Philip Polkinghorne murder trial live updates: Evidence resumes after jury visit to Remuera home where Pauline Hanna died
WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT
Pauline Hanna feared her husband was being unfaithful, siphoning off money and was planning to divorce her, a friend has testified at the Philip Polkinghorne murder trial.
Clare Thompson had worked with Hanna at HealthSource, a service organisation for Northern region district health boards.
She testified today that Hanna had confided in her about Polkinghorne “demanding sex” in the mornings. She also suspected he was being unfaithful and she was concerned he may be siphoning off money and was preparing to divorce her.
The trial has resumed in the High Court at Auckland this afternoon after lawyers and the jury visited the Remuera home where Pauline Hanna died.
STORY CONTINUES AFTER THE LIVE BLOG:
Helen Van Berkel
Prosecutor Brian Dickey has questions about the suicide attempt Mansfield raised in evidence yesterday and again today.
Mansfield had said she made the attempt in 1992 but White said Hanna had never mentioned a suicide attempt since the pair met in 2004.
There would have been no barriers to Pauline mentioning a suicide attempt, she agreed.
"We were really close and she shared a lot with me."
The court has now finished for the week.
Justice Lang has reminded the jury again not to talk about the case with anyone over the weekend.
The trial will resume at 10am on Monday.
Helen Van Berkel
"There were lots of us working some very long days through that period."
Justice Lang interjects: "I'm not sure she can comment any more than she has?"
White again agrees Hanna was working very hard before her death, there was "no indication that she wasn't coping through that period".
After Hanna died, Polkinghorne gave White some items of jewellery and personal effects in recognition of their friendship.
White also went to the funeral home, but did not see Philip.
She was then questioned about a call Polkinghorne made to her when she was at Cooks Beach, Coromandel, on April 5, shortly after he called 111 to report his wife had hanged himself.
"I can remember exactly where I was standing," she said.
He told her his wife was dead and had hanged herself.
"Understandably you were in shock and trying to piece everything together?"
"Yes."
White asked him if he'd called an ambulance and he said he had.
Helen Van Berkel
Mansfield acknowledged such things were hard to talk about, but asked whether Hanna ever told her friend she was finding work incredibly difficult and lonely.
"I don't recall her saying it was lonely," said White. "But work during Covid was very difficult."
Hanna would be given the tricky projects others couldn't see their way through.
"She thrived on that," White said.
Polkinghorne would buy Hanna "beautiful things" White said. "She never flashed it around. She was modest and grateful."
Mansfield asks whether, despite the call about Polkinghorne being beastly, the couple's relationship was going through a good patch in the year before her death - which White said was not so.
"Things had definitely turned in the couple of years before her death."
He was disappearing and she was worried about money.
"I wouldn't call that good.
"She would often remark that 'he's back, I don't know where he's been'," White remembered.
Hanna was grateful when her husbandwould return, White said.
Hanna had told White her husband was receiving some sort of coaching to help him with the stresses of retirement and negotiating his exit package.
Did White know Hanna was working late into the night? Mansfield asks.
He earlier produced work emails sent by Hanna in the early hours, but White did not think such hours were "a routine thing".
Context was important too, White added, saying they would often go to dinner, then do more work.
Helen Van Berkel
"When we had the phone call, she was very upset, she was crying," White says.
But Hanna could not say a lot because her husband was was there - the "beastly" was via text.
Hanna also assured White it was fine, and the issue would pass, the witness remembers.
White did not know whether Polkinghorne used violence or had threatened violence: "The words she had used [were] 'if anything happens to me'." White said.
She was also unaware Hanna had talked of or attempted to take her own life before, or that she was on meds for depression and anxiety.
"She was a very proud lady who presented herself very well. I'd be deeply concerned if she'd had those thoughts and hadn't shared them with me," said White.
Helen Van Berkel
Mansfield then returns to the text conversation where Hanna described her husband as "beastly", asking White if she could tell from the texts her friend had been drinking?
"Yes," White replies, "my sense is that she had been drinking."
Mansfield: would she drink more than usual when stressed or having relationship issues?
White thinks she would have a couple extra if that was the case.
It was clear she'd been drinking the night of the "beastly" texts, White concedes.
Was White aware Polkinghorne was trying to limit his wife's alcohol intake? Mansfield asks.
White was not aware.
Helen Van Berkel
Mansfield refers to White's statement to police, where she said she never saw any signs of physical abuse and no signs of outward discontent when the couple were together.
"There were periods in time where he was very unhappy and would leave and that made her very unhappy," White said.
Were there issues at Auckland Eye about Polkinghorne's retirement payout? asks Mansfield.
Yes, said White.
The issue, said Mansfield, was that the payout was based on the previous two years of work during when Covid had hit, affecting the payout, the lawyer said. As a result, said Mansfield, Polkinghorne wanted to get onto the board to influence how the payouts were calculated.
Helen Van Berkel
The court is about to resume after a short pause with Ron Mansfield's cross-examination of Margaret White.
Mansfield asks if White had told police that Hanna taking her own life was not something she saw coming, and White agrees.
Did she know about Philip's other women? asks Mansfield.
Yes, says White, and she was aware that Hanna had participated in group sex with Philip at least once in Australia.
"So she drunk a bottle of wine and just went along with it?" Mansfield asks.
"Certainly ... there was no suggestion that she was a willing participant."
She wasn't into it? asks Mansfield.
"Of course not," said White. "I thought that she deserved better."
Helen Van Berkel
How did Pauline present? asks Dickey.
"Immaculate, She was a beautiful lady," says White, adding she would only each sushi or an apple for lunch.
What about Polkinghorne's children [her step-children]? asks Dickey.
"She loved them like her own," says White. When her grandson came along "gosh, that's all we heard about".
When Dickey asks if Pauline spoke about her husband's sex life, White pauses.
"I don't know if it was in the last two or three years but she used to talk about when he went to Australia on conference there was a lady over here that he would meet up with," White said.
"Ell, I think her name was.
"Pauline had also said her husband had high expectations for the volume of sex in the relationship."
Hanna did not like the infidelity, White said, as it "made her feel old, and not attractive enough" for her husband.
"She remarked on a number of occasions that he expected it every morning," said White.
Hanna said she would sometimes just "lie back and pretend she was sleeping", said White.
"Then he would bring her marmalade on toast."
Helen Van Berkel
Margaret White, a friend of co-worker of Hanna's, continues talking about texts between the two women, including a reference to a "debacle" over Christmas when Polkinghorne had disappeared and had not turned up to the family's Coromandel bach for several days, when a new grandson was visiting.
"That was the debacle she was referring to," said White.
Again paying tribute to Hanna, White called her "stoic".
"She had all this going on in her private life and yet professionally she always delivered.
"She never let anyone down."
"You can see in the emojis, we were very close."
White's voice is breaking and she is fighting back tears as she answers further questions about the texts.
"'Happy Easter Bunny'. That's just Pauline to a tee. Just so lovely."
Helen Van Berkel
The two women "were very big texters", said White, and would often message each other to check in.
White said she had provided police with her phone so they could take photographs of her messages with Pauline.
Dickey asks about Pauline's description of Polkinghorne being "beastly". Had she heard that before?
No, said White.
The evidence then moves onto a call in which Hanna was "very upset".
"We had been working on something," White said. "She had said to me that he had become beastly.
"She wanted me to know that if anything happened ... there was no indication during the call that he was being physical with her," White said.
But it was clear he had become "enraged", said White.
White said she got off the call and asked her husband if Pauline could stay with them.
Helen Van Berkel
White said Polkinghorne was feeling "cross and unhappy" about the level of his payout he was set to receive when he left his private clinic, Auckland Eye.
"[Pauline] did mention that financial issues were now something that was top of discussion," White said.
White said Pauline told her Philip had changed their financial arrangements "such that she would not be well positioned if she was on her own".
White said she often asked Pauline why she was still staying with him and her friend would say it was because she would be less secure under the changed financial arrangements.
White remembers Pauline telling her Philip would disappear for a day or more then return, acting like nothing happened.
"He was disappearing, things would get very tense. She did refer on a number of occasions to financial concerns at work," White said.
"And she would be unbelievably forgiving."
Helen Van Berkel
Asked whether White knew Polkinghorne, she said he had seen her as an ophthalmologist "once or twice".
Pauline, said White, "always talked about his infidelities".
Although she was unhappy about it, she seemed to accept it.
About a year or so before Hanna died, she messaged White, saying: "Sorry I can't work on it tonight Philip's become beastly", White remembers.
Pauline Hanna's friend recalls birthday dinner a few weeks before her death
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Margaret White and her daughter Charlotte had taken Pauline out for dinner in February for her birthday, just over a month before she died.
How was she? asks Dickey.
She was good.
Things with family were on a much better footing, White said.
The relationship with Philip was improving.
"She thought they were in a much better place," said White.
Did you observe anything untoward with Pauline's health or stress levels? asks Dickey.
Not in the few months leading up, said White.
She said there had been issues securing a Covid vaccine for Philip and he had been angry about that.
"We hold big jobs," said White, and they were both drawn to tricky situations.
Former co-worker of Pauline Hanna to give evidence
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The Crown calls Margaret White to the witness box.
She's another woman who was previously employed at Counties Manukau DHB and worked with Pauline Hanna.
Crown solicitor Brian Dickey is leading her evidence.
White said they started working together in 2004, at the Auckland DHB.
She got to know Hanna "very, very well".
In the two or three years before her death, they were working closely together. They were both involved in the North Regional Covid response. White was a finance manager.
Her family had once stayed with Philip and Pauline at their Ring's Beach property in the Coromandel. She'd also visited the Remuera home from time to time.
What was she like?
"Amazing, bright, capable, determined, absolutely reliable," White said.
She took hold of tricky situations no one else would touch and sorted them out, said White.
Defence quizzes witness on Pauline Hanna's work stress
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Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield and Harrison Smith have done their research for this trial. He's referring to an analysis now of Pauline's work emails, including some sent at about 2am, 6am and 7am on the same day by Pauline.
Justice Lang: "are these emails to this witness?"
No, said Mansfield.
Was her workload such that she would need to send emails at times like that? asks Mansfield.
Thompson said she would work her hours around going to the gym.
It wouldn't surprise me sending emails at 6am or 7am, said Thompson.
What about the 2am emails?
If they were happening on a regular basis it's something I would be asking a question about, said Thompson.
More work emails. Pauline seems to have sent emails at 2am, 4am, 5am.... was the witness aware of emails being sent at this time, constantly? asks Mansfield.
Justice Lang again: "I think she's really answered that as much as she can".
Thompson said she would occasionally send emails at that time if she had remembered something and couldn't sleep.
Now - onto the problematic $20m contract for Chinese PPE Hanna feared she would be linked to in the media, according to evidence heard earlier.
Thompson said they were responsible for procuring PPE before it was taken over by the Ministry of Health.
"Some face masks and PPE were procured ... it was later found that the quality certificates were actually not correct," Thompson said.
There was an auditor-general inquiry subsequently, Thompson confirmed.
What was Pauline's role in that?
"Pauline was involved in the procurement," Thompson said.
Any such procurement is done collectively and approved by the ADHB board, she said.
Did she tell you, Mansfield asked, that she'd been personally criticised and bullied?
No, said Thompson. There was a lot of media around the situation in Italy where people were having to use plastic bags for masks, Thompson said. But she never recalled the bullying comments.
"She told me that some of the clinicians could be particularly difficult," Thompson said.
Were you aware she was concerned she might be publicly criticised in the media for that contract? asks Mansfield.
No, said Thompson.
Did you know she wrote to family early in 2021 saying "my life is insane and I do not know what day it is sometimes," asks Mansfield.
No said Thompson. By that time she wasn't working for Thompson but for the Northern Regional Health.
Did she tell you she found the work incredibly difficult and lonely?
No said Thompson.
Were you aware that since 1992 she was on meds for depression and anxiety?
No, she had only referred to anti-depressants once.
Were you aware she had an issue with alcohol? asks Mansfield.
I knew she liked a glass of wine, I didn't know she had a problem with alcohol, Thompson said.
Was she aware she'd been in contact with the crisis team in relation to her acute mental health? asks Mansfield.
No, said Thompson.
Mansfield: were you aware that around April, so in a period of time just before Pauline passed, that she had been helping him with his letter of resignation from Auckland Eye?
No I wasn't, said Thompson.
With that, the defence lawyer ends his cross-examination of Clare Thompson.
Defence lawyer cross-examines Pauline Hanna's friend
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The trial has again lurched from salacious to mundane as defence lawyer Ron Mansfield begins questions on whether Hanna's friend Clare Thompson knew the couple had an accountant.
Was she clear with you, asks Mansfield, that a lot of Philip's stress at work or home related to arranging his retirement and the payment they would receive from Auckland Eye?
Yes, said Thompson.
Back to Pauline's power suits, purchased from a designer boutique in town.
Philip had became annoyed when she purchased two of the suits from the boutique.
Were you aware Pauline would buy clothes not only for herself but for husband? Were you aware she would dress her husband Philip, asks Mansfield?
I didn't get that level of detail, said Thompson.
Justice Lang puts an end to that line of questioning.
"You knew that she took a great deal of care as to how she presented?"
"Yes."
Onto the separate rooms. She didn't say they slept separately because he was a surgeon, she just said they slept separately due to snoring.
A registrar has walked across the court and asked two young people in the public gallery to stop drinking their can of V and bottle of coke. The pair are leaving.
Mansfield ignores it, he's onto questioning Thompson about the conversation with Pauline about Philip's sexual performance.
"Pauline's point was the amount of time it was taking to orgasm."
"Was this the occasion over dinner?"
"Yes it was."
The dinner, two weeks before her death, was at Baduzzi on Auckland's waterfront.
Who settled the tab? asks Mansfield.
Thompson can't remember.
Was the bill about $315? asks Mansfield.
She can't remember.
Mansfield: "I think you said she likes a wine?"
"Yes."
Have you seen her drink more than a couple glasses of wine previously?
Over an evening, yes.
But she hadn't seen her intoxicated, said Thompson.
During yesterday's sensational day of evidence Mansfield started referring to medical records where Pauline had told a doctor she was drinking a bottle of wine a night in 2013, and had done for a decade. It was the first the jury had heard of these records, which also included references to Pauline being referred to a mental health crisis team after reporting suicidal thoughts.
Was your work stressful? asks Mansfield
Anyone who went through the Covid response would call it stressful, the witness said. She agreed the work days could last 12 hours.
Pauline Hanna saw male sex workers, defence lawyer Ron Mansfield claims
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Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield is on his feet to cross-examine the former HealthSource chief executive, Clare Thompson.
Responding to a question, Thompson said they had been close friends since 2016. They both had senior roles, and Pauline was in full time employment, on a full time contract, Thompson said.
Mansfield is likely alluding to evidence yesterday from Bruce Hanna, her sister, who said Pauline was about to end a contract. Mansfield has repeatedly cast doubt on how well Bruce knew his sister.
She was at her most vulnerable when talking about Philip and the issues in their relationship, Thompson confirmed to Mansfield. But otherwise at work, she was confident and outgoing.
"We all admired Pauline and how she turned out. She was very well presented," Thompson said.
Mansfield: she really made an effort for work?
Yes, said Thompson.
Mansfield is onto the now frequently mentioned incidents where Philip did not show up for Christmas at their Coromandel bach, and onto Philip's trip to Whangārei, where Philip sometimes worked as an ophthalmologist for the Northland DHB.
"On this particular day, she hadn't heard from him?"
"Yes."
Thompson confirmed she was upset at not knowing where Philip might be.
Were you aware, asks Mansfield, it was in 2020?
It was somewhere around that time.
Were you aware, asks Mansfield again, their relationship sometimes involved partners outside of their relationship?
No.
Were you aware of the group sex in Sydney?
No.
Were you aware Pauline sometimes saw male sex workers on her own? asks Mansfield.
No, Thompson said.
Mansfield: is this how you live your life?
Thompson: do I have to answer that?
That question is reworded slightly.
"It wasn't for me to judge. I didn't form a view," said Thompson.
Pauline Hanna told friend she was always hungry but 'Philip liked her to be slim'
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Pauline Hanna's friend Clare Thompson said she heard from Pauline at Easter Weekend (she was reported dead on April 5), via text.
"She was happy. A normal communication from Pauline."
She often checked in with colleagues and friends to see if they were okay, Thompson said.
What about Pauline's appearance?
"Immaculately turned out. Every day."
Her eating habits?
"She mentioned the fact that there was an expectation for her to stay slim. That Philip liked her to be slim."
At a leadership dinner she was picking at her food and admitted she was always hungry but there was an expectation from her husband for her to control her calories, Thompson remembered.
Pauline Hanna told friend Polkinghorne was 'quite demanding sexually'
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Pauline said that during Covid, the couple had lost money in the clinic in which he had a stake, Auckland Eye.
She remembered a time when Pauline had told her she had bought two new suits, and Philip had became annoyed at her spending.
"I think Pauline felt that..." Justice Lang interjects, gently telling the witness to tell the trial what Pauline said, not what she felt.
Philip had missed out on the role of board chair at Auckland Eye, Thompson remembered Pauline telling her.
That and other issues at the clinic was increasing Philip's stress, Thompson said Pauline had told her.
Now onto the Covid vax rollout once again.
Pauline at the time of her death was head of the logistics of the Covid vaccine rollout. Earlier, the trial heard Pauline had feared she would be linked in the media to a bungle where the wrong PPE was ordered from China, amid a government inquiry.
Pauline received her vaccine early because of her role in the health workforce.
Thompson said Pauline told her Polkinghorne was very upset she had received the jab before him.
"She said that Philip felt that as a doctor, he should have received the vaccine first."
Their dinner in March 2021 was long overdue, Thompson said. It was just the two of them. They met at an Italian restaurant down at the waterfront.
Pauline spoke to her about how Philip had become "quite demanding sexually".
"She told me she was using some local hormone cream to help with the difficulties during sex."
She said Philip was now demanding sex in the morning.
"It would often go on for 45 minutes."
Thompson reaffirmed the words Pauline had used were "demanding it in the morning" after a question from Dickey.
She had told her previously they had slept in separate rooms for about two years due to them both snoring.
Did she talk about where to from here? asks Dickey.
"She said the relationship wasn't great but that she couldn't see herself on her own."
She said they'd carved out a nice life for themselves, said Thompson.
She did not want to be by herself in her 60s, Thompson said.
How was she otherwise, during that dinner two weeks before her death? asks Dickey.
"She was in very high spirits."
Pauline felt their difficulties were just another step in their relationship.
"It was what it was, that's how she described it," said Thompson.
Any signs of poor mental health? asks Dickey.
"No. Pauline worked tirelessly for the region. She worked hard. She did her job extremely well," said Thompson.
Pauline had mentioned being praised by a senior manager for her work on Covid.
"She was incredibly proud of that work."
The evening at the waterfront Italian restaurant ended with a hug.
What about Pauline's alcohol consumption?
"Pauline liked wine like many people do," Thompson said.
But at the Italian place she only had a couple of glasses, she said.
Responding to questions from Dickey, Thompson said she did not have concerns over Pauline's drinking.
'She was very upset': Pauline Hanna's friend describes her concerns about husband
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Onto Christmas 2019/2020, when Philip didn't turn up for family Christmas at the Coromandel bach.
Hanna's friend Clare Thompson also mentioned a time when Philip was AWOL in Whangārei.
She said it was very strange when he didn't turn up for Christmas, Thompson remembers, because she had to lie to his children, saying he was at a conference.
This is the same story recounted by another work friend of Pauline's yesterday, Donna Baker.
Regarding the Whangārei incident, in 2020, Thompson said Pauline came into her office distraught, saying she worried he was seeing someone in Northland.
She feared he was siphoning money away ahead of divorcing her, Thompson remembered Hanna saying.
"She was very upset," said Thompson.
She was tearful, which was not like her.
Hanna was very concerned about the money, the witness remembers.
When Hanna was paid about $2000 to $2500 was going out of the account each pay cheque. It was meant to be a retirement fund but Hanna was worried she wouldn't be able to access it if she left Philip.
Philip had asked Pauline to sign forms she didn't understand, Thompson remembers.
"She was worried that he was doing something underhand."
Pauline was concerned there was somebody Philip was seeing romantically in Northland, the witness said again.
Hanna told Thompson Polkinghorne's infidelity was nothing new.
Thompson asked her friend if she'd thought about hiring a private eye. She had thought about it, she told Thompson.
Pauline had once confided in the witness about going into Philip's laptop, and finding a photo of him with another woman.
Philip Polkinghorne is back in court in his usual spot. He was not present for the jury's tour of his Upland Rd home.
'She was larger than life': Friend recalls conversations with Hanna before her death
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"We had a lot to do with each other during those last five years," Pauline Hanna's friend Clare Thompson said, to the point where they became friends and would have dinner together.
How did she conduct herself at work? asks Dickey.
"Pauline was a very high achiever," said Thompson, adding she was always immaculately dressed.
All her work was focused on the community she served, she said.
Thompson said she had dinner with Hanna about two weeks before her death.
"Pauline was a very sociable person, everyone knew Pauline," Thompson said.
"She was larger than life ... she was a happy person."
Thompson said she never met Philip Polkinghorne until after Hanna's death.
Pauline spoke a lot about her home life, said Thompson. She considered her stepchildren, Philip's kids, as her own.
She also spoke about the challenges in her relationship and with her husband.
"We knew each other well enough that I would know if there was something wrong."
Close friend of Pauline Hanna called as witness
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The Crown calls Clare Thompson to the witness box.
Her evidence is being led by Crown solicitor Brian Dickey.
Thompson worked at HealthSource, a service organisation for Northern region DHBs.
Pauline Hanna was seconded there for a time, the trial is hearing now.
She had known Pauline for a decade, but became closer to her in the last five years of her life.
Thompson was interim CEO at HealthSource.
Pauline returned to HealthSource after a stint back at Counties Manukau DHB, in the period before the Covid pandemic began.
She reported to Thompson, the trial heard.
Jury back in court after visit to Polkinghorne home
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The jury is back in and even though it's Friday afternoon the public gallery is filling up with at least two dozen people here to watch proceedings.
Trial about to resume
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Court is about to resume for the afternoon session. Usually we'd be taking lunch at 1pm but the jury had its trip to the Polkinghorne home this morning.
It's likely there'll only be a couple of hours of evidence this afternoon.
The jury has not heard who the next witnesses will be.
🎧 LISTEN | Accused: The Polkinghorne Trial
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Justice Graham Lang during the site visit to the Polkinghorne home this morning:
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Evidence will resume again at 1pm, after the jury has some lunch.
The herald live blog will resume then.
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The Judge and lawyers are following the jury back to court. That’s the end of the visit.
Views of scenes are rare but not unknown in criminal trials in New Zealand.
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The Crown prosecution team of (from left) Pip McNabb, Alysha McClintock and Brian Dickey leave the Polkinghorne home as a man makes easy work of backing a trailer down Darwin Ln.
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Now here goes Justice Graham Lang and the lawyers for their look inside the home.
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What’s this? A question from a registrar and a cop. The jury wants to look at the laundry. Doesn’t look like any issue with that from the defence.
Remember: police found a slightly damp top sheet in the dryer on April 5, 2021. Hanna’s bed was missing a top sheet.
And almost as quickly as it began, the jury is off. The visit lasted barely half an hour.
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Jurors are now walking through the dining room/kitchen area, into the foyer where Hanna’s body was found.
It means their tour is almost finished.
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The quiet Darwin Rd alley and the corner where it hits Upland Rd, where police, lawyers and media are milling about.
For whatever reason, quite a few neighbours have chosen now to walk their dogs.
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To recap: Sergeant Christian Iogha will be showing the jury around the home. He won’t talk and no oral evidence will be given.
Jury arrive with court security
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The jury has arrived. They are filing up Upland Rd and down Darwin Ln to the home’s side entrance.
At the front and back of the line of jurors are court security and registrars.
The jurors are led single file-down the front sidewalk turn around the corner to the ally by the court registrar. Court security are at the start and back of the line.
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Jury arrives at the home in Remuera
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The jury has arrived in Remuera, at the home where Philip Polkinghorne and Pauline Hanna lived, and where she was found dead.
Justice Graham Lang has also arrived at the home.
Tall, well-manicured privacy bush blocks the home from Upland Rd traffic.
Media, police and lawyers are all milling about the small Darwin Lane alley.
It’s easy to see how paramedics initially got confused about how to get in when they arrived on the morning of April 5, 2021.
Both defence and prosecution now inside the house
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Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield and Crown prosecutor Brian Dickey have arrived at the home.
Harrison Smith, Ron Mansfield KC’s junior, and prosecutor Pip McNabb can be seen inside the Polkinghorne home, along with detectives.
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A neighbour said Philip Polkinghorne was at the home last night.
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Police and lawyers already inside the house
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Media have arrived at the Polkinghorne home in Upland Rd on Remuera’s northern slopes. Police and lawyers can be seen inside preparing for the jury to traipse through the home.
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Polkinghorne was not in court for the briefing to the jury and won’t be at the home for the viewing.
The jury is off and heading for the bus shortly. The Herald is in an Uber.
Police and lawyers at Polkinghorne home ahead of jury's arrival
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Judge describes proceedings to jury ahead of home visit
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Police including Detective Inspector Aaron Pascoe, and Crown prosecutor Pip McNabb, are already at the Polkinghorne home, along with other police and court staff.
Justice Lang is in the court and in comes the jury. He is thanking them for their punctuality throughout the trial, and giving them an overview of the trio.
About 10am, they'll travel in a coach with court staff and security up to Upland Rd.
"You're going to be led by Sergeant Christian Iogha, who's given evidence about the scene," he said.
Sergeant Iogha won't be talking, "and you are not to ask him any questions," said Justice Lang.
They can talk among themselves and Sergeant Iogha will be in the vicinity but out of earshot when they examine different areas of the home, the Judge said.
"Counsel and I will be there," said Justice Lang.
"We won't go into the house until you finished looking around."
The public gallery, for the first time in the trial, is empty.
"Please don't touch anything in the house. Don't open drawers or anything like that."
Vera Alves
Ahead of the jury's trip to the Polkinghorne home in Remuera - they are set to leave about 10am following a briefing at court - read some of the coverage from yesterday's proceedings:
- Philip Polkinghorne murder trial: Jury hears voice of Pauline Hanna as she contemplated ending marriage, by Craig Kapitan
Note: Media will not be allowed inside the home with the jurors, and are prevented by law from photographing or otherwise identifying any prospective, current or former jurors.
Police and lawyers arrive at the Remuera home ahead of jury visit
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Police and Crown lawyers at Philip Polkinghorne's home in Upland Rd ahead of the arrival of the jury, who are touring the scene where Pauline Hanna was found dead.
🎧 LISTEN | Accused: The Polkinghorne Trial
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What the jury heard yesterday
Vera Alves
Before we get into the tenth day of the trial, here's a recap of what happened in court yesterday, a day packed with extraordinary evidence.
Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield revealed a new pillar in the defence case - an allegation that Pauline Hanna had tried to kill herself in 1992.
He also referred, for the first time, to medical records he said showed she had later discussed suicidal thoughts with a clinician and had been referred to a mental health crisis team.
Her brother Bruce Hanna said he was close to Pauline and knew nothing of the 1992 suicide attempt alleged by Mansfield.
A covert recording of Hanna made by a family member, for reasons that remain murky, showed her saying she “considered chucking myself over the bridge” amid her marital strife.
There are still at least four weeks of evidence scheduled and we are only part way through the Crown case.
Here are the key points of the evidence heard yesterday, in chronological order:
- The jury watched the end of Polkinghorne’s somewhat rambling and erratic police interview with Detective Ilona Walton, where he spoke quickly and raced through topics, often going off-piste. He claimed his wife, who was in charge of logistics for the Covid vaccine rollout, felt like a “failure” over the slow delivery of the jabs.
- In his cross examination, Mansfield criticised Walton for what he said was the police keeping him in the dark on his status as a suspect, rather than a witness, while they began what would be an 11-day scene examination of his Remuera home. But at the end of his cross examination he thanked Walton for the kind way she had treated his client during the interview, hours after his wife’s death.
- Her brother Bruce Hanna was called as a witness and told the court Pauline was unhappy at Philip cavorting with sex workers. He also alleged Philip had pressed her into group sex sessions. But Bruce said she was proud of her work and looking forward to the future, including finishing a contract, opening a vaccination centre and heading to Central Otago for a holiday with friends, a trip she would never make.
- The jury heard what prosecutor Brian Dickey described as the “Longlands recording”. It was captured by Bruce’s daughter Rose using a cellphone dictaphone app at the Hanna family farm in Longlands Rd, in the Hawke’s Bay. In the recording, a drunk-sounding Pauline unloads with family. Among the quotes about her husband were: “but I know he loves me but he’s just such a sex fiend he wants to have sex with everyone” and “he’s out of control. He doesn’t understand how to control himself”. Pauline discusses their marital strife and her husband’s infidelity and insatiable sex drive at length, and says at one point: “to be honest I've considered just checking myself over the bridge”.
- Mansfield, in cross examining Hanna, said Pauline tried to kill herself in 1992. Bruce Hanna said he wasn’t aware of that or of any hospitalisation around that time. The lawyer then referred to her medical records, the first the jury had heard of this. He said she was referred to a psychiatrist in 2011, and diagnosed with alcohol dependence syndrome in 2013, after reporting she had drunk a bottle of wine per night for the previous decade. She had also once been referred to a mental health crisis team after reporting she was distressed and having suicidal thoughts, Mansfield reveals. Bruce Hanna is again unaware of this.
- Later in his cross examination of Bruce Hanna, Mansfield produces an email from Pauline to several family members. The email warned the family she might be linked in the media to a bungle where incorrect personal protective equipment was ordered early in the Covid pandemic. She tells family she has done nothing wrong. Hanna, in the email, said she had been bullied at work.
- The final witness was Donna Baker, a work friend of Pauline’s. They had both worked at Middlemore hospital in the years before her death. Donna said they were part of a group of five women at the hospital who socialised, whom she dubbed the “housewives of Middlemore”. Baker spoke highly of Pauline, saying she was larger than life, worked hard and had high standards. She recalled having a drink with Pauline, where she discussed her embarrassment at Philip failing to turn up for a family holiday at their bach at Ring’s Beach in the Coromandel. Pauline was forced to lie and say he was at a family conference, Baker remembered. Pauline then asked her what it was like to be “a single woman of a certain age”. “She said to me she wasn't happy in her marriage and hadn't been for a long time,” Baker remembered.
How the visit to the Polkinghorne home will unfold
Vera Alves
Court proceedings will resume a little early today, for a courtroom briefing where the jury will learn more about their visit to the Polkinghorne home in Remuera.
Justice Graham Lang hasn’t revealed much to the jury about how the visit will work. More will become apparent this morning.
The Judge did tell the jury they’d travel by coach and would be given lunch before court breaks a bit early for the weekend.
It’s about a 10 minute drive east, if traffic is light, from the Auckland High Court up to the ridge where the four-bedroom, four-bathroom 370s qm Polkinghorme home sits on Remuera’s Northern Slopes, above Orakei Basin.
The Juries Act prohibits the identification of current or former jurors, so media will not be able to film them arriving at the home or traipsing around inside.
Media are permitted to film lawyers and cops and the Judge arriving at the scene.
The field trip has already drawn comparisons among those closely watching proceedings to the OJ Simpson trial, where jurors, in the words of the Los Angeles Times, “trooped” through the defendant’s former home along with the Judge and lawyers in the case.
Jury to visit Polkinghorne's home this morning
Vera Alves
Welcome to the Herald’s live coverage of day 10 of the Philip Polkinghorne murder trial.
Proceedings will resume a little early today, about 9.30am, for a courtroom briefing where the jury will learn more about their visit to the Polkinghorne home in Remuera.
Jury to visit Polkinghorne's home this morning
Vera Alves
Welcome to the Herald’s live coverage of day 10 of the Philip Polkinghorne murder trial.
Proceedings will resume a little early today, about 9.30am, for a courtroom briefing where the jury will learn more about their visit to the Polkinghorne home in Remuera.
STORY CONTINUES:
Thursday was packed with extraordinary evidence.
Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield KC revealed a new pillar in the defence case – an allegation that Pauline Hanna had tried to kill herself in 1992.
He also referred, for the first time, to medical records he said showed she had later discussed suicidal thoughts with a clinician and had been referred to a mental health crisis team.
Her brother Bruce Hanna said he was close to Pauline and knew nothing of the 1992 suicide attempt alleged by Mansfield.
A covert recording of Hanna made by a family member, for reasons that remain murky, showed her saying she “considered chucking myself over the bridge” amid her marital strife.
There are still at least four weeks of evidence scheduled and we are only partway through the Crown case.
Bruce Hanna was called as a witness and told the court Pauline was unhappy at Polkinghorne cavorting with sex workers. He also alleged Polkinghorne had pressed her into group sex sessions. But Bruce Hanna said she was proud of her work and looking forward to the future, including finishing a contract, opening a vaccination centre and heading to Central Otago for a holiday with friends, a trip she would never make.
The bombshell in the ‘Longlands recording’
Yesterday, the jury heard what prosecutor Brian Dickey described as the “Longlands recording”. It was captured by Bruce Hanna’s daughter Rose using a cellphone dictaphone app at the Hanna family farm in Longlands Rd, in Hawke’s Bay.
In the recording, a drunk-sounding Pauline Hanna unloads with family. Among the quotes about her husband were: “but I know he loves me but he’s just such a sex fiend he wants to have sex with everyone” and “he’s out of control. He doesn’t understand how to control himself”.
Hanna discusses their marital strife and her husband’s infidelity and insatiable sex drive at length, and says at one point: “to be honest I’ve considered just chucking myself over the bridge”.
Mansfield, in cross-examining Hanna, said Hanna tried to kill herself in 1992. Bruce Hanna said he wasn’t aware of that or of any hospitalisation around that time. The lawyer then referred to her medical records, the first the jury had heard of this. He said she was referred to a psychiatrist in 2011, and diagnosed with alcohol dependence syndrome in 2013, after reporting she had drunk a bottle of wine per night for the previous decade. She had also once been referred to a mental health crisis team after reporting she was distressed and having suicidal thoughts, Mansfield reveals. Bruce Hanna is again unaware of this.
Later in his cross-examination of Bruce Hanna, Mansfield produces an email from Pauline Hanna to several family members. The email warned the family she might be linked in the media to a bungle where incorrect personal protective equipment was ordered early in the Covid pandemic. She tells family she has done nothing wrong. Hanna, in the email, said she had been bullied at work.
The final witness was Donna Baker, a work friend of Pauline Hanna’s. They had both worked at Middlemore Hospital in the years before her death. Baker said they were part of a group of five women at the hospital who socialised, whom she dubbed the “housewives of Middlemore”. Baker spoke highly of Hanna, saying she was larger than life, worked hard and had high standards. She recalled having a drink with Hanna, where she discussed her embarrassment at Polkinghorne failing to turn up for a family holiday at their bach at Ring’s Beach in the Coromandel. Hanna was forced to lie and say he was at a family conference, Baker remembered. Hanna then asked her what it was like to be “a single woman of a certain age”. “She said to me she wasn’t happy in her marriage and hadn’t been for a long time,” Baker remembered.
Jurors hear defendant in his own words as police interview played
Just hours after the wife of Auckland eye surgeon Philip Polkinghorne was found dead in the couple’s Remuera home, he sat down in a police interview room and, in a fast-paced cadence, shared his thoughts on a number of topics that had a tendency to stray off the subject at hand.
But the detective interviewing him kept steering the conversation back to the discovery of Pauline Hanna’s body, and eventually to another topic: how he received the horizontal scrape on his forehead.
“Well, I don’t know,” he said. “I’ve got no idea. I can’t even feel it.”
He then asked the detective how it looked.
“It’s horrible,” he said.
The somewhat strange and arguably erratic interview gave jurors in the High Court at Auckland a first chance to hear Polkinghorne in his own words, other than his proclamation at the start of his murder trial last week that he’s not guilty. Prosecutors began playing the three-hour recording this afternoon and will continue it tomorrow morning.
Police began investigating Hanna’s death as suspicious almost immediately after arriving at the couple’s home on the morning of April 5, 2021. The bright orange nylon rope that Polkinghorne indicated his 63-year-old wife had used to hang herself didn’t appear able to support the weight of a person – at least not in the way it was found tied in a series of loose “granny knots” to an upstairs balustrade – detectives quickly suspected.
In his interview with one of those detectives a short time later, Polkinghorne also expressed his doubts about the set-up.
“I was surprised that the balustrade would take a weight – shall we say a dead weight – of 70kg,” he said, referring to his wife’s weight.
He riffed off the thought several times: “I still think the 70kg on that balustrade is a hell of a weight... I thought a sudden dead weight of 70kg would have shifted it.”
He also gave his opinion, at length, on the belt that he said he found loosely around her neck, attached to the rope.
“I would have thought that – I don’t know much about that sort of stuff, but I would have thought it had to be tight to do the business,” he said. “But I don’t know.”
Authorities found two ropes at the home, one of which was in a tangled coil on the stairway. It was that rope that Hanna used to kill herself, Polkinghorne told the detective, adding that he didn’t have any recollection of a second rope found tied to the balustrade when police arrived.
“It looked awful just hanging there. It just was awful,” he said of his decision to untie the rope. “It was offensive to me – the rope.”
But the rope was still there, hanging from the balustrade, Detective Sergeant Ilona Walton interjected.
“Oh, no, it wasn’t,” Polkinghorne replied. “I’m 99% sure I did it, I thought before you guys arrived... I thought I undid that at the top and either left it on the landing upstairs or dropped it down.”
Through most of the section of the interview viewed by jurors today, the surgeon’s body language looked relaxed – although it could alternately be interpreted as exhausted or peppered with the nervous ticks of someone still in shock – as he reclined on the couch and talked a mile a minute.
He said it was his habit to wake up every morning and serve his wife breakfast in bed (”She’s the only person I know who can drink a cup of tea lying on her back”), and that’s what he was preparing to do when he discovered her body. They often slept in separate rooms, he said, because of snoring issues.
“She was cold and I could tell she was dead right away,” he said, adding that he panicked and had to use the landline because he couldn’t operate his mobile phone. “I just didn’t know what the hell to do. ... I was trying to get her down flat. As I did so I dropped the phone. That crashed all over the tiles. I’m sobbing uncontrollably. It was just horrible.”
His sister arrived and they put Hanna in a reclining position, putting a pillow under her head, he said. Hanna’s legs buckled as he tried to remove her from the chair she was found in, he said.
“I practically fell on her or something,” he said. “It was a dog’s breakfast, what I did there.”
On April 4, the night before her death, he thought she had been “pretty good, really”, he said.
“I thought we were” – he paused to collect his thoughts – “relating pretty well,” he explained. “The night before [April 3] was less, um, compatible. Everything was, uh, less friendly, shall we say.”
Sometimes when his wife drinks she gets argumentative, he said, explaining that the two had a disagreement on the 3rd about who might use their Coromandel bach. When she started drinking and would “niggle” him about something, the best tactic was to ignore her and not engage, he said.
“Last night was much more amicable,” he added. “We were on the same page with everything.”
He estimated she had drank a bottle and a half of wine – too much, he added – but he’s never seen her intoxicated that night or ever, he said. But looking back she probably was intoxicated, he added moments later. In his frequent asides, he sounded like someone in a long-term relationship well acquainted with his partner’s peccadillos, such as her tendency to get over-emotional during unrealistic medical dramas.
He did, however, put his head in his hands and sob later on in the interview while asking the detective if he could visit his wife in the mortuary.
“I didn’t say goodbye to her today,” he explained.
A short time later, defence lawyer Ron Mansfield KC asked Justice Graham Lang to end the day about 30 minutes early, explaining that it had been a long day for his client. As the jurors left the courtroom for the day, it appeared Polkinghorne had been crying in the courtroom as well.
The taped interview had followed a flurry of witnesses earlier in the day as the Crown case made an abrupt shift from the scene examination evidence that dominated the first seven days of testimony.
Just over three weeks after Hanna’s death and Polkinghorne’s interview, Auckland-based Detective Sergeant Lisa Anderson took a trip to a lavish Mt Cook chalet where the surgeon was staying. She was there to execute a search warrant, she said, explaining that Polkinghorne came to the door alongside Australian sex worker Madison Ashton.
Prosecutors have alleged Polkinghorne was leading a “double life”, spending large amounts of money on Ashton and other sex workers, before strangling his wife and staging the scene to look like a suicide.
READ LIVE UPDATES FROM TODAY’S TESTIMONY
Two other witnesses said that Polkinghorne was a regular visitor to their small apartment complex on a quiet Northcote Point street, where he visited a neighbour of theirs believed to be a sex worker. His visits stood out, both witnesses said, noting that he drove a white Mercedes with a personalised registration plate that read RETINA.
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.