KC, begins cross-examining the GP, who has interim name suppression.
Witness says Hanna had suicidal thoughts
Helen Van Berkel
Was depression ever discussed?
Not directly, the GP says. She says she was proud of her work.
She recalls Hanna saying she was having suicidal thoughts, in December 2019.
The witness told her to call the crisis team, a community psychiatrics services team.
"They always call immediately and they organise appropriate care," witness explains.
The GP called Hanna the next morning to check how she was. Hanna said she was feeling much better and had spoken to the crisis team.
Had she ever discussed suicidal thoughts before this? McClintock asks.
No, the witness replies.
Had she ever discussed any prior suicide attempts? McClintock asks.
No, the witness replies.
For context, the trial heard earlier Polkinghorne had gone missing in December 2019, not turning up to their Coromandel bach and being unreachable by phone. Hanna had to lie to her family about where he was, saying he was at a conference, but he later turned up and acted like nothing happened, the jury heard.
Helen Van Berkel
McClintock asks the witness if she ever prescribed Zopiclone, a sleeping pill, to Hanna.
No, says the GP, and nor had anyone else at her practice.
Earlier, the trial heard Hanna had a high level of Zopiclone in her system when she died, suggesting tolerance.
Zopiclone was also found in her home.
The GP remembered Hanna as a nice person who was always well-presented and would be upfront about her medical information.
Hanna was on cocktail of drugs
Helen Van Berkel
The witness said she prescribed Hanna weight-loss medication in 2010, which she was on for most of the time from that point.
Auckland Crown solicitor Alysha McClintock, who is questioning the witness, asks if there was any issue mixing the anti-depressant with the appetite suppressant Duromine and the anti-alcohol-abuse drug Naltrexone.
The witness says all drugs have contra-indications but these were monitored by her and other doctors. Hanna was "adamant" she wanted to continue the medications and didn't seem to be having any side effects, she says.
Court hears Hanna was drinking bottle of wine a night
Helen Van Berkel
Hanna had said in 2013 she was drinking a bottle of wine per night and was experiencing frequent blackouts, where she couldn't remember the previous evening, according to her medical records.
The letter in her records said she was told she could go through the Community Alcohol and Drug Service (Cads), which she didn't want to do, preferring to see a specialist.
The witness said Hanna wanted to control her drinking, rather than stop drinking altogether in 2013, after saying she was having a bottle of wine a night.
She responded well to Naltrexone, the witness said. She said Hanna had seen an alcohol and drug counsellor for support in 2013.
As at 2019, the witness says, Hanna had said her intake was two or more glasses of wine per night, which would have been at the recommended limit of 14 units per week.
Helen Van Berkel
She had asked to see the psychiatrist in 2013 relating to her alcohol intake, her medical records showed. There was no referral from the witness' practice.
Helen Van Berkel
Hanna was also given Naltrexone in 2004 and 2013 to help with alcohol use disorder. She had seen a psychiatrist in 2013 and in 2017 she was again given Naltrexone.
Helen Van Berkel
Hanna was experiencing "mood swings" as a result of her contraceptive medication and was given anti-depressants for her peri-menopausal symptoms.
She used the anti-depressant from 2001 until her death, the witness says.
Helen Van Berkel
Pauline Hanna's GP in Auckland for many years, she says Hanna was prescribed Fluoxetine, an SSRI anti-depressant.
It has been around since the early 80s and is well known and tolerated for prolonged use, the GP says.
It also goes by the name Prozac, she says.
New witness opens afternoon session
Helen Van Berkel
Court has resumed with a new witness. She is a medical practitioner and Justice Graham Lang has suppressed her name, that of her medical practice and other identifying details.
Court to resume at 2pm
Ebba Strand
Pauline Hanna's friend John Riordan's long stint in the witness box, spanning Wednesday afternoon and all of Thursday morning, is over.
We are taking a lunch break. Court will resume at 2pm. It will probably be the final session of the day because the court needs to move in the afternoon.
Hanna's friend rejects claim he tried to 'gild the lilly' in evidence
Ebba Strand
Auckland Crown solicitor Alysha McClintock has some further questions for Pauline Hanna's friend John Riordan.
She asks if anything he had told the court about what happened at Malo were to "put the boot in" or "gild the lily".
No, says Riordan.
McClintock asks if any conversations he'd had with Bruce Hanna or his wife outside court yesterday, referred to by Mansfield, had any impact on his evidence today?
No, they were discussing going out to dinner after a difficult day of evidence, Riordan says.
Riordan once again says Hanna put her hands around her neck at the restaurant early in 2020 and said her husband "tried to strangle me".
At Malo, it was like "the guard came down", Riordan says.
Vera Alves
Ron Mansfield KC continues his cross-examination of Pauline Hanna's friend John Riordan. He asks about the next time they saw each other after the Upland Rd visit, at Pauline Hanna's mother's funeral in February 2021.
Mansfield: "So other than this statement at the Malo restaurant, it wasn't discussed again?"
"No, it wasn't discussed in texts again," says Riordan.
Riordan suggests there were conversations about it but they weren't recorded in texts.
Mansfield asks if Riordan had quickly formed a very clear view shortly after the death, when he gave the statement.
"The police were obviously interested in Philip," says Riordan.
The only information he had was what he read in the newspaper.
Riordan says further comments about the Malo revelation were on the phone. Mansfield has no further questions.
John Riordan: Polkinghorne repeatedly tried to undermine his wife's confidence
Ebba Strand
Ron Mansfield KC continues hammering the witness John Riordan, who is giving clipped answers.
Mansfield is asking about the Upland Rd visit, when Riordan alleged Polkinghorne had repeatedly tried to undermine his wife's confidence.
Mansfield: "He wasn't trying to undermine her confidence, was he?"
Riordan maintains he was.
Riordan says Polkinghorne made a comment before he went to bed to his wife to the effect of warning her not to drink too much. That put a dampener on the night at Upland Rd, he says.
Mansfield: There's no suggestion in your statement there was any talk of Malo restaurant?
No suggestion there of that, Riordan agrees.
He also agrees with Mansfield that there was no mention of discussions of violence, or of her complaining of being controlled, when John Riordan was having a drink with Pauline Hanna after their partners had gone to bed.
Pauline Hanna's friend on why he didn't follow up on grave concerns
Ebba Strand
Ron Mansfield KC continues his cross-examination of Pauline Hanna's friend John Riordan. Mansfield asks why Riordan didn't go back to speak to Hanna the next day, after the disclosure at Malo in Havelock North in early 2020, given what he said were his grave concerns.
She was going to a concert the next day, Riordan says.
Mansfield: Why didn't you sit her down to talk about what happened the night before, away from dinner and drinks?
Riordan says his wife had rung Hanna before she went back to Auckland.
Manfield continues by asking about a correspondence in March 2020.
Riordan's wife Pheasant said in the text, read by Mansfield, that she imagines Hanna is very busy getting things ready at the hospital, and they are thinking of her and Philip and hope they are okay.
Mansfield reaches his point.
Mansfield: Do you think that you and Pheasant just took this claim – about the strangulation – to be the alcohol talking?
Riordan firmly disagrees.
Manfield continues by asking about the time the Riordans visited the Upland Rd property in Remuera, after the Malo dinner.
Riordan agrees he did not tell police he spoke to Hanna then about the disclosure at the dinner, but says he would be surprised if he hadn't talked to her about it.
Can we take from that, asks Mansfield, that there was no conversation about what happened at Malo?
"We were answering the questions that the police were asking us," says Riordan.
Riordan confirms he had a Zoom call with the prosecution for five or 10 minutes before giving evidence, outlining "what would be required of us".
Mansfield says he is given a job sheet about such meetings with witnesses, which did not include any disclosure about talking to Hanna about what was said at Malo.
Mansfield challenges John Riordan's memory on Hanna's alleged strangling claim
Ebba Strand
Ron Mansfield KC is back to the dinner in 2020, at Malo in Havelock North.
He is still questioning Pauline Hanna's friend John Riordan.
Riordan says there was a preamble, and then a build-up to the point where she said "he strangled me".
"Exactly what that build-up is, I don't recall," he says.
Everything went out the window when that emerged, because he wanted to ensure Hanna was safe. He says other details are hazy.
"You didn't sound hazy yesterday, sir," says Mansfield.
"You sounded very clear about what you wanted to impress about the jury... you weren't beating around the bush, were you?"
Riordan says it's a different perspective from his wife on what he believes was said.
Yesterday, his wife Victoria Pheasant Riordan did not go as far as quoting Hanna saying "he strangled me" about Polkinghorne.
Mansfield: She couldn't remember any detail, if Pauline provided it, as to where, when, how or the context in which it happened? So you can't have learned any further detail from your obvious discussions with your wife before your evidence?
Riordan says he had discussions after his police statement in 2021, and a clearer picture of what happened emerged.
Mansfield is suggesting he wanted to "put the boot in" with his comments about Hanna having to be careful around Polkinghorne, otherwise he'd blow up.
No, says Riordan.
Then why didn't you tell police that in your statement, which was much closer to the events in question? asks Mansfield.
Riordan says he believes he's answered the question.
Mansfield is continuing to suggest Riordan may have beat up his evidence to help the prosecution, by referencing differences between his testimony and his April 2021 police statement.
"What I said to police was what I could remember," Riordan says.
Mansfield asks if he's attributed words to Pauline Hanna.
Riordan agrees he has.
Riordan confirms he is 100% sure she said her husband "tried to strangle me" but isn't as sure if she said "he" or "Philip".
Trial resumes
Ebba Strand
The trial resumes with Pauline Hanna's family friend John Riordan still under cross-examination from Ron Mansfield KC.
Riordan confirms he's read his statement.
Police flew his wife up to Auckland to make a statement.
"I paid for my ticket," says Riordan.
"What I wanted was that Pauline receives justice," he says.
Mansfield says it seems that, "years later", Riordan seems to remember a lot more about the dinner where the strangulation incident was remembered, despite his statement in April 2021 lacking that detail.
"Do you think you've read the various reports on this trial and think," asks Mansfield, that he can add a wee bit on what happened that night?
No, says Riordan, he's made a point of not reading anything about what happened to Hanna.
"I want to see this court provide justice for Pauline. Not me," says Riordan.
He says that is what he would like to see.
Mansfield asks if he's "amped up" about what happened that night at Malo.
No, says Riordan.
Ebba Strand
Two more photos from this morning, showing Philip Polkinghorne arriving at the Auckland High Court with Harrison Smith (left), co-counsel to Ron Mansfield KC.
Ebba Strand
Justice Lang says let's give the witness his statement and take the morning adjournment.
We will be back in 15 minutes.
Pauline Hanna's friend recalls strangulation claims
Ebba Strand
Ron Mansfield KC continues his cross-examination of Pauline Hanna's friend John Riordan, asking about the dinner at Malo, when Riordan said Hanna told them Polkinghorne had tried to strangle her, and threatened he could do it again.
He says Hanna and her family friend were already at the Havelock North restaurant when they arrived. She left and the Riordans went to have dinner with her in the dining room.
It appears that at the end of the night, despite what was said or what occurred, Pauline picks up the bill? Mansfield asks.
Riordan doesn't remember.
Mansfield produces a banking record showing Hanna paid a little over $500 at Malo at that dinner early in 2020.
So, the defence lawyer presses, despite her concerns about money and finances, she picked up the tab for you all that night?
Riordan agrees.
When did Hanna make the strangulation disclosure? Mansfield asks.
Riordan says he can't specifically say. There was a lot of other conversation, but he thought it would have been towards the end.
"I couldn't put a time on it," Riordan says.
"Well, let's not do that," Mansfield says.
Riordan agrees they stayed for "quite a while" on the disclosure.
"When she told us, I was extremely keen to get her to come back with us," says Riordan.
Mansfield says Pheasant, Riordan's wife, thought the night came to an end shortly after the disclosure, not the hour or so Riordan claimed elapsed after the disclosure.
"When she put her hands to her neck, that clearly got our attention," Riordan says. "And then she said 'he tried to strangle me'."
What happened next was a bit of a blur, he says.
"It was a shock, a real shock."
Riordan agrees he told police that Hanna had said she had to be "very, very careful" around her husband because she "wasn't sure if he would blow up".
Mansfield is asking if he agrees that's not what he told police.
"Is that's what's in my statement?" Riordan asks.
"No, it's not what's in your statement, sir," Mansfield says.
John Riordan: Pauline Hanna's household faced serious financial issues
Ebba Strand
Ron Mansfield KC continues his cross-examination of Pauline Hanna's friend John Riordan, asking about Pauline Hanna saying 2019 was not a great year in her household.
Riordan says he got the impression there were serious financial issues.
Mansfield is asking if the issues were really so serious.
Riordan stands by his comments that they were in real financial jeopardy, in his view.
Pauline had told him about partners of the business leaving in 2019, and having to be paid out, plus the fact there was "no money coming in" as Covid hit.
But, says Mansfield, Polkinghorne continued to work through the lockdowns as an essential worker.
"The impression I got was that he wasn't," says Riordan.
Mansfield suggests his impression was wrong.
Riordan says no businesses were running at 100% over that period.
"It sounds like you should go into politics?"
"I've thought about it."
Hanna had told the witness Polkinghorne was "snapping at staff for no apparent reason," Riordan says.
Friend of Pauline Hanna recalls conversation on mental health
Ebba Strand
Ron Mansfield KC continues his cross-examination of Pauline Hanna's friend John Riordan, asking questions about Riordan and Hanna's discussions about their mental health.
Hanna did not reveal she was struggling with alcoholism, or that she was so concerned about her mental health at one point that she contemplated taking her own life.
"She never said that to me," Riordan says.
Mansfield earlier claimed Hanna tried to kill herself in 1992. None of her friends, colleagues or family members called so far said they knew anything about this, or the suicidal ideation the defence lawyer said she expressed to a clinician many years later.
"She just said that she had it, she had depression, and that she was taking medication and it seemed to be doing the job," says Riordan.
"Pauline was a very driven woman."
When she lived with them, it would not be uncommon for her to work until 2am or 3am. Earlier, Mansfield made much of the fact she was sending emails until the early hours in the days before her deaths, to suggest she was overworked. This evidence suggests it was a longstanding habit.
"Her ability to work and get results was absolutely mind-boggling."
Pauline Hanna's friend doubts Polkinghorne's contact lens story
Ebba Strand
Ron Mansfield KC continues his cross-examination of Pauline Hanna's friend John Riordan, asking questions about the time when Polkinghorne and Hanna came down to Riordan's surprise 60th.
Riordan felt the excuse given by Polkinghorne to leave early, that a contact lens was stuck, seemed artificial, because he is an eye surgeon, he agrees.
"But later in the trial we'll hear evidence that he attended an optometrist in Hawke's Bay the following morning to have that issue attended to, were you aware of that?" Mansfield asks.
No, says Riordan, but that doesn't sound quite right. Because he'd come around to his piggery for a short time before saying he needed to go to Auckland, with no talk of an optometrist.
Riordan says he questioned why Polkinghorne didn't just go back to his room and let his wife stay.
"I could see Pauline wanted to stay, and I could see she was embarrassed, but she went."
Mansfield asks if the way we view someone can influence the impressions we take from events.
"They can," Riordan says.
"Sometimes you are wrong, yes."
John Riordan on Pauline Hanna's relationships
Ebba Strand
Ron Mansfield KC continues his cross-examination of Pauline Hanna's friend John Riordan.
John Riordan says he met his wife, known as Pheasant, overseas.
Pauline Hanna was not overseas with them at the time. Riordan said he met Hanna in Hawke's Bay upon returning to New Zealand. The trial heard earlier how Victoria Pheasant Riordan and Pauline Hanna had known each other since they were teenagers.
John Riordan says he felt Hanna was part of their family.
Riordan said the house they had bought in Freeman's Bay when they moved to Auckland was definitely the worst house in the best street. They spent a few years renovating it and then Hanna came to live with them in the early 1990s when she was doing a degree at the University of Auckland.
Hanna completed that degree and then went down to Otago, Riordan agrees, where she met a partner called Graham.
Mansfield asks about Graham.
"What I would say is that Graham didn't add to, or bring the best out of Pauline," says Riordan.
Riordan agrees he and his wife didn't really like or have much in common with Graham, because they wanted to see Hanna doing well and they didn't see that with Graham.
Mansfield asks if she met Polkinghorne while she was with Graham, when Hanna was working in an administrative role at a hospital in Auckland.
Riordan is unclear which hospital it was. He thinks she started at Auckland Hospital and "got promoted through to Manukau".
He agrees he saw Hanna and Polkinghorne begin to date him and she would report to the Riordans that she was attracted to and liked Philip.
"She saw him as an attractive partner, correct?" Mansfield asks.
"Yes," replies Riordan.
At that stage, Polkinghorne had a home in Ōrākei Rd, Riordan agrees. Hanna eventually took the Riordans over to that home to meet him.
"Is it fair to say that you were both quite different men?" asks Mansfield.
"Yes," Riordan agrees, they didn't have a lot in common.
"There wasn't an immediate hit-off, no."
But he says Hanna seemed to be doing well with him.
Riordan says when Hanna and Polkinghorne were at their house, he would make an effort to ensure things went well.
"He wasn't a natural fit for me, no."
Mansfield asks if it's correct that he didn't like Polkinghorne's sense of humour.
"I didn't know he had one," Riordan says, to laughs from the gallery.
Did you feel he was a showboat or full of himself? asks Mansfield.
"That aspect of it didn't concern me at all, we just weren't the same people and didn't have common interests," Riordan says.
"He just wasn't my sort of person."
Riordan's evidence is echoing that of Bruce Hanna, Pauline Hanna's brother, who also did not appear to have grown very close to Polkinghorne over the years they knew each other.
Riordan agrees there was always a slight sense of discomfort between them.
"I didn't dislike the guy."
Ron Mansfield KC cross-examines John Riordan
Ebba Strand
Ron Mansfield KC is beginning his cross-examination of John Riordan, asking about his comment that Pauline Hanna had a lot to live for.
He asks if he's experienced someone who had killed themselves before.
He has, Riordan says.
Did they have a lot to live for? Mansfield asks.
"There were a lot of people that loved him, yes," Riordan says.
"So we all have a lot to live for don't we, sir," Mansfield says.
Not all of us, Riordan says, but definitely Pauline Hanna.
Mansfield is referring to a message from the Riordans to Polkinghorne after Hanna died, saying they were here for him if he needed.
Did he then get contacted by Rose Hanna (Pauline's niece)? Mansfield asks.
He did, Riordan says.
The contact was a message about the massive police presence at the Upland Rd home, saying the death was being treated by the police as suspicious.
"That's when your view of things changed, didn't it?" Mansfield asks.
No, not the article, it was when Riordan spoke to Bruce and Rose Hanna, Riordan says.
He agrees they were all saying they couldn't believe Hanna would take her own life by suicide.
But, asks Mansfield, were Rose and Bruce assuming Hanna had died by a full-suspension hanging? So Pauline was fully suspended from a rope?
Justice Graham Lang interjects: "Is that what was discussed?"
Riordan says they didn't discuss anything about the method, but just said Hanna wouldn't have killed herself.
He says he had no idea how exactly she might have killed herself.
Riordan says Bruce and Rose Hanna had told police his wife Pheasant would be helpful to the investigation. John Riordan remembers saying he wanted to help as well.
He says in the time before Pauline Hanna's death, he and his wife were in the process of selling their business, a pig farm.
"How long had you been operating the piggery for?" Mansfield asks.
"20 years," Riordan replies.
Before that, he worked in Fiji, for an Australasian-owned business. He had gone to Fiji to help open a cannery, the trial hears.
John Riordan learned of Pauline Hanna's death from his wife
Ebba Strand
John Riordan says he found out Pauline Hanna had died from his wife, Pheasant, who had been friends with her for more than 40 years.
They returned home and there was a voicemail message from Bruce and Rose Hanna, which was unusual.
She went up to the bedroom and rang the Hannas back, then heard his wife cry out.
"Then I went up to the bedroom, I could tell something was really wrong," John Riordan says.
Did either you or Pheasant try to contact Philip? Mansfield asks.
Yes, his wife texted Philip and said "thinking of you" or similar.
He then rang Pheasant a bit later, and Riordan says he was standing right next to her. The phone was on speaker.
When they answered the phone, Polkinghorne was already crying, and he said "my darling wife, she's gone".
He then carried on talking but it was the previous comment that stuck with Riordan.
Polkinghorne then started talking about the police.
"The second he starts talking about the police, the crying stopped," Riordan says, and with the crying went any emotion.
"He said the police are going to charge me for murder. I didn't kill my wife."
Riordan says he and his wife were looking at each other during the conversation, as if to say "what's going on here?"
"I didn't feel real," he says.
Friend of Pauline Hanna: 'I could see there was something wrong'
Ebba Strand
John Riordan's evidence continues.
His wife Victoria Riordan, who goes by her middle name Pheasant, had been friends with Pauline Hanna for more than 40 years.
Riordan saw Hanna at her mother's funeral in February 2021, and also before that, because she was coming down to the region regularly to visit her mother.
On to a surprise birthday party for John Riordan, on October 1, 2020. His 60th.
"She was in good spirits, chatting away to everyone that was there," he says of Hanna.
"But Philip really looked like he didn't want to be there.
"His body language said 'I really don't want to be there'."
Riordan doesn't know if he spoke to Philip.
"But I could see there was something wrong."
The first time he asked Hanna about it, she said her husband was tired and had been busy.
He asked again, when he saw Polkinghorne walking out.
Hanna went out, and came back, then said they had to go because her husband had a contact lens stuck in his eye.
How long had they been there by the time they left? asks McClintock.
Two or three hours at most, Riordan says.
"She just came in and said oh, he's got this contact lens that he can't get out.
"I said to her, he's an eye surgeon, surely he can get a contact lens out of his eye."
"That's not Pauline," Riordan says. She would want to be there for the whole celebration. It stuck with him.
Couple under 'extreme financial pressure' trial hears
Ebba Strand
Pauline Hanna's friend John Riordan's evidence continues.
Did she ever raise concerns about financial matters? asks McClintock.
Yes, she didn't speak about that until toward the end of her life, says Riordan.
It got to the point, the witness says, where there was stress and clearly a lot of debt going into the business. (The business is Auckland Eye, the private ophthalmology clinic the trial heard yesterday had experienced a tough 2019, with two doctors leaving in difficult circumstances amid litigation, eventually receiving huge payouts.)
At the same time in 2020, there was limited business due to Covid, Riordan says.
"It sounded like they were under extreme financial pressure."
Back to Hanna's description of her husband strangling her once. Riordan says the background was that Hanna and Polkinghorne were having an argument at their home. He doesn't recall what about, or when it happened.
He tried to strangle her after the argument, Riordan says.
There was a phone conversation two weeks after the dinner at Malo early in 2020, he says.
Riordan says he and his son and his wife were going for a walk up Te Mata Peak. They live in Central Hawke's Bay.
Hanna had called and been put on to the car's Bluetooth speaker phone, he says.
She was really bubbly, he remembers.
The three of us looked at each other, he says, and thought "what's going on here?"
They thought something wasn't right, given she had just disclosed the strangulation threat.
The next minute, Polkinghorne chimed in on the call.
"The tone that both were using. Clearly everything was good, was the impression, which was what surprised us.
"He'd never joined in phone calls with them before," Riordan says.
'She had a lot to live for' - friend of Pauline Hanna
Ebba Strand
John Riordan's evidence continues.
His wife Victoria Riordan, who goes by her middle name Pheasant, had been friends with Pauline Hanna for more than 40 years.
John Riordan says he got on "extremely well" with Pauline Hanna.
"It always felt like meeting a family member. It felt comfortable, natural. She would talk to me about all sorts of things."
Riordan says he never recalled Hanna using the Polkinghorne name. The defence has been referring to her as Mrs Polkinghorne.
He says she was relaxed and honest about her use of anti-depressants, and viewed it like taking any other medication.
Asked if she had ever said anything about harming herself, Riordan says no, "far from it".
The last time he saw her, she was "so excited" about her grandchildren and continuing to be involved in their lives.
"She had a lot to live for," Riordan says.
"The grandchildren, they were front and centre, all the time."
John Riordan returns to the witness box
Ebba Strand
John Riordan is back in the witness box as the nine women and three men of the jury return to their seats from the jury room.
Nearly 70 people are in the public gallery.
"Good morning members of the jury," says Justice Graham Lang.
Riordan is sworn in again by a registrar and Auckland Crown solicitor Alysha McClintock resumes questions on how Riordan said Hanna was completely different around her husband.
"Your comment that she was completely different around him, did that apply to any particular point in time over the years?" McClintock asks.
The first 10 years, Riordan says, "the undermining didn't occur, or if it did, it was very subtle".
Polkinghorne's remarks had more recently become "harder-hitting". He remembers having a meal at the Polkinghorne home when Polkinghorne said to the Riordans "she thinks she's got a big job at Manukau, but she doesn't".
This comment was before the dinner at Malo, where the strangulation threat emerged, but Riordan can't say when.
Riordan says he never spoke to Polkinghorne about the "undermining" comments Riordan said he aimed at Hanna, but he had spoken to Hanna about them.
When Polkinghorne was present, "it always felt like she was being told off", says Riordan.
She would come up with excuses for his behaviour, Riordan remembers.
Ebba Strand
🎧 LISTEN | Accused: The Polkinghorne Trial
Ebba Strand
Steve Braunias: Sex and ghouls at murder trial
Oskar Alley
Here's the latest take from Steve Braunias at the courtroom (Premium).
Day 14 + recap of yesterday
Oskar Alley
Welcome to day 14 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.
Polkinghorne was charged with murder 16 months after reporting his wife dead on April 5, 2021, following a hugely time- and resource-intensive police investigation.
Today's proceedings will finish a bit early because Courtroom 11 needs to be repurposed for next week’s sitting of the five judges of the Supreme Court in Auckland.
As a result, the trial is moving down the corridor to the smaller Courtroom 13, which has no chance of accommodating the 70-plus people who turned up to watch yesterday’s evidence.
At 10am today, John Riordan will return to the witness box to continue giving evidence, led by Auckland Crown solicitor Alysha McClintock.
His wife Victoria Riordan, who goes by her middle name Pheasant, had been friends with Pauline Hanna for more than 40 years, since the late 1970s when in her words they lived on “potato soup and whisky” while flatting in Wellington and doing a secretarial course.
The Riordans live in central Hawke’s Bay and said they would catch up with Hanna when she returned to the region to visit her ailing mother Fay.
Pheasant described a dinner they had with Hanna at the Malo restaurant in Havelock North early in 2020. Towards the end of the dinner, it became apparent Hanna wanted to get something off her chest.
She revealed her husband had placed his hands on her neck, Pheasant remembered, and said words to the effect of "he could do this any time".
The witness then produced one of the most memorable moments of the trial so far, placing her hands around her neck to emulate how Hanna had acted out the alleged strangulation threat four years ago.
Pheasant said she had once held a high-powered job in Auckland, like Hanna, who was a manager of Covid vaccine logistics, and said her friend’s level of stress before her death was nothing beyond what would be expected in a role like that.
When her husband John gave evidence after her, he also talked about the strangulation discussion. He went further, saying he was 100% sure Hanna had said "he tried to strangle me".
John Riordan said he had then strongly urged Hanna to return to Hawke’s Bay to live, where she grew up, and to leave her marriage. But she seemed reluctant and nervous to leave Polkinghorne, Riordan said.
When she started telling them about the fact that he'd shown great remorse, John Riordan said that if he'd done it to you once, he'd do it to you again.
Recap: Polkinghorne produced alleged suicide note
Oskar Alley
Yesterday morning, the jury also heard from Alison Ring, another friend of Hanna and Polkinghorne.
Ring remembered conversations over dinner at the Northern Club, where Hanna said she believed her husband might have been having an affair with someone closer to the couple than the sex workers she already knew her husband was seeing.
Ring quoted Hanna saying "I don't care how many prostitutes he f***ed in Sydney, but he's not going to have anybody in my space.”
She then recounted an incident in 2022, after Polkinghorne was charged with Hanna’s murder, when he visited her home.
Polkinghorne had produced a piece of paper, Ring remembered, and claimed it was his wife’s suicide note.
It read "Dear P, I love you forever, from P”.
"I said well that's not the type of suicide note I'd be expecting from Pauline,” said Ring, who was sceptical of the note.
Police never found any note during their 11-day scene examination of the Polkinghorne home in Remuera’s Upland Rd.
Ring said she had found it very odd Hanna had left a note, given what she said was her propensity to leave notes for anything and everything.
On another visit to the Ring home, after the news broke that meth had been found in the Polkinghorne home, she said Polkinghorne claimed the meth belonged to Pauline.
"You expect me to believe that, but I don't,” she told him.
Polkinghorne admitted two meth charges at the start of the trial.
Ring also said she was devastated to learn Polkinghorne had been at a Mt Cook chalet with the escort Madison Ashton only three or four weeks after his wife's death.
She went on to say Polkinghorne had made a series of derogatory comments about his wife during a visit to the home.
STORY CONTINUES
Polkinghorne, now 71, is accused of having fatally strangled wife Pauline Hanna, 63, before staging the death on April 5, 2021, to look like a suicide by hanging inside their Remuera home. Prosecutors acknowledged at the outset of the trial that it would be a circumstantial case, but they’ve emphasised the methamphetamine found in their house, his alleged “double life” with extravagant spending on sex workers and Hanna’s alleged outcry about a previous non-fatal strangling to Riordan and his wife.
The defence, however, has noted repeatedly that Hanna has suffered depression for decades, with thoughts of suicide on at least two occasions. When paired with grief over her mother’s death two months earlier and her highly stressful job organising the Covid-19 vaccine rollout, suicide remains the most credible explanation, Mansfield has repeatedly contended.
Today’s testimony from Riordan followed testimony yesterday in which both he and his wife described a dinner with Hanna and a startling revelation in January 2020, just over a year before her death. Hanna and the couple had been out to dinner and the topic of her marriage had come up, both said.
“She said she had to be very, very careful around him because she wasn’t sure if he would blow up,” John Riordan testified. “What she was telling us was becoming more and more serious. Then she stopped talking and she did this.”
Riordan, like his wife earlier on the stand, wrapped his hands around his neck.
“She said nothing for maybe five seconds,” he said, explaining that she held the position before explaining to the couple: “He tried to strangle me.”
Riordan told prosecutors he was “100%” sure she used the term strangled.
Duriung cross-examination today, Mansfield didn’t so much focus on the word “strangled” as he did Riordan’s statement that Hanna described having to be “very careful” around her husband. That wasn’t included in his statement to police, given after he and his wife flew from Hawke’s Bay to Auckland to speak with them, Mansfield said.
Mansfield suggested Riordan, who previously owned a pig farm, and his client didn’t have much in common. Riordan agreed they probably wouldn’t have been friends without Hanna as the connector but he said they both made an effort.
“You didn’t like his sense of humour, did you?” Mansfield asked, to which he retorted: “I didn’t know he had a sense of humour.”
Actually, the lawyer responded, his client did. It’s an intelligent, dry, sarcastic humour, he said.
Mansfield went on to recount several instances that Riordan used as examples of Polkinghorne being out of sorts with his wife, or demeaning or controlling.
“Over time it got more and more prevalent and the remarks were harder hitting,” Riordan had explained earlier, pointing to one example in which he recalled they were having dinner and Polkinghorne remarked after his wife left the room: “She thinks she’s got a big job at Manukau but really she doesn’t.”
Riordan said he just shook his head.
“I think in most marriages you take the mickey out of each other, but both parties know it’s a joke,” Riordan explained. “But when he said it, it sounded like she was being told off.”
Mansfield noted repeatedly that it was Riordan’s “impression”, suggesting that the witness’ dislike of his client might be tainting his memory. Then the lawyer got more explicit in his suggestions, wondering aloud if the witness had schemed with Hanna’s family or his wife to alter his testimony in a way that might “stick the boot” in his client more than what he had initially told police.
“Do you think you read the reports on this trial and thought you could add a wee bit?” Mansfield asked.
That’s absolutely not the case, the witness said, explaining that if there was anything new in his testimony over the past two days it was because his memory had been jogged by multiple conversations with his wife after answering the questions put to him by police in 2021.
“What I wanted was that Pauline receive justice,” he said of his decision to talk with police.
“You want to provide justice based on your impression,” Mansfield replied.
Riordan again disagreed.
“Not based on my impressions,” he clarified. “I want to see this court provide justice for Pauline. I’m not in any way qualified to do that.”
More witnesses are expected this afternoon as testimony resumes 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 is 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.