Philip Polkinghorne murder trial live updates: Juror discharged for personal reason
WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT
The trial of Philip Polkinghorne, the Remuera eye surgeon accused of the murder of his wife Pauline Hanna, resumed today after a three-day break.
In the afternoon, Justice Graham Lang addressed the jury, announcing that the jury would be reduced to eight women and three men after a juror was discharged for personal reasons.
“We will now carry on with that panel of 11,” Justice Lang said.
STORY CONTINUES AFTER THE LIVE BLOG
Trial to resume tomorrow
Ebba Strand
That's all for today. The trial will resume tomorrow at 10am with more cross-examination of police forensic analyst Jun Lee.
Polkinghorne jury reduced to eight women and three men after juror discharged for personal reasons
Ebba Strand
Justice Graham Lang, addressing the jury with the public and the defendant present, says we are now seven weeks into the trial, set down for six weeks, and it's only natural personal commitments are arising.
One juror has a commitment on Friday that appears immovable, he says, and they also have a commitment the following Friday.
The judge says it appears he will be summing up on Tuesday or Wednesday. So the commitment on Friday next week could create pressure on the jury to come to a verdict within a limited time.
That's the last thing the court wants to do, Justice Lang says.
"I have the power where I am satisfied that a juror is no longer able to carry on as part of a jury panel to discharge that juror," the judge says.
"I now make that order. We will now carry on with that panel of 11."
Justice Lang says it's a big step given the juror has sat through six-and-a-half weeks of evidence but is now unable, for reasons beyond her control, to see the trial through to the end.
"The other issues you face in your life are much more important," the judge says.
The jury now consists of eight women and three men.
A juror has been discharged from the Polkinghorne jury for personal reasons
Ebba Strand
Justice Lang addresses the jury, explaining that a juror has been discharged from the Polkinghorne jury for personal reasons.
Ebba Strand
Talking to psychiatrist Olav Nielssen, defence lawyer Ron Mansfield KC again refers to the email where Hanna says "my life is insane" and that she took her Covid role reluctantly, going on to describe the pressure of work.
Nielssen agrees her personal correspondence to family provides an insight to her mental state beyond what she told colleagues.
Mansfield: Does McClintock's cross-examination move you from the opinion that Hanna presented with a number of suicidal risk factors?
Nielssen: I stand by that original opinion, which is based on my experience and research.
Defence lawyer questions psychiatrist
Ebba Strand
Crown solicitor Alysha McClintock has finished her cross-examination of psychiatrist Olav Nielssen. Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield KC has some questions in reply.
Mansfield asks who the type of professional is who would undertake a profile of Polkinghorne and his homicide risk?
That would be psychologists or psychiatrists within the criminal justice system, Nielssen says, i.e. not him, a psychiatrist who has done a lot of work and research around suicide.
Mansfield: Does presenting well mean you can't suffer from depression or commit suicide?
No, of course not, says Nielssen.
He agrees that around Christmas 2019, Hanna was put in contact with the crisis team after reporting she'd thought about driving into a lorry. Part of the reason she did not go through with it was that she was scared, Mansfield says.
Mansfield: How does the disinhibition from alcohol and the sleeping pills work in that context?
The drug and the alcohol are both able to take away the fear of death, which are why they're so dangerous for suicidal people, Nielssen says.
If someone is contemplating suicide, asks Mansfield, will they always disclose that to work colleagues, or talk about their underlying depression or anxiety?
Nielssen: No, it's quite common not to disclose it to anybody.
Only a quarter of people who commit suicide are in contact with mental health services, Nielssen adds.
Prosecutor turns tables on defence psychiatrist, suggests Polkinghorne had homicide risk factors
Ebba Strand
Auckland Crown solicitor Alysha McClintock continues cross-examining psychiatrist Olav Nielssen, asking if, when he's assessing an offender's risk profile for violent offending, whether one of the key things he'd look at is evidence of prior violence?
Nielssen: Yes.
McClintock: And in a male offender, any evidence that was put in front of you of a non-fatal strangulation of a woman, would that be a red flag for a violence profile for an offender?
Nielssen: Yes, the circumstances of previous violence would be relevant.
To recap: the couple's family friends the Riordans both said Hanna had described Polkinghorne having previously placed his hands on her neck as part of what they understood to be a strangulation threat.
And would drug use be factored into an offender risk profile? McClintock asks the psychiatrist.
Yes, that's a big risk factor, he agrees.
McClintock: And financial strain, is that a risk factor too?
Nielssen: An immediate need for money is a risk factor.
McClintock: You presumably weren't asked to do any sort of risk assessment of Polkinghorne?
That's right, Nielssen confirms he was just asked about Hanna's risk of suicide.
Nielssen said he thought she had a whole lot of chronic risk factors which made suicide more likely.
Nielssen said in his evidence everyone experiences anxiety after they drink alcohol and the effect wears off.
McClintock says it depends on the amount.
Nielssen agrees and adds it's dependent on the personality too.
McClintock: Did he see any indication of her presenting with anxiety?
No, it's not something she complained of, Nielssen said. But he adds she received treatment for depression for 20 years and did not appear to have ever seen a psychiatrist.
No further questions from McClintock.
Witness: 'Her plan was to crash head-first into a lorry'
Ebba Strand
There is some discussion between lawyers about when Hanna last saw her doctor.
It was early in 2019, the lawyers confirm.
Auckland Crown solicitor Alysha McClintock says she expressed suicidal thinking late in 2019 by ringing her doctor.
McClintock: Those were suicidal thoughts, but not plans?
Nielssen: That's what is written in the medical notes.
"Her plan was to crash head-first into a lorry," says Nielssen, referencing comments Hanna made about driving into a truck.
She was asked why she didn't do it and she cited fear and her family, McClintock recalls.
McClintock: And do you have the evidence from her GP saying Hanna had reported she was feeling better after speaking to the crisis team?
Nielssen does.
Nielssen also referred to the fear of professional disgrace as a suicide risk factor. The trial has repeatedly heard Hanna told family she might be linked to a procurement bungle in the media, according to an email she sent family dating from mid-2020. But she added she had done her best and stood by her work.
McClintock asks if she saw if that was an existing concern a year later, when she died?
Nielssen says no, but it was clear she continued to hold a difficult, important job.
McClintock says as of April 2021, she was on the cusp of a professional milestone, the opening of a Māori and Pacific vaccination centre in the week after she died.
The witness agrees this was an obvious source of pride.
Psychiatrist: We don't know about Hanna's tolerance
Ebba Strand
Auckland Crown solicitor Alysha McClintock continues cross-examining Sydney psychiatrist Olav Nielssen.
Phentermine, zopiclone, fluoxetine and alcohol was a dangerous combination. But there's no evidence Hanna was suffering serotonin syndrome, Nielssen says under further pressing cross-examination.
While she was clearly a long-term, habitual alcohol user, its effect was fairly linear and we don't know about her tolerance just from the post-mortem toxicology, says Nielssen, adding that the same is true for the sleeping pill zopiclone her hair sample showed she had been taking for at least six months.
Nielssen said in his evidence-in-chief that the combination of zopiclone and alcohol would have caused a disinhibiting effect.
McClintock: Is there any evidence of her being disinhibited on the night before she died?
No, says Nielssen. But he adds disinhibition is a natural effect of drinking a bottle of 14.5% New Zealand Pinot Noir and several tablets of zopiclone.
McClintock: Where do you get the evidence she'd had a bottle of Pinot Noir? asks McClintock.
From Polkinghorne's police statements, Nielssen confirms.
McClintock asks if he agrees the combination is not just disinhibition, but another risk is "excess sedation".
That's a possible effect, Nielssen agrees.
Earlier in the trial, McClintock raised the possibility Hanna was heavily self-sedated and on her front when her husband attacked her and strangled her from behind.
We know what state she was in, says Nielssen, from the objective facts of her blood alcohol level, and the level of the other drugs she was taking.
McClintock says the pathologist yesterday, Dr Christopher Milroy, said her blood alcohol level was not significant, and well under the drink driving level in Canada, where he lived.
Nielssen: They definitely would have had an effect on her behaviour.
McClintock moves on to Hanna's appearance.
McClintock: Would you agree depressed people show poor self-care often?
Nielssen agrees.
McClintock then references Nielssen's comments that she might have been hiding issues via her good presentation.
McClintock: But how many times did you meet her?
Nielssen: I've never met her, obviously.
McClintock: People present themselves well for all sorts of different reasons. It doesn't have to be a negative thing, her immaculate, as it's been described, presentation?
Nielssen: No, of course not.
Psychiatrist: That might be a sign
Ebba Strand
Auckland Crown solicitor Alysha McClintock continues cross-examining Olav Nielssen. He is the Sydney psychiatrist earlier called by the defence who said Pauline Hanna had several risk factors for suicide.
McClintock says Nielssen talked about her "unusual behaviour" over the weekend before her death, referencing her going to the tip.
McClintock: Are you suggesting that a trip to the tip is indicative of some sort of mental health deterioration?
Nielssen: Not in and of itself. But people who give away possessions because they've made a decision to kill themselves, that might be a sign.
McClintock: If she was taking all her worldly possessions to the tip, it might be a sign, but she was just taking some old curtains to the tip.
There was also the taking of a meal to some old friends, says Nielssen, which he understood to be out of character.
McClintock asks where he got the idea that isn't something she normally did.
McClintock: Who did you get that from?
Nielssen thinks it was in Polkinghorne's statement to the police.
McClintock: So you're heavily reliant on what Polkinghorne says about her suicide risk factors?
Nielssen agrees.
Another factor you've talked about is bereavement, says McClintock. But again, we'd need to check on what others say about how Hanna was coping with the loss of her mother?
Nielssen says it was a significant loss.
McClintock says the evidence so far has suggested she was sad but philosophical about the loss of her mother.
Onto the fluoxetine, the anti-depressant Hanna had been taking for many years. She was taking a normal dose, reduced from a higher dose in 2009.
She was taking 20mg. Is that the lowest dose people take? asks McClintock.
No, it's the standard dose, says Nielssen.
And the phentermine, the amphetamine diet drug Hanna was also taking. Nielssen said it was a risk factor for depression and shouldn't be taken long-term, as Hanna had been. Her GP said she had been coping well with the drug.
McClintock asks Nielssen to confirm there's no evidence she was not coping with the diet drug, and that depression is just a risk factor?
Nielssen says clearly insomnia is a side effect of any amphetamine medication, as is high blood pressure, for which she was also taking medication. It wasn't a potentially completely harmless treatment, he says.
McClintock: You're not here to say she was suicidal, are you?
Nielssen says that's right, not since 2019. It was more that she had "quite a lot of risk factors", he says.
Sydney psychiatrist is the next witness to be called
Ebba Strand
The next witness to be called is Olav Nielssen. He's the Sydney psychiatrist earlier called by the defence, who said Pauline Hanna had several risk factors for suicide.
Auckland Crown solicitor Alysha McClintock is cross-examining Nielssen.
She asks about his comments about a prior attempt being a risk factor.
Nielssen confirms a previous suicide attempt means there's an increased risk of up to 100 times greater risk of suicide in the future, according to the research.
McClintock: Is that research based on verified hospital admissions? What medical records were you given relating to a previous attempt by Hanna?
None, says Nielssen.
To recap – her sister Tracey Hanna gave evidence at the start of the defence case to say Pauline had described a previous attempt in 1992. But other friends and family knew nothing of the attempt, and no hospital records were produced to support it.
Nielssen says he also had the record from 2019 of Hanna telling her GP she had considered driving into a truck amid personal problems.
McClintock asks if the best time to assess Hanna's mental health for the purposes of this trial would be right before her death?
Nielssen agrees.
McClintock: And have you seen the evidence from colleagues, family and friends saying she appeared well before her death?
Nielssen says yes, he's seen evidence from her brother Bruce and Rose Hanna, her niece and another friend.
McClintock: So although there are risk factors here, the most important thing is how is she in the lead-up to her death?
Not necessarily, says Nielssen. These decisions are often very impulsive, the psychiatrist says, and follow weeks or months of stress or depression.
McClintock: But there's no evidence that before her death, from her functionality at work, her depression was worsening?
Nielssen disagrees, citing the emails referred to by Mansfield sent in the early hours by Hanna in the days before her death, saying he'd be concerned at a colleague sending emails in the middle of the night.
McClintock: But you don't know what sleep she had over the entirety of the weekend before her death, all you know is there's emails sent at certain times?
Nielssen says insomnia is a "cardinal sign of depression".
Ebba Strand
Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield KC continues cross-examining police forensic analyst Jun Lee.
Mansfield: This is not the server doing a random check of the contacts on the phone, correct?
Lee gives a long answer, and Mansfield asks him to answer his actual question.
What I suggest to you, says Mansfield, is that when the phone turns on, it's connecting with the server, and that is what the entry records.
Lee: To answer your question would be yes and no.
Justice Graham Lang interjects again. Is this process started by the phone, or the server? asks the judge.
Lee: I don't know the answer to that.
Mansfield says it's not an example, is it, of the phone randomly checking contacts. It's the Apple server verifying contacts?
Lee: Can you rephrase the question?
After some rephrasing and back and forth, Lee says they don't connect the phone to the internet in the DFU.
There's an objection from the prosecution now. Mansfield has been saying there's nothing after April 8, but Alysha McClintock says Lee has repeatedly said there was.
Another document emerges.
The usually very quiet and attentive jury is becoming a little bit restless.
Justice Lang says to Mansfield: I know you've got another witness who is sitting waiting. Do you want to deal with this witness waiting, who is overseas?
That would be my preference, says Mansfield.
So Lee will return again tomorrow, for more cross-examination
Police forensic analyst Jun Lee leaves the witness box..
IT experts explains the storage of phones at DFU
Ebba Strand
Mansfield is back to questions on the storage of phones.
Lee says that when a phone arrives at the police Digital Forensic Unit (DFU), if it's turned on, they keep it charged so it doesn't lose power. The reason relates to encryption, because if a phone powers off and its password locks, it could become more difficult to access certain databases.
Even if it's locked, if you keep the phone "live" there's a better chance of the DFU getting in, he explains.
Lee says when a phone comes into the DFU, they put it into flight mode to block incoming signals.
Mansfield asks about the look-up log from April 8, 2021, used previously to suggest the look-up process isn't linked to messaging, but is a random security procedure.
Lee says there was more testing done on the phone, after it was seized following the phone extraction, of the iPhone connectivity to the Mercedes car found at the scene.
Mansfield: Are you telling us this was on April 8?
Lee can't recall the exact date.
Mansfield asks if the entry on April 8 is a record of it being taken out of the secure area at the DFU to be connected to the Cellebrite tool?
Not precisely, it would be turning on and being connected to the network, says Lee.
Mansfield: And because the email address is connecting to the iCloud, it's being checked by the look-up process to verify its identity?
Lee: Yes.
Mansfield: And that is initiated by the phone?
Yes, confirms Lee.
Justice Lang checks he understands the question – i.e. whether it's the phone contacting the server, or the server contacting the phone?
It has to work both ways, the phone has to look for the server and the server has to look for the phone, says Lee.
Defence lawyer keeps asking about Hanna's phone
Ebba Strand
Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield KC is asking police forensic analyst Jun Lee about log entries for the Apple authentication process dating from April 4, 2021, at 8.17pm.
This was the last log entry for the authentication process that night, until 4am the following morning. Then nothing from 4am on April 5, the morning of Hanna's death, to April 8.
Lee earlier used the fact the look-up process occurred on April 8 to show it's not linked to drafting a message, as alleged by the defence.
The trial has also heard Hanna's phone was last used at 10.47pm on April 4, according to the police forensic analysis, disputed by the defence, who says it was used to draft two messages about 4am on April 5.
Mansfield, citing one earlier log entry as an example, says the look-up service is examining the number Pauline Hanna is sending a message to.
Lee agrees.
Mansfield: So it's not checking all of the contacts at once? It's not going through the entire contact list all in one go?
Lee isn't sure.
Mansfield says it proves the service does not look at all the contacts or contacts at random, but only the numbers to whom a message is being sent or drafted.
Mansfield: And that's where we disagree, correct?
Lee: Correct.
Moving on to the morning of the night before Hanna's death, Mansfield says there's no look-up activity from a little after 8pm to 4am, when he says a message was drafted to two contacts, initiating the look-up process.
Lee disagrees.
Trial to resume
Vera Alves
The trial is about to resume, with more cross-examination of police forensic analyst Jun Lee by Ron Mansfield KC.
The Herald's live coverage observes a 10-minute delay when proceedings are active.
Justice Lang calls for an adjournment
Ebba Strand
The cross-examination has become bogged down in technical questions and there is an extended period of leafing through evidential documents.
Justice Graham Lang has called an adjournment so the witness can be shown something on a laptop. We will resume in about 15 mintues with more cross-examination of police digital forensic analyst Jun Lee.
IT expert: Those questions would be better put to Apple
Ebba Strand
Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield KC continues cross-examining police forensic analyst Jun Lee, questioning Lee's credentials.
Lee clarifies that iPhones connect to Apple servers.
Mansfield: Is the Apple server contacting with the phone and running through the contact list?
Justice Graham Lang asks Mansfield to break down the question.
Mansfield: So does the Apple server make contact with the phone?
Lee: Yes.
Mansfield: And does that run through, on your evidence, the contact list on a user's phone? Is that what you're telling us?
Lee: Yes.
Lee says contacts are saved in iCloud.
Mansfield: Is that a difference in opinion between you and Shahho, who will tell us the Apple server doesn't connect randomly, but only at the request of a user?
Lee: Yes.
Under more technical questioning, Lee says those questions would be better put to Apple.
Mansfield: Logically, if the Apple server was going to do the check as a background process, wouldn't it have gone through all the contacts?
The answer is unclear.
Were there any other background events? the lawyer asks.
There were not, says Lee.
To recap – the trial has heard Hanna's phone only looked up two contacts, Polkinghorne and the daughter of their family friend (who was quickly granted name suppression when mentioned in evidence). Prosecutors say it was an automatic security process, the defence says it was Hanna drafting a message to Polkinghorne and the young woman.
Ebba Strand
Mansfield asks and Lee confirms that the defence IT analyst Atakan "Artie" Shahho does not agree the look-up process was merely background activity.
Lee says the background look-up process is to check for scammers or if a phone is compromised, by verifying if another number is a legitimate contact.
Mansfield: You say it's a background process?
Lee: Yes.
Mansfield: Why would the phone need to use a background process to check numbers in the contact list to see whether that number was a scam?
A long pause. "That's not exactly what I said," says Lee.
Mansfield says he's just trying to understand Lee's evidence.
There's some muffled discussion between Mansfield and the prosecution.
Lee is being given a hard copy of his written notes of evidence in the hope of clarifying things.
Mansfield questions IT expert's ability to examine Apple devices
Ebba Strand
Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield KC continues cross-examining police forensic analyst Jun Lee, asking about Lee's knowledge of Apple devices.
These days, detectives usually review the data themselves, Lee says.
But this case is a bit different, says Mansfield.
Mansfield: I take from your background that you're not a registered Apple developer?
Lee: No.
Apple doesn't work with Cellebrite, Lee confirms under questioning from Mansfield, but Cellebrite can try to circumvent security on Apple devices.
Mansfield: Before joining the police as a technician and later an analyst, your background was with Samsung?
"I don't really understand your question," says Lee, or its relevance to the analysis of the log entries.
Lee says the questions at issue in this part of the evidence are around the data taken from the Apple device, not the device itself.
To summarise what's happening here – Mansfield is questioning Lee's credentials and his ability to examine Apple devices, given his background with Samsung, which uses Android.
Lee says it's not relevant. He disagrees with the defence IT analyst and says Hanna's phone could not have been used to draft messages at 4am on the morning of her death.
He and defence IT expert Atakan "Artie" Shahho have differing interpretations of the technical log data and what it shows about whether the phone was used. The defence says Hanna's phone was used to draft, but not send, a message to both Polkinghorne and the daughter of a family friend. Lee says it was an automatic security look-up process not linked to messaging, and her phone was not turned on.
Ebba Strand
Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield KC continues cross-examining police forensic analyst Jun Lee, asking about Lee's professional background.
Much of Lee's work at the DFU is examining seized phones or laptops, Lee confirms. To do this, he uses software like Cellebrite or Axion Examine, alongside other tools, to clone and examine phones and laptops respectively.
Cellebrite does not change any data on the phone as part of its extraction of data. It tries to use its own application to break into the phone and then extract the available data.
Mansfield asks if the lab where the examination takes place has any special protection.
Lee says there is a secure storage room in the lab.
Mansfield says he's not interested in security, but he's interested in if the phone is inside a Faraday bag – that's a bag used to protect the phone from electronic signals, so it can't be remotely wiped, for example.
Mansfield: When you receive a phone as a digital forensic analyst, who do you get the phone from?
Lee: I don't understand your question.
Mansfield tries again, and Lee says an admin officer takes the phone and matches it to an exhibit number so the phone can be tracked. Then the admin person puts the phone in a plastic storage box.
Mansfield: When you want to examine a phone – this is what I'm trying to understand – you go to the box, then what do you do?
Lee says you need to extract the data, so you connect the phone to a Cellebrite tool using a cable. After that, Lee says, the machine starts up and the data is extracted into Cellebrite.
Mansfield: So what do you do when you work on the data?
Lee: It all depends on the case and the requirements of the investigators.
Mansfield: Who gets the phone from the safe area and plugs it in?
Lee: DFU members do, either technicians or analysts, not the admin staff.
Lee: Once the data has been extracted using Cellebrite, it's saved automatically to the DFU server.
Then the analysts grab the data using the analysing tool to ingest the data and change it into the format able to be seen by the detectives, he explains.
That's what Detective Andrew Reeves received before he examined the data found on Hanna and Polkinghorne's phones.
Defence lawyer begins cross-examining police forensic analyst
Ebba Strand
The jury files back into court and we are under way again. Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield KC begins cross-examining police forensic analyst Jun Lee.
Mansfield: Despite you meeting with Shahho at the Digital Forensic Unit (DFU) in Auckland, it appears the two of you don't agree?
Correct, says Lee.
Mansfield says he's spoken to Atakan Shahho, the defence IT analyst, over the lunch break. But before that, Mansfield says he's going to ask about Lee's background.
Lee confirms he's a digital forensic analyst, which Mansfield says is just a police title.
Lee confirms he's been at the DFU for eight years.
Mansfield: What did you do before that?
For a short time, Lee worked for the Ministry of Social Development, and before that he had a role with Samsung for years.
Mansfield asks, and Lee confirms, that Samsung phones use the Android operating system, not the iOS used by iPhones.
Lee says he was in technical support, leading a team of 16 people.
Part of Lee's role was overseeing staff answering user questions via live chat regarding issues with Samsung phones, he confirms.
Mansfield is repeatedly questioning Lee's credentials and background. Earlier this week, Shahho, the defence IT analyst, said he had worked with Apple products since 1988.
Trial resumes
Ebba Strand
Court is about to resume as the defence case draws to a close. Police forensic analyst Jun Lee will return to the witness box for cross-exanimation.
To recap, this morning Crown witness Lee came back to the trial weeks after he gave evidence. He was questioned about his finding that Pauline Hanna's phone could not have drafted a message to two people at 4am on April 5, 2021, the morning of her death.
Lee confirmed his analysis of the data showed her phone undertook an independent security look-up procedure that was not linked to a message being drafted, in his view. He said there was no evidence of her phone being activated and used that morning.
This is contrary to the finding of defence IT analyst Atakan "Artie" Shahho, who disputes the police findings and says her phone was used to draft a message.
The public gallery is filing in and court is ready to get under way.
Trial will resume at 2pm
Vera Alves
Court will resume at 2pm today.
Court adjourns for lunch
Vera Alves
Defence IT analyst Atakan "Artie" Shahho called himself an "ethical hacker", says Crown prosecutor Alysha McClintock. What did that mean? the prosecutor asks.
Police forensic analyst Jun Lee says there are three types of hackers. Unethical hackers, i.e. criminals, and ethical hackers, who might be employed by government agencies to protect their data. (Lee calls the latter type "white" hackers, referring to the term "white hat"). The third type is "grey" hackers who sit between the black and white hackers, such as the online group Anonymous, who might hack into Russian servers and leak data.
What forensic qualifications do you understand Shahho to have? asks McClintock.
Lee is not sure. But if he's calling himself an "ethical hacker", there are qualifications he would expect him to hold, such as the CEH (Certified Ethical Hacker) qualifications, Lee says.
That ends McClintock's questions.
"We'll take the lunch break now," says Justice Graham Lang.
The jury have provided a list of their commitments over the next 10 days so we can make decisions about how the trial will proceed, Justice Lang tells the court.
More to come on that after the break.
Phones work off user habits, IT expert says
Vera Alves
Justice Graham Lang has asked a question about the series of "ons" and "offs" in the Airplane mode data.
"Good question," says police forensic analyst Jun Lee.
He says phones work off user habits, so if you regularly turned Airplane mode on and off, the phone would regularly check that.
Lee says, in summary, everything done on the phone is recorded on a database level.
But between 10.47pm and 4am there was no user interaction, he says.
"So you disagree with Mr Shahho [IT expert for the defence] that this could be Pauline Hanna going into the phone to draft messages?" Justice Lang asks.
"Yes," says Lee.
Vera Alves
Police forensic analyst Jun Lee, via exhaustive references to other earlier data on Polkinghorne's phone, suggests defence IT analyst Atakan "Artie" Shahho was mistaken to suggest anomalies in the data police used to show the phone went into Airplane mode.
Vera Alves
Defence IT analyst Atakan "Artie" Shahho's position is that iMessage triggers the identity look-up process, but ordinary SMS doesn't, Crown prosecutor Alysha McClintock clarifies.
An iMessage is what the web-connected app uses for apple iPhones to message each other, which – among other features – indicates when a contact is drafting a message.
Shahho was also of the view that Airplane mode records show anomalies that somehow connect with this issue, McClintock says.
To recap – the trial heard earlier Polkinghorne's phone went into Airplane mode in the early hours of April 5, 2021, and it was only switched off just before he called 111 about 8am.
Shahho has apparently suggested there were some errors in the data police relied on to make conclusions about the use of Airplane mode.
Vera Alves
Police digital forensic analyst Jun Lee has also cited an example of a message being sent by Hanna's iPhone without the identity look-up service running.
His point is that the identity look-up process cited by the defence is not coupled to the drafting or sending of a message. So it can't be used, in his view, as evidence Hanna's phone was used to draft a message the morning of her death.
IT experts disagree on what Hanna's iPhone can tell about her final night
Vera Alves
The phone records movement a little after 10pm on April 4, 2021.
According to Crown solicitor Alysha McClintock, defence IT analyst Atakan "Artie" Shahho says one of the issues he can say is there is no log showing movement when the phone was used.
Lee says that's not right, because one of the time stamps needed to be converted from AM to PM before the raw data is extracted.
Hanna's phone was last unlocked at 10.47pm. It was then plugged in to charge, police digital forensic analyst Jun Lee says.
The last event is the phone powering down, also at 10.47pm, meaning the button on the side of the iPhone was pushed.
Justice Graham Lang: "So it's not powering off completely?"
No, says Lee, on an iPhone that requires a couple of steps – holding the side button and volume key, then pressing to confirm you want to power off the phone.
There is no data to suggest the phone being used after 10.47pm, including at 4am, when the defence says the two messages were drafted and not sent, in Lee's view.
McClintock asks to confirm that his checking of the phone has nothing to do with the Cellebrite report, produced by the software program used by police to clone devices. It did not. Lee used the raw data itself, and could not find any to suggest the phone was used at the time the defence says the messages were drafted.
Shahho's view is that the identity look-up service only runs when an iPhone is in use.
But McClintock says police have found the identity look-up service running on April 8, three days after Hanna died.
Lee confirms that indicates you don't have to be using the phone for the identity look-up service to run.
And if somebody else was using it, like police, there would be evidence of that.
He again confirms his view is the identity look-up service, used by the defence to claim Hanna's phone was used to draft messages on the morning of her death, in fact is an automatic, background process.
Trial resumes after delay
Vera Alves
Auckland Crown solicitor Alysha McClintock is recalling police digital forensic analyst Jun Lee, who was called at the end of the Crown case some weeks ago.
Lee was stood down partway through defence lawyer Ron Mansfield's cross-examination.
This witness is being called as part of the Crown case.
To recap – Lee said Pauline Hanna's phone could not have been used to draft two messages on the morning of her death, as alleged by the defence.
McClintock begins her questioning, saying when Lee gave evidence some time ago, the issue was whether entries in Hanna's phone's activity log were the result of background activity in Hanna's phones "identity look-up service" (an automatic security feature) or someone drafting a text message
Lee confirms he's reviewed some more data since he last gave evidence.
The analyst says he's met with Shahho previously and explained his view of the log entries and their meaning. There remains some disagreement between himself and defence IT analyst Atakan "Artie" Shahho on what the log entries mean.
Lee says again the logs show background activity, rather than user activity. Nobody was using the phone when the entries arise about 4am on April 5, 2021, because there's no data suggesting the phone's display is turning on, he says.
When the phone becomes idle at 10.47pm the night before to the morning of April 5, there's no trace of anything happening, Lee says.
Smartphones record logs of events within their thousands of databases, Lee explains.
At 10.47pm, there are signs of the phone being locked. To access it again, you'd need to unlock it, for example via a password, and someone would need to click into the messaging app, he says.
Lee has prepared examples of the sort of activity you'd expect to see if the phone was being used.
Part of the data recorded in the phone's logs is movement, such as via its inbuilt step counter.
Vera Alves
Families, followed by the public, are all filtering into the public gallery. Pauline Hanna's family and friends wear white ribbon badges. The gallery is about half full today.
Vera Alves
There is some further delay. The reason is unclear.
Vera Alves
News of the trial resuming was premature. The jury and the public have just been told it is starting at 11.50am following a brief session in chambers.
Trial about to resume
Vera Alves
The trial is about to resume, an hour-and-a-half later than usual due to a juror having a commitment.
Day 29 – trial to resume late after haunting surprise email
Vera Alves
Welcome to the Herald’s live coverage of the second sitting day of week seven of the murder trial of Philip Polkinghorne, the Remuera eye surgeon accused of killing his wife Pauline Hanna and staging the scene to look like a suicide.
It’s been a stop-start week, with no trial on Monday due to a sick juror, and a late start of 11.30am today because someone on the jury has a commitment.
As a result, the trial looks certain to stretch into next week and it remains an open question when counsel will deliver their closing addresses before the judge sums up and the jury retires.
STORY CONTINUES
EARLIER REPORTED
It’s been a stop-start week, with no trial on Monday due to a sick juror, and a late start of 11.30am today because someone on the jury has a commitment. As a result, the trial looks certain to stretch into this week and it remains an open question when counsel will deliver their closing addresses before the judge sums up and the jury retires.
Polkinghorne’s defence team still has a couple of expert witnesses left to call to support their case that Hanna hanged herself amid crushing work and personal pressures and a history of mental health problems. Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield’s opening address suggests these experts we’ve yet to hear from will include a suicide expert from academia.
The trial still needs to hear more from Sydney psychiatrist Olav Nielssen, who said Hanna had many risk factors for suicide, and who has yet to be cross-examined by the prosecution due to logistical issues.
Also still to be cross-examined is Sydney IT specialist Atakan “Artie” Shahho, who spent much of yesterday in the witness box, and who will reappear for questions on the messages the defence says Hanna’s phone drafted about 4am on the morning of her death on April 5, 2021, a claim disputed by the police and prosecution.
Shahho, who the court heard had been an expert in Apple devices since the late 1980s, examined the laptops and iPhones of Hanna and Polkinghorne. He found several pieces of correspondence not produced by Detective Andrew Reeves, who undertook similar work for the police.
He produced a haunting email Hanna sent herself a year before her death, as yet unseen by the defence, written in the depths of the first months of the Covid pandemic. The email, like another repeatedly referred to by Mansfield, shows her working weeks without a break and expressing despair at her performance.
“I am never good enough despite my efforts – today is the 25th day in a row – but I am not adding any value,” she wrote to herself.
“I want desperately to tell someone and cry and ask for help but everyone seems to think I’m amazing and does not want to know that I have foibles and failings.
“I have tried to bring up with Philip but he tells me he hasn’t got time to go over the negative tonight – he has enough. I must stand on my own two feet but I don’t know today if I have two feet or what they look like.
“So I have had 3 glasses of wine and a beautiful dinner thanks to PJP – but I don’t know what to do with myself. So I will go to bed and not sleep. V unusual for me – and it builds up – who knows what might follow. Have to tell someone even if no one but God ever sees this.”
Before Shahho was called, another pathologist beamed into the trial, this time from Canada. Dr Christopher Milroy. Like Dr Stephen Cordner, the main defence pathologist, who also supported a conclusion of non-homicidal hanging for Hanna’s death, saying there was not enough evidence to support a violent strangulation, he too cited the lack of defensive wounds or internal or external neck injuries.
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.