Philip Polkinghorne murder trial live updates: Accused’s police interview; detectives seized escort’s phones weeks after death
WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT
The wife of Auckland eye surgeon Philip Polkinghorne had been dead for just over three weeks when Auckland and Christchurch detectives showed up at a lavish Mt Cook chalet where he was staying to execute a search warrant.
Polkinghorne came to the door alongside Australian sex worker Madison Ashton, whose phones police were after.
The scene, painted for jurors this morning in the second week of Polkinghorne’s six-week Auckland High Court murder trial, provided a stark contrast to the two prior witnesses - both of whom said Polkinghorne seemed devastated in the immediate aftermath of Pauline Hanna’s death.
Polkinghorne, 71, is accused of having fatally strangled Hanna, 63, inside their Remuera home some time over the long Easter weekend in 2021 before staging the scene to look like a suicide.
A significant part of the Crown’s circumstantial case against him is that he had been leading a double life - spending large amounts of money on sex workers, Ashton in particular.
The defence, meanwhile, has contended the couple had a happy “open” relationship and that Hanna’s history of depression was responsible for her death rather than foul play.
STORY CONTINUES AFTER LIVE BLOG
Trial ending for the day. Jury heading out
James Wheeler
In the police interview, we are now up to 3.47pm on the day Philip Polkinghorne reported his wife dead by suicide: April 5, 2021. Easter Monday.
Detective Ilona Walton is returning to the topic of the orange rope.
Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield interjects, asking for a pause.
The video pauses.
Justice Graham Lang is stopping for the day.
"Members of the jury, I think it's been a long, full day."
The jury is heading out, and the trial will resume at 10am tomorrow.
There's about an hour left of the police interview.
'How has that happened?': Polkinghorne asked about fresh forehead wound
James Wheeler
Polkinghorne is asking if he could go to the mortuary to view the body. He begins crying, rueing that he hasn't said goodbye.
Walton said she'd need clearance from her bosses.
Polkinghorne said he wants her to be in clothes so she has some dignity, rather than in a body bag.
Walton said that was an issue for when the body is released to a funeral home.
Now, Polkinghorne is saying it might be better for him to say goodbye at the funeral.
P: I don't need to say goodbye to her in a bloody mortuary.
He'd been to enough mortuaries, he said.
Polkinghorne said he used to go to them to retrieve eyes from donors.
Talking quickly again, Polkinghorne is saying funerals in Auckland are "bloody awful".
Walton says another break is coming.
P: Can I go for a walk then?
W: Probably not.
Walton is asking Polkinghorne about the fresh bleeding wound on his forehead that the attending officers noted.
W: How has that happened?
P: Well, I don't know. Ruth [his sister] said I may have hit the tiles on the stairs.
P: I've got no idea. I can't even feel it.
He said he has tried to wash it off, and asks the detective how it looks.
You can hear his breathing. Another male detective asks if he's all good.
He says he's freezing.
P: I'm shivering.
Polkinghorne has been given a cup of tea.
Walton returns to the room.
Polkinghorne again complains about being cold, and trails off, mumbling.
Police interview switches focus to rope
James Wheeler
Back to the rope once more.
Had it been used for the tip run to Onehunga the day before?
Polkinghorne thinks so, but can't be sure. It could have just been with the "stretchies" – his word for bungee cords.
How long have you had the rope for? asks Detective Walton.
P: Oh, years.
W: Where does it normally live?
P: With the truck.
W: It was just one orange rope?
P: Yeah, I think so, yeah.
Yet another long, long pause.
Now Polkinghorne wants to ask a few questions of his own.
It's about the fact Hanna was vaccinated the day before her death – a fact he thinks should go before the pathologist.
"Some people on the first vaccination have no trouble at all," he said.
But others have an adverse flu-like reaction to the second jab, says the eye surgeon.
Police quiz Polkinghorne on how wife was found
James Wheeler
P: The rope was attached to the balustrade above.
P: That was granny knots too, from memory.
P: I said to someone afterwards, I was surprised the balustrade had taken a dead weight of 70kg. I don't know whether the knot slipped. I'm just trying to think, why was she sitting there in the chair? Maybe she was standing on a chair and went off and... maybe, I don't know.
P: 70kg on that balustrade, that's a hell of a weight.
Walton asks Polkinghorne what happened after he undid the granny knot. How slack or tight was the rope?
Polkinghorne said, in his hurry to undo it, he was concerned about his wife's hair.
He said when he got her down, "It looked too hideous to me."
So he undid the granny knots upstairs, tied to the balustrade.
P: It looked awful just hanging there.
P: It was offensive to me, the rope.
An ambulance arrived, followed by uniformed cops then detectives, Walton said.
Polkinghorne said he thought he had taken the rope off straight away, but apparently not.
W: It was still there when I left?
No it wasn't, said Polkinghorne.
W: But you've undone it from the balustrade? You recall doing that?
P: I'm pretty sure I did.
P: It must have been before you arrived,.
W: Where did you put the belt initially?
In the kitchen area, said Polkinghorne.
He said he rolled it up, put it on the servery, and left it there.
As for the rope, he thought he untied it and left it on the landing upstairs, or possibly dropped it down to the second set of stairs landing to the garage.
Another long pause.
He was trying to give her some dignity, Polkinghorne said.
W: What about the dressing gown, how was that arranged?
Both arms were in the sleeves but it was open in the front, skew-whiff and half off, Polkinghorne said.
W: What about her leg position?
They were going in opposite directions, the eye surgeon said.
P: It looked grotesque really.
Yet another long pause in the interview, as the detective reviews some notes.
What happened after Polkinghorne found wife
James Wheeler
Polkinghorne and his sister Ruth took a sheet off the balustrade, he remembered.
P: When I got her off the chair, the dressing gown was all over the place. It just looked awful.
He noticed all her rings, some with diamonds, they were all on the inside.
P: So I turned them around.
These bloody rocks, Polkinghorne said.
P: Ruth said 'give her a pillow'. So we did.
Polkinghorne said he felt sorry for the ambulance people. They did a couple of ECGs, he said.
The lady on the 111 call Polkinghorne made dispatched the ambulance.
But his sister had also called 111, asking for police, he remembered.
Officers arrived about 10 minutes later. One gave him a booklet to read.
W: So I know it's hard but I need to go back a little bit more. Where did the chair come from?
P: It's from the dining room/TV area.
W: Is it normally there?
P: It's not.
In the main dining room, there's a very much larger table they use once or twice a year, Polkinghorne said.
Hanna had bought more chairs than the table could take, Polkinghorne said.
He's laughing.
In the courtroom: A man in the public gallery has his head in his hands. Polkinghorne, sitting at a bench usually reserved for lawyers, is on a laptop, not watching his interview.
The public gallery is mostly full, as it has been for much of the trial.
Hanna, dead in the chair, was looking not straight at Polkinghorne but her face and body were facing as if she'd just walked in the door, he explains.
Her back was towards Darin Ln, which runs off Upland Rd, Polkinghorne said.
Polkinghorne, once again, is saying he's unsure of the exact layout of the belt and the orange rope.
P: Maybe I've missed something.
Pokinghorne on when he found wife dead, draws picture for detective
James Wheeler
P: I don't think she was sitting all the way back in the chair.
He's drawing a picture now for the detective.
P: Then around her neck was my belt and... but the belt wasn't that tight, I don't think. The orange rope went up, like so.
To get her out of the chair he undid the granny knots, he said.
It may have been the other way round actually, he said. He might have undone the belt first. He trails off.
Walton asks if there are holes in the belt.
There are not, it's woven leather, like plaits, the trial heard earlier.
P: It wasn't that tight, I don't think.
P: I would have thought it had to be tight to do the business, but maybe, I don't know.
Maybe the belt went around her neck a couple of times, he says. Whether the other bit of the belt was tucked in, he says he doesn't know.
A long pause from Polkinghorne, not filled by the detective.
P: My understanding was that in the days when people used to be hung for whatever, they used to stick the knot up against the garroted...
W: So the granny knots were at the back of the belt?
P: Yes.
P: I remember now. When I was undoing the knot here that I um [inaudible] some of the hair.
P: I don't want to hurt her.
P: I know that I undid the knot but I'm not sure that I undid the belt.
P: Maybe then um the slouched position became top-heavy. She's only 70kg.
P: I was surprised at how heavy she was.
Polkinghorne told the detective he then put Hanna down on the tiles in the hallway.
Ruth, his sister, is mentioned. She appears to have been there before emergency services.
He's talking quickly, drawing a picture for the detective showing the layout of the home once again.
Police ask Polkinghorne about where and how Pauline Hanna was found dead
James Wheeler
Back into descriptions of the layout of the home.
Detective Ilona Walton asks where in the hallway Pauline Hanna was found.
About two-thirds inside, a third back from the entrance to the lounge, Polkinghorne said.
W: She was slouched forward into the chair?
P: Not quite.
Polkinghorne stands up in the victim room, gets a chair, and sits down to act it out.
P: I think she was leaning forward like so.
Key to the defence case is that Hanna hanged herself by "partial suspension", sitting in a chair rather than suspended in the air like a traditional execution-style hanging.
P: I thought I saw her breathe, move, sometimes dead people do that.
It's really important, says Walton again, that she understands how Hanna was sitting. But Polkinghorne is off on another point.
He is saying the belt, secured to the orange rope, wasn't tight. He got fingers under it. He undid the orange rope.
W: You undid it?
P: Yes. They were "granny knots" not surgical knots.
Polkinghorne police interview to resume
James Wheeler
Philip Polkinghorne's police interview is about to resume, being played on five screens of Courtroom 11 in the Auckland High Court.
We will be using P for when Polkinghorne is speaking, and W when Detective Ilona Walton is speaking.
Polkinghorne: 'I was trying to get her out...as I did so I dropped the phone'
James Wheeler
P: I was trying to get her out, to put her down flat. I think they told me to do that.
P: As I did so, I dropped the phone.
He was sobbing uncontrollably. he said.
P: It was just like having an arm pulled off you. It was horrible.
When the police came over, they gave Pauline Hanna a pillow and tried to make her comfortable. Polkinghorne took her off the chair and her legs buckled.
P: It was a dog's breakfast what I did there.
W is asking how Hanna was positioned on the couch. The detective backtracks. The video stops.
Justice Lang has called the afternoon adjournment.
We'll be back about 3.45pm.
'I was a wreck': Polkinghorne tells police of moment he found wife dead
James Wheeler
Now on to the gym visits, canvassed with the couple's personal trainer Barry Payne.
They went to the trainer on Saturday, April 3. She had the 9am appointment, He was at 10am.
They went to the City Fitness gym in the Westfield Newmarket, a relatively new upscale mall.
It shifted into the new mall in about 2020 from its former spot in Nuffield St.
P: "The last few months I've been going in the morning usually about 7.30am."
P said that meant he could get to work about 8.30am.
P: Pauline and I used to go at the end of the day. No more.
"She, certainly in this new job, she hasn't been able to get to the gym as much as she'd like. There's always some disaster," P said.
She was meant to go that morning at 9am, Polkinghorne said, because she had a Zoom meeting at work.
She was packed up and ready to go, he said.
That was another funny thing about last night, Polkinghorne said.
Why did she choose to go to their son's room, when all her stuff was in the master bedroom?
P: "I don't know. Anyway."
That morning he went to his ensuite bathroom first, then downstairs to put three bits of toast in the toaster.
McKenzie bread is quite big, he said. So once the tea is made, he then turns the toast over so the remaining couple of cm is toasted.
"Browns it off a bit," Polkinghorne explains.
He had turned the jug on and put the toast in.
P: "But I don't think I did anything more than that."
Then he went into the hall and saw Pauline slouched.
There was a chair there, but Polkinghorne said he could see the dressing gown was half on and half off. I could see her arm was blue.
"And I knew she was dead straight away," he said.
P: "I don't think her face was contorted. I don't think she looked at peace or anything, my God no."
He went to look for his phone to call 111. But he didn't have his glasses and panicked so he couldn't use his phone.
So he went to the landline. He called 1114 first then 111.
P: "I was a wreck."
P: "Pathetically... I didn't know what to do."
'I was a wreck': Polkinghorne tells police of moment he found wife dead
James Wheeler
Now onto the gym visits, canvassed with the couple's personal trainer Barry Payne.
They went to the trainer on Saturday, April 3. She had the 9am appointment, He was at 10am.
They went to the City Fitness gym in the Westfield Newmarket, a relatively new upscale mall.
It shifted into the new mall in about 2020 from its former spot in Nuffield St.
P: "The last few months I've been going in the morning usually about 7.30am."
P said that meant he could get to work about 8.30am.
P: Pauline and I used to go at the end of the day. No more.
P: She, certainly in this new job, she hasn't been able to get to the gym as much as she'd like. There's always some disaster.
She was meant to go that morning at 9am, Polkinghorne said, because she had a Zoom meeting at work.
She was packed up and ready to go, he said.
That was another funny thing about last night, Polkinghorne said.
Why did she choose to go to their son's room, when all her stuff was in the master bedroom?
P: I don't know. Anyway.
That morning, he went to his ensuite bathroom first, then downstairs to put three bits of toast in the toaster.
McKenzie bread is quite big, he said. So once the tea is made, he then turns the toast over so the remaining couple of cm is toasted.
"Browns it off a bit," Polkinghorne explains.
He had turned the jug on and put the toast in.
P: "But I don't think I did anything more than that."
Then he went into the hall and saw Pauline slouched.
There was a chair there, but Polkinghorne said he could see the dressing gown was half on and half off. I could see her arm was blue.
"And I knew she was dead straight away," he said.
P: "I don't think her face was contorted. I don't think she looked at peace or anything, my God no."
He went to look for his phone to call 111. But he didn't have his glasses and panicked so he couldn't use his phone.
So he went to the landline. He called 1114 first then 111.
P: "I was a wreck."
P: "Pathetically... I didn't know what to do."
Polkinghorne tells police about morning Pauline Hanna died
James Wheeler
Now on to the morning of April 5.
P said he's been left confused by the times due to Daylight Saving.
"Spring forward, fall back?"
She has the same breakfast every day, he said: one piece of toast. It has to be McKenzie bread, Olivani margarine and lime marmalade. They have French Earl Grey tea.
"Isn't it delicious?" agrees the detective.
Yes, says P, and laughs when saying he once made the mistake of buying it online.
Usually, he's off to work by about 7.30am, says P.
Hanna likes to "smooth into the day". But she was always home after him, he remembered.
"So you're in constant daily communication?" asks W.
P: "Oh yes."
How? The "messagey thing" text messages, he confirms. Not WhatsApp.
P: "We're not Facebook people."
P: "She rings me when she's coming home."
Sometimes, if she's very lucky, I'm standing at the top of the stairs holding a glass of wine for her, P said.
"Oh, very nice," said the detective.
The interview is being played on five screens in the expansive Courtroom 11 of the Auckland High Court.
The jury is watching but many are referring to the transcript.
Polkinghorne: 'She's never hit me, I've never hit her'
James Wheeler
W. So I'd just like to go back if you don't mind.
The detective wants to return to the argument at the dinner with his sister a couple of days before her death.
"I just thought it was a bit niggly." The argument was over the bach at Ring's Beach.
There were no raised voices or anything like that, P said.
"I'm trying to find a whole lot of things... what may have triggered it."
"It wasn't raised voices."
"She's never hit me, I've never hit her," he said.
W: "It's a disagreement? A discussion?"
P said the beach house is quite expensive.
P: If she'd told me 10 years ago she wanted to paint it rather than stain it, I wouldn't have minded. But it was now closer to retirement.
W: How often do those sorts of more heated discussions arise, like on Saturday night?
P: Very infrequently. But when she had "more than her quota", she could become argumentative. When she was in that state, there was no point responding.
P said he had learned "by bitter experience".
Hanna had once recently asked Polkinghorne why he wasn't drinking much, and why he was making her out to look like a big drinker, remembered the eye surgeon.
W: How much did you drink on Saturday?
P: A couple of glasses of red.
"She drinks Pinot Noir and I drink Shiraz."
On the night before her death, she had finished her bottle of Pinot Noir and started into the Shiraz.
P said he asked her if she realised she was now on to the Shiraz.
She confirmed she was aware, and wanted something "meatier".
"So that means a bottle and a half has gone down. And I think that's too much."
Was she drunk? No, said Polkinghorne.
Polkinghorne: 'I just wondered why she suddenly rang these people'
James Wheeler
Polkinghorne said Hanna, on the day before her death, had talked to his mother on the phone, which she didn't do often. She had also talked to her niece and nephew.
P: "I just wondered why she suddenly rang these people yesterday. I just don't know. She doesn't usually... she hates talking on the phone."
P: "Her mother died about six weeks ago."
W: "Oh did she?" asks W.
Cricket had been on some time shortly before her death.
Hanna's mother was a big cricket fan, P said.
P: She had said, oh I better ring my mother to tell her. Then she realised her other was dead.
P is saying there may have been other such signs of distress that he may have missed.
P observes that his account is "jumping all over the place" and then he goes back to the Netflix series they watched on the evening of April 4, New Amsterdam, a medical drama.
P: "When she went to bed, I think I worked in the office for a while."
The document Hanna had helped him with had come out as a .dat file, which he couldn't open.
So he had to use her laptop. Then there were difficulties with printing.
The interview is bouncing around all over the place.
Polkinghorne tells police about wife's trip to Onehunga tip
Vera Alves
Now a break in the interview.
W has heard someone knocking on the door of the victim room. It was someone watching the interview, asking for P and the detective to sit closer to the microphone.
P is sitting slouched on the two-seater couch in the police victim room for his first interview, appearing absolutely worn out.
W: Can you tell me a bit more about Hanna going to the tip?
P said he was concerned about her going because of the ute's difficulty reversing.
The trip to the Onehunga tip was April 4, the day before he reported her dead.
The ute's tray was chocka. The rubbish was tied on with "stretchies" – and the nylon orange rope.
That rope was the centrepiece of last week's evidence.
The Crown says he used it to stage the scene as a suicide. Polkinghorne said his wife used it to hang herself.
He had singed the end of the rope to stop it fraying, he said. Singed as in burned.
What was Hanna like, asks the detective, in the lead-up to her death?
Pretty good, P said. But the night before she was less friendly.
P told the detective sometimes when she drinks, she gets a bit argumentative.
She didn't like the way the beach house (in the Coromandel) had been stained.
P said it's a shame they didn't paint it.
"That went down like a lead balloon."
That was on the Saturday night, at a dinner with his sister.
His sister and her partner were planning to head to the beach house. Hanna, Polkinghorne said, didn't recall that arrangement.
Polkinghorne describes wife's final night
Vera Alves
P now talking about roadworks, sometimes trailing off.
P is describing the upstairs area, which can be locked off.
The house is like a rectangle, he said, drawing a picture.
Upstairs, you come up some stairs, and then there's a small landing.
The room here, that's the library. It's got a small deck out the front.
Adjacent to the library is a large sliding door that enters into the master bedroom.
There's another door, into the ensuite.
"Master sounds a bit sexist but anyway."
As we come out of the study, there's a landing, with a second staircase. Across the landing is one of his son's bedrooms.
Many rooms in the home can be locked off, P said.
Sometimes Hanna gets nervous when P is away and stays in a motel, he told the detective.
Someone had tried to break in after climbing up on to the deck, which left his wife terrified.
Was that reported to the police, asks W?
P can't remember. It was 10 years ago.
Hanna had locked herself in a bedroom one night before her death, P told the detective.
He reiterated she was concerned about an intruder climbing up on to a deck and into her room.
Polkinghorne recounts evening and morning around Pauline Hanna's death
Vera Alves
P is now talking about how the District Health Board (DHB) staff handle vaccine reactions. Pauline Hanna had told him they'd had five cases of anaphylaxis.
"Staying on for 30 minutes is really a waste of resources."
P says they discussed this and other things on previous occasions. He's now talking about chilly bins and vials.
Reminder: We are watching the video interview of Walton (W) with Polkinghorne (P) on the morning he reported his wife dead, on April 5, 2020.
Back to Upland Rd. P remembers her finishing dinner on the night of April 4 and then wanting to watch the Netflix series, New Amsterdam, a medical drama.
They watched three episodes, he thinks.
W: Which bed did you sleep in ?
P: That's funny, in the afternoon I slept in the other bed.
He's saying that in the afternoon she slept in the master bedroom. That's the bedroom the court earlier heard Polkinghorne slept in on the night of April 4.
W is talking about the layout of the home, with two bedrooms on the top level. The master bedroom and a guest bedroom were formerly used by one of Polkinghorne's children.
"I don't recall her coming into my bedroom," he said.
"Usually if she goes to bed later than me, she'll wake me up, then I'm awake for hours," he said.
"By mutual agreement, we don't disturb [each other]".
He had been away in Whangārei in the days prior, so he wouldn't disturb her if he came home late.
What was he up to in Whangārei, asks W?
P said it was a board meeting.
"It was pouring with rain."
Pictured: Philip Polkinghorne's police interview the day his wife Pauline Hanna died
James Wheeler
Polkinghorne recounts details to police
James Wheeler
Polkinghorne (P): "On Easter Sunday, I made Pauline breakfast and she had that and because it was a fine day, she decided to wash a whole lot of stuff. So the place looks a little bit like a laundry that day. I'm not quite sure what I did in the morning after that, I worked and I know we met for lunch. Pauline wanted to do something... she asked me to take a car home... which I did, then I think I worked in the afternoon and I suspect Pauline did too."
Polkinghorne appears to have trouble remembering and is jumping around times.
Walton (W): So you went to the friends'?
Polkinghorne: But I forgot to take his laptop back [on Saturday] because he wanted me to fix it.
P: Last night, when she got back about seven, we had a couple of drinks in the library and we just talked about the day. I think she just offloaded.
P: The cop who was taking my statement before must have been pulling his hair out.
Polkinghorne is saying she wanted to go to the Highbury Vaccination Centre for several reasons.
Because out there, the workers in the car park directing traffic had to have covers, he said. A tent-like structure for the guys to be under so they don't get wet in the winter.
P: The tent has to be bigger than she envisaged. So she was making notes.
P: There are various procedures which she wanted to go and check.
Polkinghorne is rambling, he's all over the place in the early stages of this interview.
Polkinghorne asked about Pauline Hanna's laptops and cellphones
James Wheeler
Polkinghorne is confirming his wife used the red Ssangyong to take rubbish to a tip in Onehunga.
He's not sure if she used it to make a trip to their elderly, unwell friends on the North Shore, to whom she delivered dinner.
He is saying the front left wheel of the ute doesn't rotate backwards so well, so reversing is tricky.
Polkinghorne confirms Pauline Hanna cooked pork for him the night before.
They then talked briefly about her work with the vaccine rollout.
Walton asked Polkinghorne about which laptops and cellphones belonged to his wife.
He said he was exaggerating when he said there were cellphones and laptops “all over the house”.
Detective Walton is taking Polkinghorne back to the day before – April 4, 2021.
Polkinghorne police interview starts
James Wheeler
Detective Walton (W): It is 1.11pm. Today's gone quick, hasn't it? On the 5th of April 2021. Thank you.
W: We are in the Auckland police station hub in the victim interview hub.
Philip Polkinghorne (P): My name is Philip John Polkinghorne. I live at Upland Rd, Remuera. I'm married to Pauline Kay Hanna and I am an ophthalmic specialist.
W is asking if there's anyone in the interview room besides them and another cop Polkinghorne calls the "muffin man" is identified. He had earlier bought Polkinghorne a muffin at a service station in Auckland's Newmarket.
W is running through the events of the morning, about how P called the police after finding his wife dead, police arrived, and W asked P to come back to the station.
W had told P a pathologist was on the way to the house.
Polkinghorne police interview
James Wheeler
Justice Lang has given the jury a bit of caution about the transcript of the video they have just been handed by a registrar.
The transcript is not evidence and can contain mistakes, Justice Lang said.
The video is the evidence of the interview.
Polkinghorne is seated on a couch wearing a pink shirt and blue jeans.
Detective Walton is sat at a right angle to him in a chair.
We will use W for Detective Walton and P for Polkinghorne to cover who is speaking.
Polkinghorne police interview to be shown
James Wheeler
The Crown has recalled Detective Sergeant Ilona Walton.
Auckland Crown solicitor Alysha McClintock is asking Walton about a video interview she conducted on the afternoon of April 5, 2021.
That morning, Polkinghorne had called 111 to report his wife's death, he said by suicide.
Now, the Crown is about to play Walton's interview with Polkinghorne, at College Hill Police Station in central Auckland.
It is two hours, 45 minutes long, with the breaks removed.
PI, Pauline Hanna, communicate over 'infidelity investigation'
James Wheeler
In the form, Pauline Hanna said she had lost her cellphone and was in the process of replacing it. She wanted to make an appointment to come to see someone about an infidelity investigation.
Pollock said he replied to the website form, saying he would recommend conducting surveillance as a first step.
She said she could not reply properly because she was on her Middlemore work email.
He replied, saying they would need to speak on the phone or in person.
Hanna replied, asking for the day and time for a call.
Pollock said he was free that afternoon for a call.
Hanna asked if 4.30pm was suitable.
He said yes, Hanna said thank you, but he didn't receive that call at 4.30pm, or ever.
Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield had one question in cross-examination, just confirming the witness never met with Hanna.
He confirms he did not. The PI is free to go.
Pauline Hanna asked private investigator to conduct 'infidelity investigation'
James Wheeler
The Crown has called Jacob Torensen Pollock, a private investigator.
Pollock works for a firm called The Investigators NZ.
Pollock is a young man with a law degree and a gravelly voice.
Pauline Hanna made an inquiry via The Investigators' website.
"She wanted to arrange a meeting to conduct an infidelity investigation on her husband," Pollock said.
In the inquiry, she said she preferred not to give out too many details because she was on a work email.
She said she'd call about 4.30pm but Pollock said he never heard from her again.
The contact was made Monday, July 20, 2020.
Trial resumes after break
James Wheeler
We are about to resume the third session on day eight of Philip Polkinghorne's trial.
Polkinghorne attended body corp meetings as Philip John
Vera Alves
Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield will now begin his cross-examination of Myra Riddington.
"You must have a very beautiful garden do you?" Mansfield asks.
"I do, thank you. It's very large," Riddington replies.
Her garden encompasses much of Melrose Court and extends into the land of the neighbouring body corp.
Now on to the issue raised at the body corp re Riddington's irrigation scheme.
Alaria gets confused, says Riddington.
"We've never had an irrigation system," the witness says.
Mansfield asks if there was a dispute between Riddington and Alaria. Yes there was, the witness says.
Riddington said the fact it was raised at the body corp meeting didn't annoy her. But it was hard when someone was confused about such a matter, the witness said.
She wanted the irrigation system, which did not exist, to extend to her vegetable garden, which neighbours had encouraged her to keep.
Polkinghorne was at the meeting, under the name Philip John, as her proxy.
"Dr Polkinghorne was he there to help her express her opinion?" Mansfield asks.
"Yeah," Riddington says.
Was he there more like once a week? the defence lawyer asks.
No, it was more frequent, said Riddington.
That ends the evidence of Myra Riddington.
Justice Graham Lang is taking lunch early.
Court resumes at 2pm.
Trial resumes after brief pause in proceedings
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The jury is back after a brief pause in proceedings. As this blog observed before, nothing can be reported from discussions when a court goes into chambers without permission from a judge, though the media can remain in court.
Crown solicitor Brian Dickey has a few more questions for the witness, Myra Riddington.
"How long would RETINA's visits to Rachel aka Alaria last at Melrose Court?" Dickey asked.
"Well over an hour," Riddington replies.
Justice Lang interjects: "Don't say what other people have told you."
"Was there any pattern to the days or times he would visit?" Dickey asks.
"Generally in the day," says Riddington. "Between 10 and 2 or something," she said.
"Were there other day visitors to Rachel's apartment?" Dickey asks.
"Yes," says Riddington, adding that "she had regular male visitors".
What sort of numbers of visitors, asks the former Auckland Crown solicitor?
"I would say about five that I noted myself," Riddington says.
Did any overlap in time? No, different times, definitely.
Did Rachel leave the address during work hours?
No, she's very much in her home, Riddington says.
Another neighbour talks of seeing RETINA around North Shore apartment complex
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The Crown calls Myra Riddington to the witness box.
Riddington is another neighbour from the block of apartments in Church St, Melrose Court, where Polkinghorne was observed visiting a woman.
Crown solicitor Brian Dickey is asking if she knew Rachel/Alaria.
Riddington said she knew her first as Rachel, before the woman asked to be called Alaria.
How long had she been living there, asks Dickey?
At least 12 years, says Riddington.
"I used to see a lot of her in the early years. She'd often come over when she was upset."
On to the RETINA Mercedes.
Riddington reckons the visits were more frequent than Masters thought and over a longer period, around four times a week over 18 months to two years.
"He was a terrible driver, terrible at parking and nearly ran into me."
Polkinghorne, seated beside a security guard, is laughing along with the public gallery at that comment.
He came to two body corporate meetings, Riddington said.
"Rachel had a number of clients. Some of them were very nice and friendly. I'd often be in the garden and they might chat about the garden."
Riddington is maintaining she saw RETINA at least four times a week.
She would say hello to RETINA if she walked past. But she wasn't introduced until a body corporate meeting, where he was there as a proxy for Alaria, and introduced himself as "Philip John".
Rachel, later Alaria, had a theory Riddington had been paid thousands by the body corp to install an irrigation system.
"We don't need to be involved in the particular issue," says Dickey, to more laughs.
"He's a man who likes to stand out. He'd come with champagne and gifts for her," Riddington remembers.
In particular, she remembered him arriving in scrubs and a hat.
Riddington was annoyed at his gifts of alcohol to Rachel / Alaria, because he was a professional man, she was an alcoholic, and she should know better, in the witnesses view.
"Champagne, you know, alcohol, she wouldn't refuse."
At the second body corporate meeting, RETINA spent the night on his phone.
The meeting was the Wednesday before Hanna died.
Did he speak, asks Dickey? "Not really, he was sort of involved with his phone," said Riddinton.
What was the vehicle with the RETINA plate? Riddington is not sure. But sometimes he came in a red ute as well.
Earlier, the trial heard Polkinghorne and Hanna had a red Ssangyong ute. She used it to make a trip to the tip in South Auckland the day before she died.
RETINA and Alaria would often wander into the garden, Riddington remembered.
Mansfield cross-examines witness who reveals to be a former cop
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Ron Mansfield KC is beginning his cross-examination of Rob Masters.
"Your neighbour told you that she thought Rachel was a sex worker?" Mansfield asks.
"Yes," confirms Masters. He says Melrose Court used to be a motel but has since been converted into a number of apartments.
Master's apartment is two-bedroom, about 60sq m. All are about the same.
Rachel had two sons who did not live with her, but they would visit sporadically, Masters agreed.
"It sounds like the neighbourhood watch is quite strong in your apartment, given your careful observations?" asks Mansfield.
Masters has revealed he used to be a cop, and served for almost 20 years.
"It must have become apparent to you that Dr Polkinghorne knew Rachel and well enough to try and help her out with the body corporate issues?" Mansfield asks.
Yes, confirms Masters.
At the body corporate, asks Mansfield, he was helping her put forward issues important to her?
Yes, Masters replies.
Mansfield moves on to the bags. "You described them as fancy bags, are you just meaning cardboard bags you might get from a luxury or designer store?"
Yes, confirms Masters.
"You couldn't see inside the bag though, could you?" asks Mansfield?
No, says the ex-cop.
Were you aware Polkinghorne met Rachel when she took her son into his clinic for eye treatment?
No, said Masters.
Were you aware she was struggling financially?
No.
Certainly at the body corp meeting, he appeared interested in helping her?
Yes.
And they got on well?
Yes.
"Thank you," said Mansfield, ending his cross-examination.
Polkinghorne's car routinely seen outside North Shore apartment, witness says
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The Crown has called a man called Rob Masters, who was living in a unit in Northcote Pt's Church St. The property is called Melrose Court.
He was living in the block of 12 apartments in the North Shore at the time.
Prosecutor Brian Dickey is asking about activity he had observed relating to a vehicle with the number plate RETINA.
The trial heard earlier Polkinghorne drove a white Mercedes with that plate. He is a retired eye surgeon.
Masters said he first saw the car about 2019.
He came to realise its relevance when the story of Hanna's death broke in the media.
The car with the RETINA plate was a white Mercedes, Masters confirmed.
"It would be visiting Melrose Court at least on a weekly basis," Masters said, adding it was sometimes more often than weekly.
Masters is a part-time personal trainer. He'd quite often be out in the driveway doing his training, and would see the white Mercedes arrive.
Always the same male driver, said Masters. Did he ever meet the person? he was asked.
A couple of times, Masters replied. He came to the apartment AGM once. And another time, perhaps in the driveway.
The driver was white, grey hair, sometimes wearing glasses, 60+ years of age at the time.
He was introduced at a body corp AGM as "Philip John".
He was visiting apartment four in Melrose Court, an upstairs apartment.
A woman would come out on to the balcony as he walked up the stairs.
Her name was Rachel, or Alaria. She went by both names, Masters said. He knew her "just as a neighbour".
She had a Greek-sounding name "Papa – Consta – something along those lines," said Masters.
She was white, in her early to mid 50s. Slight build. Height 170, 175cm at the absolute maximum. Long blonde-ish, greyish hair.
Hard to put a frequency to the visits, says Masters. There would be times where you'd go out, see the car and think "Oh RETINA's here". But he was a consistent visitor over 18 months or so.
Masters said he'd train about 4pm to 4.30pm. RETINA would visit around then. He would stay an hour or an hour-and-a-half, sometimes longer, Masters said.
"It wouldn't be an overnight thing or anything like that. He'd be there for a couple of hours."
He would have alcohol, champagne, or sometimes a bag of women's clothing or underwear, Masters said.
He remembered RETINA carrying the underwear in a "fancy bag" not a "Farmers bag".
"He was a well-dressed man. He always had nice clothes on."
Once he turned up wearing doctor's scrubs, Masters remembered. "It stood out."
Did he visit during lockdown?
Not during Level Four. But on the first day we went to Level Three, there was RETINA, said Masters.
"It was definitely the day after, because it was like, oh yep, that didn't take long."
Laughs from the gallery. Polkinghorne is stony-faced.
He was at the body corp meeting and spoke on behalf of the owner of unit four.
The owner, Rachel aka Alaria, was not very confident and a big environment there was hard for her, Masters said.
Polkinghorne put something forward that she wanted to raise, he remembered.
Were there other visitors to this unit? he was asked. Yes, at least two other regular visitors, Masters replied.
But RETINA was the most frequent.
Were you aware of Rachel's work, asks Brian Dickey?
"My understanding was Rachel was a sex worker," Masters said.
When the story broke of Hanna's death, the neighbours no longer saw the RETINA vehicle.
But what about the lead-up to the death? He couldn't say.
Trial resumes
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The jury is back.
They've asked a question: what was the date of the Mt Cook search warrant?
Well, said Justice Lang, it was executed on April 30, 2021. The date written on the warrant is not yet in evidence, said the judge.
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The Philip Polkinghorne murder trial will resume shortly but the jury has not heard who is up next.
The couple's personal trainer and a detective who raided the "Matariki Room" of a Mt Cook chalet the accused shared with an Australian escort were the main events of a frenetic morning of evidence.
The escort, Madison Ashton, refused to hand over the Pin codes to her two cell phones, the jury heard.
There has been no evidence yet on whether the digital forensic unit was able to crack her personal phone or the escort's work phone.
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Justice Lang is taking the morning break early after a dramatic morning of high-tempo evidence.
Defence lawyer cross-examines officer who seized escort's phone, asks about unrelated incident
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Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield is now going to cross-examine Detective Senior Sergeant Lisa Jane Anderson, of Auckland City CIB.
"Just to change the topic entirely, I understand you were involved with investigations on 16 April, 2021?" Mansfield asks.
"Correct," Anderson says.
That was a warrant for an address in Nihill Cres, Mission Bay.
That's the address of Polkinghorne's sister Ruth, where he was staying while police conducted their lengthy scene examination of his Remuera home.
Anderson was there to seize shoes. That was because of shoe prints found on a tipped-over ottoman in Hanna's bedroom.
One footprint had been linked to Hanna. Police were trying to see if the other footprint could be linked to Polkinghorne.
Police took his black-and-white sneakers after visiting the Nihill Cres home. Polkinghorne was co-operative.
Another police officer compared the sneaker's footprint to the footprint on the ottoman. It was similar.
No more questions from Mansfield, who did not ask anything about the raid on the Mt Cook chalet where his client was spending time with Madison Ashton.
Police detail raid on Polkinghorne's Mt Cook chalet he shared with escort days after wife's death
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The Crown calls Detective Senior Sergeant Lisa Jane Anderson, of the Auckland City Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB).
She travelled to a property in Mt Cook Village in the South Island where Polkinghorne and his girlfriend Madison Ashton were staying, after Hanna's death.
They were at the Mt Cook Lakeside retreat on the date of her visit, on April 30. Anderson had a warrant for their lodge.
She was there to seize Ashton's phone.
Two detectives from Christchurch were with her.
Brian Dickey is leading Anderson's evidence.
A white Toyota vehicle was there. Polkinghorne and his escort companion had a standalone unit, called the Matariki Room.
Polkinghorne had hired the white Toyota.
They went to the front door. Polkinghorne opened the door and they showed their police IDs.
"We advised Mr Polkinghorne we were at the address to execute a search warrant. And we went inside," Anderson said.
The detective explained they were there to seize the Australian escort's phone.
Anderson spoke with Ashton to establish her identity.
"We explained to Ashton why we were there, to seize her phone."
She pointed to it on a counter.
Polkinghorne and Ashton were advised they were being detained for the purposes of a search warrant.
Her detective colleague seized the phone. Then it emerged a second phone belonging to Ashton was there. It was a work phone, Ashton told the detectives. It too was seized.
Both phones were password-protected.
They asked Ashton for her Pin number.
"She declined to provide the Pin numbers," Anderson said.
Both phones were then secured in Faraday bags, a small bag that electronic devices go into that protects their electronic integrity, Anderson said.
The detectives left the lodge and returned to Christchurch.
'He was devastated. He loved Hanna,' witness said in statement
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Now a witness' statement is going to be read by a registrar.
This witness, John Garland Norton, has since died after giving his police statement.
His partner Graham had treatment from Philip Polkinghorne many years ago and the couple became and remained close friends.
The couple were unwell in the lead-up to Hanna's death. They did not see her much, but she bought them food on April 4, the day before she was found dead.
She arrived at their North Shore apartment out of the blue. She had not phoned to tell the unwell couple she had come.
Hanna had bought uncooked lamb shanks.
"She seemed as she always did, glamorous, beautiful, bubbly," Norton's statement said.
She was wearing a chequered dress suit.
Polkinghorne turned up at their apartment on the Tuesday after Hanna's death.
He was devastated. He loved Hanna, Norton remembered.
Hanna and Polkinghorne never talked about their relationship with each other.
On the Tuesday, Polkinghorne had started to talk about the death, but Norton cut him off.
They did not want to hear those details, Norton said.
Defence cross-examines nurse
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Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield is cross-examining registered nurse Pelenaise Latu.
"It seems like a long time ago that we were that worried about Covid, even thoug it's still here, but on 5 April 2021, so that weekend of Easter, were you guys working quite hard in the vaccination centres," asks Mansfield.
"Yes," said Latu.
When Latu spoke to the police, she told them Pauline Hanna looked different, more casual and with less makeup.
"Is this the same question that was being asked before?" said Latu.
Yes said Mansfield, we do that.
Latu remembered Hanna, a DHB manager, taking pride in her appearance during the work week.
Latu said she didn't remember Hanna suffering a bruise, because she didn't see her again after the dose.
Nurse who vaccinated Hanna gives evidence
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The Crown has called Pelenaise Latu, a registered nurse.
She worked for Counties Manukau DHB in April 2021.
At the time, she was involved in the Covid vaccine rollout.
She knew Hanna from her role in the vaccination programme.
She administered the vaccine to Hanna on April 4, 2021. She remembered seeing her before then and she always seemed professional and well dressed. She was more casual on the Sunday when Latu gave her the vaccine.
She administered the Covid-19 vaccination at the Highbrook vaccination centre, which was very busy at the time.
She was giving 300 to 500 doses per day, Latu remembered.
She came in around lunchtime on April 4.
What does she mean by her looking more casual, asks prosecutor Pip McNabb?
Just less formal than during the work week.
Latu asked her if she was well enough for her second dose. Hanna said she was, and received her second dose. Latu said she had not spoken to Hanna before this.
She spent less than three minutes with her on April 4, she remembered.
There were no injuries or marks on her body. Hanna went to the recovery area after receiving her dose, where she waited for 20 minutes. That ended Latu's involvement with her.
'She is gone Barry, she's gone': Personal trainer recalls moment he found out about Hanna's death
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Polkinghorne sent a message to personal trainer Barry Payne organising a session a few days before Hanna's death.
"Hi Barry I am on fire, Intent to break every record. I will be there at 9."
The message went on to say his wife would be there after him unless there was "any disaster on the viral front".
He turned up, trained all through the session and did not show any signs at all of drug use. The Crown has said Polkinghorne was a heavy meth user.
They then had a chat about the session planned for Monday.
He later told police it was initially not going to work, but they were good clients and he made time.
Then, Hanna made her session earlier, before Philip, the opposite to what was planned. That was because she had a work-related meeting on that Easter weekend.
They both seemed normal and quite happy with each other, Payne agreed.
"Nothing untoward between them?" asks Mansfield.
"Not that I saw, no."
The last thing Hanna said to Payne was something like thanks Barry, that was a good workout, see you Monday.
On Sunday he got a message from Polkinghorne confirming Hanna would come in first followed by him.
On Monday April 5, around 8.30am, Payne was at home getting ready to get out the door and see Hanna.
At 8.36am he received a call from Polkinghorne.
The first thing he said was "She's dead, she's dead."
What was the tone of voice.
"It was heart breaking. Wailing, almost."
Payne had never heard Polkinghorne sound so distraught, and thought he was joking.
But Polkinghorne confirmed he wasn't joking.
"She is gone Barry, she's gone," Payne remembered.
Polkinghorne then told Payne she had taken her own life by hanging herself, he remembered.
"I was quite stunned."
Polkinghorne told Payne he wasn't able to do anything but weep, though he promised to keep in touch.
After he was charged more than a year after Hanna's death, Polkinghorne appeared in court and was granted bail. One of his bail conditions was not to talk to Payne, because the personal trainer was going to give evidence at this trial. He has not been in touch.
Payne said he thought he made clear to the police Hanna was under pressure from his work.
Silence has descended over the court before the next witness is called.
Personal trainer contradicts evidence of family friend - says Polkinghorne wasn't weird or erratic
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Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield is now cross-examining the couple's personal trainer, Barry Payne.
Payne confirmed that a lot of his clients were older, 50s to 70s.
Each training session is about an hour, he said.
He'd been training Polkinghorne for 15 years. A long time, Payne agreed.
The couple had ran through all the things they'd done in life.
They were very much into keeping fit. Payne's motto, he agreed, was "use it or lose it".
"Sounds like something we should all take a note of," says Mansfield.
They were also keen watchers of their diets, Payne said.
"We'd go over various ways of eating," said Payne.
"You can't train it all off."
A lot of chat about diets, which amounts to rubbish in, rubbish out.
Hanna always had herself groomed well.
Payne, as with family friend Stephen MacIntyre yesterday, is describing Polkinghorne losing weight about 2017 or 2018. He lost about 8kg.
"He was training quite well but as I say you had to diet to get it off rather than train it off."
"You'd be pretty chuffed with that outcome?"
"Absolutely."
They had a bit of friendly competition about how many push ups they could do.
Once he shed the pounds he didn't seem to bulk up much, staying pretty trim.
Was Hanna ever bothered about her constant lateness?
"Sometimes a bit guilty. But to do it time after time, how guilty could he have really been?" Payne asked. "I've never had anyone who's like that."
That said, they got along famously, Payne said.
Would she talk about her work? Sometimes. She was working hard "on the Covid thing" and sometimes had to rush away, Payne remembered.
Mansfield asked if her work was a strain on her?
"I thought it was. She seemed ... haggard is not the word... but run down, I would say," Payne said.
Two years before she died, Payne was training Polkinghorne two to three times a week, Payne agreed.
Did you see any signs of drug use?
"I didn't," Payne said.
He'd seen lots of drug taking around gyms, Payne said. The eye surgeon gave no signs or symptoms of being on drugs, in Payne's view.
Unlike the family friend yesterday, Stephen MacIntyre, Payne said he did not notice a behavioural change.
He was not manic, did not "turn into a weirdo" and was not erratic, Payne agreed.
'It was a bit grim': Couple's personal trainer takes the stand
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Barry John Payne, occupation personal trainer (PT). He has worked as a PT for more than 25 years and is based out of City Fitness in the Newmarket area.
He first began training the doctor about 15 years ago, and started training Pauline eight years ago.
"I didn't train them together, generally couples don't work that well training together."
He trained them both about twice a week and he'd sometimes see them one after the other.
Payne looks to be in his 60s or 70s. His evidence is being led by Pip McNabb, the young prosecutor assisting Auckland Crown solicitor Alsyha McClintock and former Crown solicitor Brian Dickey on the front bench during the Crown.
"Did you see them interact as a couple?" McNabb asks.
Yes, said Payne.
"Generally they would get on fairly well, conversations would be normal," he said.
Did you ever see them when things weren't so good? McNabb asks.
Yes, said Payne, sometimes there might be a tiff. But they seemed quite fond of each other.
"That's what you have to deal with in this sort of job."
Payne said he'd call Hanna a friend. But she was a serial offender when it comes to lateness. It was slightly annoying, but not too bad because it was the last session of the day.
Polkinghorne was always on time.
Did she talk about her personal life? Not really. We were professional friends not socially, said Payne.
Did she talk about her relationship? A bit. She thought Philip had a girlfriend, she once said. Payne ignored it, not wanting to wade into that area of their life.
Did she talk about her work as a DHB manager? Often. They worked her pretty hard, Payne reckoned. She'd take heaps of work home.
She was in good shape, Payne said. She dressed well, always looked immaculate. He remembered her taking long walks alone at a good pace.
Hanna trained hard at the gym, Payne said.
He said he had a good relationship with Polkinghorne too. But they did not socialise outside the gym.
"He was very accurate with his times," he said.
He'd warm up on the treadmill then begin pushing tin.
"For a man of his age he trained very, very well," he said.
He saw the couple on the Saturday before Hanna was reported dead, on the morning of Monday, April 5.
Hanna was planning to come in on the day she was reported dead by her husband.
He saw them at 9am and 10am, April 3, 2021. The appointment was arranged by text.
He trained Polkinghorne first then Hanna next.
Polkinghorne texted on the Sunday that Hanna was going to come in at 9am on the Monday, and he would follow.
"She was doing a lot of the Covid work at the time," Payne said.
Hanna presented well on the Saturday.
He remembered small talk with the DHB manager. Did he see the couple interact? Yes, all seemed normal, with a comment about seeing you at home. No tensions.
On Monday, Payne said Polkinghorne called him when he was sitting on the couch in his exercise gear. That was unusual. He normally texted.
"When I answered, he said: 'She's gone, she's dead.'
"Philip was pretty distraught at that time."
Payne said he was a "stunned mullet".
What happened? Polkinghorne didn't say.
"It was a bit grim."
Polkinghorne said: "See you later in the week, we'll have a coffee, go over it."
"Did you send up seeing him that week?" McNabb asks.
"No, he was too distraught," Payne said.
This could be the phone call Polkinghorne made while being taken to the police station by detectives.
Payne remembered Hanna's mother had died shortly before she herself was found dead.
"She seemed to handle it okay," he said.
"Pauline could be a little bit... moody's the word. She could be uptight," Payne remembered.
"Once she relaxed, she was really good company," he said.
Did you ever see Hanna unhappy? asks McNabb.
A pause.
"Not really, I'm sure she was a bit grumpy some days. Not breaking-down unhappy," Payne said.
Personal trainer to give evidence
Vera Alves
The Crown has called Barry Payne.
He was a personal trainer to both Philip Polkinghorne and Pauline Hanna.
Vibrators, lubricant and tissues: Jury shown photo of Polkinghorne's bedroom
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The jury is back, the public gallery is filling up with some of the regulars from the previous day's evidence, and Sergeant Jonathan Hurn is back in the witness box. Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield is resuming his cross-examination.
He is asking about the search of the master bedroom, where Polkinghorne slept.
Mansfield is asking about, and showing the jury photos of, what was found inside some drawers inside the master bedroom.
They are vibrators, lubricant and tissues.
Mansfield is moving on.
After about five minutes of cross-examination, Mansfield is done, and Hurn is free to go. He looks relieved.
Eighth day of Philip Polkinghorne murder trial set to begin at 10am
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Good morning all – the third day of the second week of the Philip Polkinghorne murder trial is set to begin at 10am.
We are now well into the Crown case but there are still many prosecution witnesses left to call.
Most of the crime scene cops and forensic scientists have been called. Sergeant Jonathan Hurn will return to the witness box at 10am today for more cross-examination from defence lawyer Ron Mansfield about his examination of the home. Yesterday he admitted he did not record some of the items found in the home, and said he was new to the CIB at the time.
The jury has not been told who is up next after Hurn.
Our coverage sticks to what the jury sees and hears as the trial progresses, along with some of the views and interpretations of our team of experienced writers and reporters who are in court covering the case – read Steve Braunias' latest instalment here and Craig Kapitan's report of Tuesday's evidence here.
We cannot report discussions in chambers, when the nine men and three women who will decide the case return to the jury room, without express permission from the judge.
A recap of yesterday's evidence
First to be called was Stephen MacIntyre, who appeared via audio-visual link from Wellington. MacIntyre is a veteran mariner and ship's master who owned a home at Ring's Beach in the Coromandel, where Polkinghorne and his wife Pauline Hanna also had a bach.
They holidayed together for more than 20 years. But in the lead-up to Hanna's death, reported by Polkinghorne as a suicide but soon treated by police as a homicide, MacIntyre said he noticed a change in his long-time friend. He became slimmer and more muscular, but also a bit more erratic. MacIntyre said Polkinghorne told him about crashing his ute, and changed his story about what happened, first saying he swerved to avoid a dog but then admitting he'd fallen asleep, and asked him not to tell his wife. He began to suspect, but had no hard evidence to suggest, that he was using drugs, possibly P.
During Mansfield's cross-examination, it emerged that Polkinghorne's crash had been caught on a security camera. It also emerged the eye surgeon had paid the owner of a damaged fence more than four times the repair bill as compensation.
Mansfield said both Polkinghorne and his wife had become fitter and started a weight-loss and fitness regime in the years leading up to the death. He also managed to draw a story out of MacIntyre of a time he needed an eye exam and Polkinghorne, known as "Polky" in the Ring's Beach community, dropped everything to rush to Auckland to fit him in.
Later, the trial heard from former Consumer NZ head of testing Paul Smith, who analysed the power use in the Polkinghorne home from April 4 to the morning of April 5, when Hanna was reported dead by her husband.
He said the washing machine used a tiny amount of power because it had a hot water connection, and could have been used at any point overnight. But the dryer, by his analysis, could probably have only be used from 6.30pm on April 4 to 10pm on April 4. Not on April 5, when Hanna was found dead.
Earlier, the jury had heard a top sheet was found slightly damp in the dryer. Hanna's bed was missing a top sheet.
Mansfield, in cross-examination, presaged some defence evidence by revealing he had an expert who had reached different findings.
Later we heard from ESR forensic scientist Helen Poulsen, who conducted a toxicology analysis on Hanna's blood and hair.
Her blood alcohol level was about half the legal driving limit. Legal drugs were also found in Hanna's blood.
They were Fluoxetine, an antidepressant, Phentermine, an appetite suppressant and Zopiclone, a sedative and hypnotic.
The levels of Fluoxetine and weight-loss drug Phentermine were normal.
The amount of Zopiclone was twice the normal therapeutic dose, Poulsen said. It was also not recommended to mix it with alcohol.
A hair analysis was negative for methamphetamine for the six months before her death.
But it was also negative for Phetermine, which she was taking and which is a stimulant.
In cross-examination, Mansfield revealed Hanna was dying her hair every three weeks. Treatment of hair via hair dye, Poulsen said, can reduce the ability for drugs to be found in a hair sample.
As a result, Mansfield opened the door to the possibility of Hanna having taken meth before her death but this not having been picked up. He also raised the point the drugs she was on could cause low moods and even suicidality.
Later, the Crown called more forensic experts, who described at length the methamphetamine found in significant quantities around the Polkinghorne home in Upland Rd. He admitted two meth charges at the outset of the trial.
🎧 LISTEN | Accused: The Polkinghorne Trial
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STORY CONTINUES
Detective Sergeant Lisa Anderson’s description of the Mt Cook search warrant execution came amid a quick succession of witnesses today as the Crown case made an abrupt shift from the scene examination evidence that dominated the first seven days of testimony.
The Auckland-based investigator said she had received information that Polkinghorne was staying in the Matariki Room at Mt Cook Lakeside Retreat when she travelled there to execute the search warrant. She described Ashton as being co-operative, to a point.
The escort told officers where two of her phones were - one personal and one she said was for work. But she then declined to give the passwords for the phones, as was required under the Search and Surveillance Act, the detective said.
The testimony was brief. The witness did not explain why the phones were important to the investigation or delve into Ashton’s career.
The Crown, however, described Ashton as a sex worker during last week’s opening address. She is expected to testify later in the trial.
Spending a longer period in the witness box this morning was Barry Payne, the couple’s longtime personal trainer. He had spent separate back-to-back one-hour sessions with Polkinghorne and Hanna on Saturday, April 3, two days before Hanna’s body was found, and had been about to leave the house for another session on Monday when he learned of her death.
“She’s gone. She’s dead. She’s gone,” he recalled Polkinghorne telling him in a call that morning.
Payne said he didn’t take it seriously, thinking the chronically late Hanna might have slept in, but then he heard the anguish in the defendant’s voice.
“Philip was pretty distraught at that time,” he explained, adding that he himself was “a stunned mullet” and didn’t know what to say.
“What happened?” the trainer recalled asking after a pause.
But Polkinghorne didn’t immediately say, just repeating, “She’s gone,” Payne recalled.
Payne said he considered both Polkinghorne and Hanna friends, but only in a professional capacity as they worked out with him two to three times per week.
He would sometimes see tiffs between the two, but nothing out of the ordinary from other couples he worked with, he said, adding that nothing stood out as unusual on the Saturday before Hanna’s death.
He described Pokinghorne as a friendly client who took his workouts seriously.
The surgeon was never manic, distracted or acting like a “weirdo”, he said with a laugh under cross-examination, contrasting the testimony a day earlier from a longtime friend of the couple who said he suspected Polkinghorne was on drugs.
Hanna, he said, seemed to be the more stressed of the two.
“She once mentioned that she thought Philip had a girlfriend,” Payne said, adding that he did not engage her further on the topic because it wasn’t his business. “I ignored it.”
The healthcare administrator sometimes seemed pre-occupied with work, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, he said. She was always meticulously put together, so “haggard” wasn’t the right word, but she did seem “run down a lot”, he said.
Despite that, he added, he didn’t notice any signs of depression.
“I’m sure she was a bit grumpy some days - probably some dispute going on - but never breaking down,” he said.
His testimony was followed later in the morning with a statement from John Norton, a friend of the couple who has since died. He had known the couple for years after his partner went to Polkinghorne for treatment, he explained, and had even attended the couple’s wedding.
On the evening before her body was found, Hanna showed up at Norton’s home unannounced with lamb shanks.
The couple had been going through health issues lately and it had been the second time Hanna had brought by a meal, but it was unusual for her to stop by without calling first, he said.
She only stayed for a minute, not having been invited to stay for dinner because Norton and his partner had already eaten, he recalled.
But during that time her behaviour did not seem unusual and he saw no cut on the bridge of her nose, which investigators would note the following morning when her body was found.
“She seemed happy,” he said, describing her as her usual self: “Glamourous, beautiful and bubbly”.
Norton met with Polkinghorne the day after Hanna’s death.
“He was devastated,” the witness recalled. “He adored her.”
Prosecutors also called two residents of a small Northcote Point apartment complex who recalled seeing Polkinghorne frequently visit a neighbour who they believed to be a sex worker.
His car was quite noticeable, said former police officer turned personal trainer Rob Masters.
It was a white Mercedes with a registration plate reading RETINA.
Masters said he would see Polkinghorne visit the apartment one to three times per week, while neighbour Myra Riddington estimated it to be up to four times per week.
The visits lasted more than a year, with Polkinghorne twice showing up to body corporate meetings to advocate for her.
The surgeon’s visits to the property stood out among the neighbour’s other male visitors, Riddington said, describing the defendant as a “terrible driver” whose plate she memorised after he nearly ran into her once.
“He’s a man who likes to stand out,” she said. “He came with champagne and gifts for her.”
Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield KC noted that his client knew the resident he visited, known as Rachel or Alaria, after he treated her son. During cross-examination of the witnesses, Mansfield suggested the visits were the result of a friendship.
The Crown is expected to continue calling witnesses this afternoon as the trial continues before Justice Graham Lang and the jury.
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.
The Herald will be covering the case in a daily podcast, Accused: The Polkinghorne Trial. You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, through The Front Page feed, or wherever you get your podcasts.