Philip Polkinghorne murder trial live updates: Witnesses say Pauline Hanna was ‘stressed’ before death
WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT
Two people who knew Auckland eye surgeon Philip Polkinghorne and wife Pauline Hanna have described scenes of the ophthalmologist being distraught in the immediate aftermath of his wife’s death.
“It was one of the worst conversations I’ve had,” a longtime friend testified today as jurors returned to the High Court at Auckland for the sixth week of Polkinghorne’s high-profile murder trial.
Polkinghorne, now 71, is accused of having fatally strangled his wife of 24 years inside their Remuera home before staging the scene on April 5, 2021, to look like a suicide by hanging.
Prosecutors spend nearly five weeks calling witnesses to support their theory that the surgeon lashed out at his wife while high on methamphetamine, possibly during an argument over his relationship with overseas escort Madison Ashton or the hundreds of thousands of dollars he had spent on her and other sex workers.
The defence, now in its second day of calling witnesses, has suggested repeatedly that Hanna’s death was exactly as it initially seemed – self-harm by someone who suffered long-term depression and was under immense amounts of work stress.
STORY CONTINUES AFTER BLOG
Judge calls it a day
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Justice Lang has no questions, thanks Beatty and says he's free to go.
"Members of the jury, we'll call it a day."
He tells them we won't be sitting on Thursday because some of the jurors have other commitments.
The trial will resume 10am tomorrow, as will the Herald's live coverage.
Crown cross-examines witness on electricity data usage
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Prosecutor Brian Dickey is on his feet for cross-examination. He indicates he can probably finish with Beatty this afternoon.
Dickey asks about the condensation on the jug that was mentioned.
Dickey refers to the metadata on the photo of the jug in his report, and it shows the photo is not actually taken on the morning of April 5.
Were we just saying that if the washing machine ran on the morning of April 5, it would mean that one or other of the appliances weren't used? asks Dickey.
"We don't know the mix of electricity," says Beatty.
Beatty says he doesn't think the April 5 data would be sufficient for a washing machine.
Dickey says the Crown's power usage expert Paul Smith of Consumer NZ said it's possible the washing machine could have run that morning.
"I would exclude it," says Beatty.
Paul Smith thought one of the kettle or toaster might have run, but not both.
"It's too refined an analysis," Beatty says.
"We don't know how much water is actually in the jug," and we don't know the setting on the toaster either, says Beatty.
Asked about the small rise at 6am, which he took to be LED lights switched on by Polkinghorne in his bedroom when he rose, Beatty agrees he can't say who switched the lights on, or in fact where in the house the lights might have been switched on that morning.
Dickey asks about how Beatty knew the underfloor heating was on that morning in 2021.
"The floor was on when I was there," says Beatty.
When was that?
"It was this year."
No further questions from Dickey.
Harrison Smith is back up. He must have questions in reply.
Smith asks about photographs Beatty was referred to by Dickey of condensation that could be seen on the jug.
What evidence did you consider when considering whether the jug might have been used on April 5, 2021? Smith asks.
One is the quantity of electricity used and the other is the condensation, Beatty says.
Putting the photograph aside, says Smith, what does the data say about the jug being used that morning?
"Given the data, my view would have been that it was certainly the jug that was turned on because of the quantity of energy that's actually being used," Beatty says.
No evidence that washing machine was used the morning Hanna was found dead – defence witness
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In addition to the jug and the toaster, Beatty confirms he was also asked if the washing machine could have been used between April 4 and 5.
If the washing machine had been used, he would have expected to see the washing machine turning off in the data on April 5, he says.
But the data does not show it turning off on April 5.
Beatty says the washing machine could only have run on the evening of April 4, in his view.
He says he can't be more specific than anywhere between the 6pm to 11.30pm period on April 4.
There's no evidence in the data, in Beatty's view, of the washing machine being used on the morning of April 5. There's also no sign of it being used in the morning on other days, he says.
Two sheets and two pillow cases are about 6kg of wet weight, close to a machine's maximum load, he says.
"I don't believe the washing machine cycle started on Monday the 5th of April," Beatty says.
What about the dryer? asks Harrison Smith.
There is potential for the dryer, the washing machine and many other appliances to be used on April 4, Beatty says, any time in the same period of high electricity consumption from 6pm to 1130pm already referred to at length.
What about on April 5?
"The fifth of April, definitely the dryer could not have run," Beatty says. He says there is insufficient consumption evident in the graphs for the dryer to have been used.
Beatty says the jug and toaster could have been turned on just before 8am as well, given consumption data can span multiple periods. It could have been either appliance or both in combination, he agrees.
Defence witness talks jury through electricity usage on day Hanna died
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Ronald Beatty, an electrical engineer with expertise in forensic data analysis, wants to give the court a lesson on reading graphs.
"I call this a load profile," he says. "We have 48 metered half-hour periods."
He's used red arrows to show the standing load overnight.
Then about 7.30am, the load starts to increase slightly, "because someone has got up and turned something on" or an automatic appliance has started.
The load has gone up from a bout 0.5kWh to about 0.75 to 0.8kWh.
The difference between those two figures tells us how much additional electricity was being applied, Beatty says.
You can take the shape and super-impose it over other days to see how regular the usage is, Beatty explains.
Harrison Smith moves the witness to his analysis of April 4 and 5, 2021.
Beatty is comparing Sunday March 14 to Monday April 5 (which was Easter Monday, hence the Sunday comparison).
On April 5, there was a standing load until about 6am, when there's a step increase.
Beatty's view is that Polkinghorne rose then and turned on some lights.
"It supports Dr Polkinghorne's statement that he got up and turned some lights on," he says.
About 8am, there's another increase. Beatty says his view is Polkinghorne got up and came down the stairs and – Brian Dickey objects, saying he couldn't know from the power data if he went down the stairs.
Justice Graham Lang agrees and Harrison Smith asks Beatty to stick to his opinion on what the deviations in the graph show.
The increase in load of about 6am was followed by a larger increase about 8am, too great to just be lighting. It needed to be other appliances turned on at 8am, he says.
Beatty can't tell us what appliances specifically were used, he says, but is able to use a list of appliances to determine whether or not they may have been used in that period.
"But it also relies on the history of data," he says, in that the load on Monday April 5 is not too dissimilar to the load on other days.
"It indicates a regular pattern of electricity consumption."
The increase about 8am is consistent with boiling an electric jug, he says.
On Sunday, April 4, there is quite widely divergent electricity consumption during the day and into the night, Beatty says.
During the night period, a big lump on the right of the usage graph, we don't know what's in there, Beatty says, but it's of such a size that it would support the dryer running, the dishwasher and washing machine.
The block at the right of the graph starts at 6pm and runs to 11.30pm.
"That is a lot of electricity to use," Beatty says.
To use that amount, all of those appliances would have to have run.
Smith moves to the April 5, 2021 usage graph, starting at midnight.
Beatty says you can see a minor change in the standing load up until 6am. Some of that would be the underfloor heating switching on and off with its thermostatic control.
Load from a refrigerator would also cycle, as the compressor switches on and off.
"And these variances create a little bit of a ripple," he says.
At 6am, there is an increase beyond the ripple. That tells us extra load was applied then, Beatty says.
It won't have been underfloor heating because that would have been seen earlier, he says.
At 8am, the average load remains higher than what it was overnight, telling us there was additional electrical load that turned on and stayed on, Beatty says.
Then at 8am, there's a "sharp increase in load", the first of two spikes.
That tells us, Beatty says, that someone has turned some more electrical load on.
At 8.30am, the load is turned off.
Asked if the 8am load could have been both the jug and the toaster, Beatty says "we just don't know".
"I noted that the setting on the toaster was down to very low," he says.
The police photo of the jug had condensation showing it had been run.
The photo of the toaster also showed it was set very low, he says.
"The time that the toaster would have actually been on would have been quite limited."
Smith asks about the condensation on the jug again and Justice Lang interjects, asking if he can comment on that as an expert, and Beatty says he can't.
Power expert says washing machine didn't run morning of Hanna's death
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Ronald Beatty, an electrical engineer with expertise in forensic data analysis, is now showing the court a photo of the smart meter at his house, via the television screens in the courtroom.
In most homes, the electricity demand is very low, says Beatty. So the devices have to be accurate over a wide range, from as low as 0.25kWh or right up to 12kWh when the oven and other appliances are switched on. Smart meters are accurate to +/- 1% or less, says Beatty, so very accurate.
That accuracy is important for us to understand in this particular case, Beatty says, because we are looking at very minor increases, of just 0.05kWh between one half hour period and the next, so you need to be assured of the accuracy of the meter.
Polkinghorne's meter had a current certification so its data will be accurate, says Beatty.
Beatty shows the court a graph.
The red arrows show "standing load", the amount of power usage in the background without any other activity, such as devices left on standby like computers, television sets, fridges, microwaves: anything that's always on.
What we see at the Polkinghorne home is a flat standing load around 0.4 to 0.45kWh. That is high for a domestic home, and that could be due to electric underfloor heating, says Beatty.
Beatty has been to the Upland Rd home, where he surveyed the electrical devices and fixtures.
"I was particularly interested in the lighting," he says, given Polkinghorne's statement that he rose and sat in his bed reading, which would have needed the lights to be on.
He also took note of the setting on the toaster.
Did you factor in the sunlight on the morning of April 5? asks Harrison Smith.
No, says Beatty, it's very hard to get Niwa irradiance data.
Moving on to his analysis of electrical usage data. Beatty used data from December 1, 2020, to April 5, 2021 (when Pauline Hanna was reported dead).
Each month has about 1700 data points, he says.
"It's important to actually establish trends," says Beatty.
Beatty says he's trying to establish from the half-hourly data, which is not particular granular, just what could have actually happened that morning.
The trends he was looking for were mornings very similar to April 5, by comparing the shape of consumption evident from the power curves.
His view is the data on April 5 supports Polkinghorne rising early, turning on a few lights, then more load being applied about 8am.
He doesn't think the washing machine ran on the morning of April 5, but it did run on the morning of April 4.
To recap – police found a slightly damp top sheet in the dryer when they arrived at the home. A top sheet was missing from the room where Polkinghorne said Hanna spent her final night.
Witness casts doubt over Crown's electricity usage data analysis
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Police instructed Paul Smith from Consumer NZ to look at usage data from Polkinghorne's home in Remuera's Upland Rd.
The defence instructed Ronald Beatty to perform a similar exercise to see if Polkinghorne's explanation matched the power usage data.
Beatty says the electricity industry settles in 30-minute increments, so it's not possible to look at one or two days to consider what could have happened within the premises as well. A wider set of data has to be used, he says, but we can never actually say what exactly happened on any given day.
Smith's report looked only at one or two days of consumption, and didn't look at what happened on similar days in the past.
"That is, I think, a failing actually of that side of the investigation," says Beatty.
There are issues with some of the figures Smith used too, says Beatty.
The washing machine used in his modelling wasn't the same as Polkinghorne's, he says.
In addition, there were assumptions around the jug. The test Smith carried out was with 1L of hot water, but we don't know how much water was in the kettle, making the energy consumption figures for the kettle an assumption.
Beatty moves on to his findings.
"My view, taking into account data and trends that I noted actually from 1 December 2020 through to 5 April 2021, is the data does support Mr Polkinghorne rising early, turning on a few lights and he was obviously very energy conscious, the data shows a small increment which could be LED lights actually turning on and then at about 8am, it actually shows an increase in load, which could be consistent with boiling an electric jug and perhaps even running a toaster."
One issue, says Beatty, is that the half-hourly increments of electricity measurement mean that an appliance switched on in one period could continue being used into another period, making it very difficult work out exactly what was used when.
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Now Ronald Beatty is talking about what he says is his "crowning glory".
Two of the projects he worked on were put forward for energy excellence awards, New Zealand's largest battery, the Rotohiko battery, and a Kāinga Ora project to sell surplus solar power back to the grid.
"This is very interesting," says Justice Graham Lang, but the judge says he's just not sure a detailed explanation of the Kāinga Ora solar energy project is required for this trial.
The defence moves on after producing Beatty's CV as an exhibit.
Defence calls last witness of the day
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Court has resumed for the final session of the day.
Harrison Smith, one of the barristers assisting defence lawyer Ron Mansfield, has called the next witness for the defence, Ronald Beatty.
Beatty is an electrical engineer with expertise in forensic data analysis.
He has 52 years experience in the electricity industry.
Beatty has got NZC electrical, is a registered engineering associate and has some endorsements around radiation as well, he tells the court.
Beatty says he's worked through every tier of the electricity industry and has a lot of experience in regulation, data and metering.
Beatty was previously employed by the Electricity Commission, the regulator pre-dating what is now the Electricity Authority.
He spent 16 years with the regulator.
Beatty says he was responsible for metering at the commission, among other things.
More recently, he was the principal adviser market operations at the Electricity Authority.
Since December 12, 2021, the anniversary of his 50 years in the electricity industry, he has been retired. Since then he's worked as a private consultant, from hydrogen legislation right through to "highly detailed data transfer protocols".
Trial about to resume
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The trial is about to resume and the public are filtering into the gallery. The defence will call a new witness when proceedings begin again. Who will it be? The jury have not been told.
Neighbour says Polkinghorne was in bed by 9.30 every night
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Crown prosecutor Brian Dickey begins his cross-examination and references the evidence of Stephen MacIntyre, another Rings neighbour, who was a Crown witness and who said Polkinghorne had acted erratically in the years before his death, and he suspected he was on drugs.
Foote saw nothing of the sort.
"He was in bed by 9.30 every night for two and a half decades, even on New Year's Eve."
No further questions and Foote is free to go.
We are taking the afternoon break early to prepare for the next witness. Court will resume about 3.35pm.
Witness speaks of 'great neighbour' Polkinghorne
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Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield has Dominic Simon Foote as the next witness.
Foote tells the court he lives in Waterview, is a project manager and has known Polkinghorne and Hanna for some years.
He met them when his family bought a bach in Rings Beach two doors across from the Polkinghorne bach in the Coromandel.
Foote says his parents had the Rings Beach property from the early 80s. They'd holiday there every long weekend and family holiday. He now goes there as an adult.
Foote says he still goes there most long weekends and family holidays and agrees with Mansfield it's a good wee community. His parents were friends with Polkinghorne and Hanna and he had dived and fish with Polkinghorne and Hanna, and still fishes with Polkinghorne to this day.
Foote says he started diving with Polkinghorne and Hanna initially, before Hanna quit. He started diving with them in the early 2000s, he says.
"Polky, some call him," says Foote.
How was he? asks Mansfield.
"He's great. Kind, generous, fantastic with my kids. Great neighbour," says Foote. "I don't think I've ever seen him raise his voice."
Foote says he'd never seen him act erratically. "About as consistent as you get."
"He's pretty dry. For instance, he kind of had a habit of accidentally sinking his boats, so he started naming them names like the Bismarck and the Lermontov."
(That's a reference to Soviet ocean liner the M.S. Mikhail Lermontov, which sank in the Marlborough Sounds in 1986.)
Foote says he had never seen Polkinghorne drunk but he did enjoy carrying a comically large glass of wine, as did Hanna.
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And Dr Scanlan is back.
Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield is back to reading the evidence of ESR scientist Fiona Matheson.
He says she said she didn't take samples from the wooden area, and Scanlan says that's his understanding too.
A reference she made to swabbing a blood stain was to a different area, says Mansfield.
It's just gone 10pm on Sunday in Louisiana and Scanlan is free to log off now. There are no further questions from the lawyers.
Crown quizzes defence witness over blood stain
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Crown prosecutor Brian Dickey asks if it would be very hard for cleaning to add to the redness and lines.
The forensic analyst, Dr Timothy Scanlan, agrees the second photo looks to have been altered but it's of the same length, at the same position and has the same void in the middle.
But, says Dickey, it's not as if they've been smudged with cleaning?
"There's another explanation for this stain, isn't there?" asks Dickey.
"Do you want to tell us about that? What else could have caused this? To be very clear, I'm talking about the appearance of a second parallel," says Dickey.
The prosecutor gets to the point.
"That could have come from contamination of the scene couldn't it?" Dickey says.
"Yes that's a possibility," Scanlan says.
Dickey says he's not contesting that it's got Polkinghorne's blood on it, but says he's asking about the fact there are two different stains, different in appearance.
"To be fair, the first stain was never tested for his DNA," says Scanlan.
"We don't test things that aren't blood," says Dickey.
Scanlan says his recollection is that Matheson said she did not sample in that particular spot.
Dickey goes back to Matheson's evidence, and says she screened all through that area and got negative results for the presence of blood.
Dickey says one stain has one line, and the later stain photo of the stain has two lines.
"If it's been altered, that person has to have access to his DNA, isn't that right?" asks Dickey. "I mean, his DNA is present in that location."
"Right," says Dickey, "So if we go back to my earlier proposition to you, there are obvious risks of interference and contamination when the scene is not contained between the event and the examination, is that right?"
"That's correct," Scanlan says.
And that risk is exacerbated if the suspect has access to the scene over that period? Dickey asks.
"I said that's fair," Scanlan says.
No further questions from Dickey.
Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield asks why Scanlan put the photo from the police in his report.
Scanlan says he noticed it looked like it had been altered, so he specifically put that in his report to bring it to the attention of the court.
Numerous things could have happened to alter the stain, including the commercial cleaning of the property after the scene examination, Scanlan says.
We've lost Scanlan. "You are the only participant," the VMR system blares.
Crown casts doubt over defence witness' blood claims
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Crown prosecutor Brian Dickey asks about the ESR examination of the home.
ESR forensic scientist Fiona Matheson, Dickey says, earlier told the court there was an "area of staining that is not blood".
She also said the general area was tested and was not positive for blood, Dickey says.
The prosecutor says Matheson's evidence is that no blood was found there.
"I have not detected any blood in that area," Matheson said, according to a transcript read by Dickey.
Scanlan says he believes that she was asked if she examined the exact area of the stain, and she said she did not.
Dickey reiterates that Matheson said she had not detected any blood "in that particular area".
"Now two years later, you've detected blood in that area?"
"That's correct."
Dickey refers the witness to the two photos again.
On the left is the police 2021 photo, on the right is the 2023 photo.
"They are different aren't they?" Dickey asks.
"They are different in appearance, yes," Scanlan says.
"Miraculously on the right we've got two tracks of red showing, whereas on the left... there is one red line," Dickey says.
Witness agrees scene could have been contaminated
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Dr Timothy Scanlan says he sent those reports to Polkinghorne's legal team.
That ends Ron Mansfield's questioning.
The defence lawyer asks him to remain there for any more questioning.
"Yes sir."
Crown prosecutor Brian Dickey asks who was present when he visited the Upland Rd property in March 2023.
Zali Burrows and Polkinghorne were there, Scanlan says.
To recap, the trial has already heard Zali Burrows was Madison Ashton's lawyer.
Ashton, the Australian sex worker with whom Polkinghorne had a years-long relationship, had recommended Polkinghorne use Burrows, according to texts read to the jury.
Dickey asks if there's a risk of contamination if there's a long delay between scene examinations.
Scanlan agrees.
Would that risk be heightened if that suspect had access to the scene? Dickey asks.
Scanlan says he thinks that would be fair to say.
Blood on staircase was Polkinghorne's, defence forensic analyst says
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Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield is questioning Dr Timothy Scanlan, who is appearing via audio-visual link from the United States.
Scanlan lives in Louisiana, in the suburbs of New Orleans.
"Nice," says Mansfield.
Scanlan runs a forensic consulting firm, providing services and training to crime laboratories.
He was instructed by one of Polkinghorne's previous lawyers to conduct some work for the defence case.
Scanlan worked for the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office for more than 20 years, he tells the court.
"I came up through the crime lab," he says.
Scanlan also had teaching roles, overseeing the forensic science minor programme at Loyola University New Orleans.
He has a strong southern US accent and is answering "yes, sir" to some of Mansfield's questions.
Scanlan was instructed, after Polkinghorne had been charged with murder in August 2022, to provide assistance, including to travel to his property in Remuera's Upland Rd and review it as a crime scene.
That was only possible on March 8, 2023, says Mansfield.
Scanlan visited the scene on March 8 and 9 last year.
When he was at the property, he found an area with a mark and a blood stain or smear. He collected the sample, he tells the court.
Mansfield is showing the photo to the court via the screens in the courtroom.
It's an image of a set of three stairs, just off the kitchen between the kitchen and the garage.
The mark, which appeared to Scanlan as potentially blood, was on the second stair from the ground on the light wood panelling on the right of the staircase, the trial hears.
Mansfield asks how the mark appeared in the police photographs taken nearly two years earlier.
The black mark was no longer there and appeared to have been altered, but was in the same location.
Mansfield says, and Scanlan agrees, that police had said they had put commercial cleaners through the property.
The jury is now being shown a comparison of the police and Scanlan's photos of the mark on the kitchen-garage stairs that he sampled.
The left photo is the one taken by the New Zealand police in April 2021, the one on the right is taken by the Louisiana forensic consultant in March 2023.
It's the same shape but has a slightly different appearance with the passage of time, in Mansfield's words.
Scanlan says he documented it with photography and swabbed it for future DNA testing.
He says the sample went off to a laboratory in Virginia, Bode Technology, for testing.
Two samples were sent to the lab, the "blood-like substance" he recovered from the stair and a reference sample from Philip J. Polkinghorne, Scanlan says.
The first sample was positive for blood and came back as a match to Polkinghorne's DNA.
The lab reported the sample came from Polkinghorne, Scanlan says.
Trial resumes with new defence witness
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The trial has resumed after the lunch adjournment.
Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield has called Dr Timothy Scanlan, who is appearing via audio-visual link from the United States.
Trial adjourns for lunch
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Glucina is free to go and Justice Lang calls lunch. We'll return at 2.15pm.
Witness was told at dinner Hanna was stressed about work
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Crown prosecutor Brian Dickey says a number of witnesses, including bosses and colleagues "above sideways and below" suggested Hanna was doing well and coping with her role in respect of her Covid duties, not stressed as the witness said she had been at the Rings Beach dinner in January 2021.
Glucina says he was told at the dinner she was stressed.
Mansfield has one more question. Were any of her bosses and colleagues at the January 2021 dinner?
No, says Glucina, it was just the four of us.
Investment advisor had no way of knowing what Hanna knew of Polkinghorne's investments
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Investment advisor Tony Glucina says one of the best ways to grow an investment, as Polkinghorne and Hanna had done, was to reinvest dividends and gains back into a portfolio.
"It's a wonder we've got anyone left in court, they'll all be running out of the court to invest in you," Mansfield says.
The defence lawyer ends his questioning.
Crown prosecutor Brian Dickey asks if Glucina ever discussed the JBWere accounts when he met with Hanna socially.
Glucina says he did not.
Glucina says Polkinghorne did not seem out of the ordinary when they met him at Rings Beach.
He had just been diving and seemed well, the investment manager says.
Polkinghorne's investment portfolio grew a lot over the years
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Glucina says Polkinghorne's portfolio grew substantially over the years.
It was invested into Apple, Amazon and other large multinationals that have done well over the past 10 years, before going into the benefits of JBWere once again.
"It sounds a bit like an infomercial for JBWere," says Mansfield, before asking him to confirm if there was any risk to their portfolio.
There was not, says Glucina, it had grown a lot.
Police gained a court order getting Glucina's correspondence with Polkinghorne, plus the investment information.
Glucina says he was never asked to give a statement to police.
"No, they never contacted me."
The JBWere investment was about $2.2m, he agrees.
"In terms of the increase in the portfolio gains, you're talking about millions of dollars," he says, from both investment and capital gains.
Investment advisor details dealings with Polkinghorne and Hanna
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Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield has called Tony Robert Glucina.
Glucina has walked in wearing a dark suit and carrying a satchel.
He tells the court he lives in Westmere and is an investment advisor at JBWere.
"As a firm, we manage over $17 billion of funds for New Zealand clients," says Glucina.
The trial heard earlier Polkinghorne had investments with JBWere.
Glucina says they offer "very attractive fees" and a highly personalised portfolio.
"It's a very personalised way of investing," allowing clients to maintain involvement with their investments, he says.
Glucina says their clients range from high net worth individuals to families, individuals and charities.
He's been at JBWere for 12 years. Before that he was at Goldman Sachs for a decade.
"If there's such a thing as ordinary," asks Mansfield, do you ordinarily deal with both parties in a couple or just one of them?
It varies a lot, says Glucina. It depends on the client.
In a marriage, asks Mansfield, would you always deal with both partners in the marriage or just one or the other?
We would deal with both partners if the investments were in both names, Glucina says.
But some investments are just in the husband or the wife's name, and it was common practice then to just deal with one or the other, he says.
"I suspect that might be for tax reasons but that's not something we give advice on," Glucina says.
Glucina says JBWere had provided services to Polkinghorne and Hanna for 10 years.
"I dealt primarily with Philip because the investments were registered in his name."
Earlier, the trial heard Polkinghorne had invested about $500,000 of proceeds from the sale of a Papatoetoe rental property into JBWere managed funds.
Mansfield asks about separations and what happens then.
Glucina says that's common and even if the investment is held in one of the couple's names, it's considered shared matrimonial property.
Glucina says he had met Pauline Hanna, despite the fact the investments were in Polkinghorne's name. Hanna had attended one of their Christmas functions with Polkinghorne.
Glucina says his partner Buffy, a "well-known naturopath and nutritionist", had also socialised with the couple. They had attended a dinner at their Rings Beach bach.
Polkinghorne had extensive assets outside his JBWere portfolio and another retirement scheme, providing fixed income type returns.
From JBWere, he wanted capital growth, focused on shares with a good allocation to global investments.
The idea was to provide capital growth to retirement then possibly restructure the investments.
Glucina says Polkinghorne had invited him and his partner Buffy for dinner in January 2021.
How was the dinner? asks Mansfield.
It was good, says Glucina.
Polkinghorne picked him up from Matarangi and they had enjoyed a three-course meal.
Glucina says his partner Buffy notices what people eat because she's a nutritionist.
Hanna did not eat anything, despite there being three courses and a substantial dessert.
He says they spoke about her stress in her Covid role.
How did Philip treat Pauline? asks Mansfield.
Just like a normal couple, Glucina says.
Polkinghorne is flamboyant, he says, and gave a tour of the house, which they were very proud of.
Did you ever observe him being rude, demeaning, or controlling of Hanna? asks Mansfield.
"No, not at all," says Glucina.
They had no TV at Rings Beach and the couple discussed how they enjoyed reading together late into the night.
Did it appear to you if there was any secret about Polkinghorne's investment with JBWere? asks Mansfield.
No, says Glucina.
To recap: the Crown has repeatedly suggested Polkinghorne was squirrelling away money that was at least partly Hanna's, including transferring her salary to accounts he controlled.
Nurse describes Polkinghorne's dedication to patients
Vera Alves
Harrison Smith, sharing the witnesses with defence lawyer Ron Mansfield today, has called Jillian Mary Blakely, a registered nurse specialising in ophthalmology.
Blakely began working as an ophthalmic nurse in 1991, at Mercy Hospital. She met Polkinghorne later that year.
Blakely was a junior theatre nurse, assisting Polkinghorne in surgeries.
The afternoon list started at 1pm and in the early days surgeries might not finish until 6, 7 or even 8pm, she says.
Blakely says she used to order Polkinghorne's stock and supplies for the theatre and helped him with teaching staff as the years went on.
How would you describe him at work? asks Smith.
"He was very dedicated, he was very committed. He always had the patient's interest at heart and I really respected him for those attributes," says Blakely.
She started doing morning shifts at Auckland Eye in 1997.
She says she was regularly with Polkinghorne in theatre but of course, other nurses came and went.
Blakely says she worked with him, apart from a break for childcare and to live overseas, for 27 years.
She would be in surgery with him once a week over that period, the jury hears.
"We had a good working relationship I really enjoyed working with him," she says.
"He was very happy to teach, which I really enjoyed."
Blakely says that with Polkinghorne's encouragement, she went over to the UK to undertake an ophthalmic nurse's course at Moorfields Eye Hospital, where he had trained in his subspecialty.
She resigned in 2019.
Auckland traffic was terrible, and things had changed at the clinic, with different charge nurses and CEOs, she says.
His working relationship with others at Mercy Hospital all those years ago was good, she says.
He could get a bit rattled during stressful moments, she adds.
Blakely says he liked people to be interested in the case and preferred silence in the theatre when operating.
Like the earlier witnesses today, she says he had a great relationship with his patients.
"He seemed to put the patient at ease."
Smith asks what Polkinghorne shared about life at home.
Nothing apart from surface level, friendly chats, Blakely says.
Smith asks about evidence heard earlier about Polkinghorne's weight loss.
"Can't say I really noticed. Theatre scrubs are theatre scrubs," Blakely says.
The witness is free to go.
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Prosecutor Brian Dickey is beginning his cross-examination of Darlington. She confirms she was not looking for signs of intoxication.
He asks if he would leave about 3pm on Friday, but Darlington didn't work Fridays.
The witness is free to go.
Polkinghorne 'outstanding' with patients, sometimes helped them pay for their surgeries, colleague says
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Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield calls Leonie Darlington as the next witness.
Darlington lives in Mt Roskill and is a patient care co-ordinator at a medical practice in Mt Wellington. Before that, she was at Auckland Eye for 18 years.
She worked at Auckland Eye from 2004 to 2022.
Mansfield asks how old she was when she started at Auckland Eye, saying he can get into trouble with those questions so he can only ask them once.
"I can't remember," Darlington says.
"So you must have been very young," says Mansfield.
Darlington says she was a theatre hostess at the ophthalmology clinic, meeting and greeting incoming surgery patients.
She would make them a cup of tea after surgery as well, the trial hears.
She was at Auckland Eye before the specialist surgical centre was built.
The centre is called Oasis Surgical.
Darlington later became a surgical booker, organising all things around surgeries.
Mansfield asks how closely she'd work with Polkinghorne.
Darlington agrees she'd work with him most days, making sure everything was ready to go for surgeries.
There would be anaesthetists and theatre nurses working with him in theatre, agrees Darlington.
Auckland Eye built Oasis in 2010, when she started her role as a surgical booker.
"He was very good to work with. He was a perfectionist, he had a very high standard and he expected that from his staff as well," says Darlington of Polkinghorne.
"Did you have a good rapport with him?" asks Mansfield.
"Yes," says Darlington.
She agrees that because of that rapport, Polkinghorne would come to her for all his bookings.
Darlington agrees he was polite, courteous and generous to staff.
"He was very good to his patients, they always came first and he would do anything for them," she says.
He was very considerate to patients who could not afford the procedure.
Sometimes he would forgo his surgeon's fee so a patient could undergo an important surgery.
Darlington says he had a dry sense of humour and enjoyed a joke.
"And did you enjoy that?" Mansfield asks.
"Yes," says Darlington.
Mansfield is on to his client's retirement plans. Darling says she was unaware he planned to retire aged 68. She says he had a "very heavy workload".
Did you ever see Polkinghorne under the influence of drugs? asks Mansfield.
"No," says Darlington.
"His approach to patients was... outstanding. He always put them first," she says.
Witness says Polkinghorne's weight loss seemed 'quite sudden'
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The jury filters back inside, watched by the approximately 70 people in the gallery, including family, alongside many with no connection to the case.
Prosecutor Brian Dickey is beginning his cross-examination of Sharon Jenkins, the former Auckland Eye receptionist.
She agrees she saw Polkinghorne losing weight.
"We thought that he'd lost a considerable amount of weight."
He also seemed more tired, she says.
They'd tried to help him by reducing his workload, the witness says.
His weight loss seemed quite sudden, she agrees.
On to the red buttons in the bedrooms of the Polkinghorne home. Did you work out they were panic buttons or were you told? Dickey asks.
Jenkins says her ex-partner had looked at them and told her they were panic buttons.
Harrison Smith is back on his feet for some questions in reply.
He asks Jenkins to clarify when she noticed he had lost weight.
It was around 2018, Jenkins says.
She says she did not speak to him about his weight loss or tiredness.
"I did wonder if he maybe had cancer or something like that because it was quite dramatic," says Jenkins.
No further questions. The witness is free to go.
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Court is taking the morning break before the prosecution begins cross-examining the former receptionist.
Polkinghorne 'distraught' when he visited clinic after wife's death
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There was a restructure in 2019 at Auckland Eye among the receptionists, so as to provide one port of call for doctors, the trial hears.
Sharon Jenkins says she was assigned to look after Polkinghorne and two others.
After his wife's death, Polkinghorne came into the clinic once to see everybody, says Jenkins.
Jenkins says Polkinghorne was distraught when he came into the clinic and had clearly been crying.
Harrison Smith moves on to asking Jenkins about the Remuera home's security system again. He refers to a photo of the master bedroom.
Smith says the photos show a "red button" in both the master bedroom and the guest bedroom, where she slept. These are the bedrooms where Polkinghorne and Hanna often respectively slept.
Smith refers to them as panic buttons then Justice Lang interjects.
"What did you understand it to be?" the judge asks.
Jenkins says she wasn't sure but called them panic buttons when she gave a statement to police in April 2021.
Jenkins says Polkinghorne had a good relationship with staff at Auckland Eye.
"His patients loved him," says Jenkins.
"He always treated his patients really well."
She also spoke highly of Hanna.
"Him and Pauline were very kind and generous."
Defence questions witness on house-sitting arrangements
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Harrison Smith asks what security measures Hanna described to Jenkins on her initial tour of the house.
Sharon Jenkins says she showed her the main alarm and keypads around the house.
How long did you house-sit on this first occasion? Smith asks.
About two weeks, Jenkins says.
And how did that go for you? Smith asks
Yes, it went very well, thank you," Jenkins says.
She says her dealings with Hanna and Polkinghorne related to house-sitting were good.
"She would always leave me instructions written down on a piece of paper if there was anything in particular she wanted me to do when I got there."
After 2017, she house-sat every Christmas up until 2020, and there may have been an Easter, and another occasion in 2019 after she came back from the UK.
Smith produces an email, from December 13, 2019. It's from Jenkins to Hanna, and is mundane.
More emails. Another from Hanna to Jenkins: "Thank you so much for agreeing to look after the pussycats" and "please don't replace the begonias" and wishes her a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Court hears of house-sitting, cat-feeding arrangements
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Harrison Smith, one of the barristers assisting defence lawyer Ron Mansfield, calls Sharon Jenkins as the next defence witness.
Jenkins was a receptionist at Auckland Eye from 2014 to about two-and-a-half years ago, finishing at the beginning of 2022.
Jenkins tells Smith her role included taking phone calls, booking appointments and the like.
There were seven receptionists at the clinic, she says.
Overall, there were about 70 to 75 people working at Auckland Eye and Oasis Surgical.
How would you describe your working relationship with Dr Polkinghorne? asks Smith.
Jenkins says she used to look after his outer clinics in Papatoetoe and Whangārei. She would prepare his lists and other administrative tasks involved in organising his day.
There were a couple of other doctors who worked out at the clinic in South Auckland, Jenkins says.
On to the Whangārei clinic. It was actually two clinics up there, Jenkins says.
Jenkins had a house-sitting arrangement with Polkinghorne and Hanna over Christmas each year, beginning in 2017, the jury hears.
Polkinghorne had come to the reception and asked if someone could house sit over Christmas.
When she arrived, Hanna was home.
"She said you're late and I apologised," Jenkins says.
Hanna then took her around the house and showed her the two cats, which were not allowed in the formal dining room. She became warmer after that and then showed her the pot plants she had to water.
What else did Hanna mention? asks Smith.
Jenkins says she showed her the bedroom she could sleep in and where the laundry was, and around the outside of the house.
The witness says there was laundry in the dryer when she visited.
"They didn't have a physical outside line so it was always in the dryer," Jenkins says.
"You've mentioned to us the importance of feeding the cats while they were away. Can you tell us what Pauline's instructions were to you on that?" asks Smith.
Jenkins says the cats had both wet and dry food and a water fountain.
Smith asks where the cat food and water was.
They were fed just off the foyer by a sliding door, Jenkins says.
Smith then refers the witness to a photograph taken by police of the cat food in the bowls.
"I'm not really sure what the relevance of the cat food is," says Justice Graham Lang.
Smith says he's wanting to show the cat food in the bowls found by police was a common arrangement and not unique to April 5, 2021. The photo shows the bowls full of cat food. Smith says that was normal and part of the couple's routine.
Witness says Hanna was under a lot of stress
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Now to the day Hanna died, April 5, 2021.
The witness says he was out of Auckland.
He missed a call from someone at Auckland Eye, but later spoke to someone else from the clinic about what happened.
Susan Ormonde, a surgeon at Auckland Eye, told the witness Hanna had committed suicide.
The witness says he messaged Polkinghorne to express his condolences and asked if he wanted to meet.
Polkinghorne contacted the witness on April 6 and was "distraught," the witness says.
"It was one of the worst conversations I've had."
At the end of the difficult conversation, Polkinghorne asked him to be a pallbearer.
He says he was assisting police in their inquiries and had been asked a lot about their relationship.
Mansfield asks if he's ever seen Polkinghorne use or be under the influence of any controlled drugs.
"No," says the witness.
Mansfield is asking the witness about Polkinghorne's speciality – vitreoretinal.
He agrees it is complex and technical.
"It's very precise in that the retina itself is only a matter of microns thick. It is something that is very delicate and needs to be treated with the utmost care to avoid complications."
Prosecutor Brian Dickey begins his cross-examination, asking if Hanna did most of the "running around" for the couple regarding the trusts.
He agrees, and further agrees he had very little understanding of the trust and its accounting.
The witness says he did not know enough of the workings of the trust to answer anything about assets or financials.
Dickey asks if Polkinghorne talked about his concern at the level of his retirement payout.
Earlier, the trial heard the two specialists who left in acrimonious circumstances received about $650,000 each, while Polkinghorne was offered and later received quite a lot less.
The witness says he's not sure the figures quoted in evidence are right.
He says Polkinghorne seemed to want nothing to do with it at one point.
The witness is not aware of Polkinghorne's relationship with Madison Ashton.
"I found out about that about the same time as everyone else in Auckland," the witness says.
He was also unaware Polkinghorne was using methamphetamine.
The witness again agrees it was remarkable the amount of time Hanna spent at Counties Manukau DHB.
"It's a hard job," he says.
"There are cuts every six months.
"People are leaning on you to increase volumes and reduce costs. She would have had a tough job."
That ends Dickey's cross-examination.
Ron Mansfield is back on his feet for some re-examination, asking if he knew much about Hanna's Covid role.
She discussed it at the Rings Beach bach dinner, the witness says.
"It sounded terrible," he says.
"The calls she was getting, the fact that she was having to manage this kind of [thing] with one arm tied behind her back. It was very political."
"I know that she was under a lot of stress."
The witness is free to go.
Witness had contact with Hanna the month before her death
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In March 2021, the month before Hanna's death, the witness had further contact with Hanna regarding documents so they could finally come off the trust as a trustee.
Hanna brought the document about midday to their practice and she signed it.
Earlier in 2021, the witness and his wife had dinner with Polkinghorne and Hanna at their Rings Beach bach.
He agrees with Mansfield that it was a pleasant night.
At the dinner, it became clear Hanna's mother was gravely ill, so it finished early so Hanna could go to visit her.
How did Hanna and Polkinghorne seem that night in February 2021? asks Mansfield.
"They seemed fine to me. I didn't notice anything different from how they normally got on, which was very well," the witness says.
"He treated her well on that night."
Witness was a trustee on one of Polkinghorne's various trusts
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The witness says he became a trustee on one of Polkinghorne's various trusts. He says he had two dealings with Hanna over this, in 2020 and 2021, when she texted him to sign a document. This was after he'd been asked to be removed from the trust in 2019, he says. He did it, then asked if he could be removed from the trust.
When he became the trustee, it was the fashion for there to be someone outside the trust to be a trustee, someone trusted by a family.
"I saw my role as a tie-breaker... if there was a need," he says.
He left the trust because there was an increasing pressure in general in New Zealand on trustees to be more involved.
He was contacted by Hanna in August 2020 and asked if he could sign something for the trust.
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The witness confirms there was an acrimonious exit of two shareholders, leading to mediation and litigation amid disputes over their payouts. The terms of that exit were protected by confidentiality agreements, since breached via evidence given under privilege in this trial.
Witness says Pauline Hanna often joined Polkinghorne on work trips
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The witness says he met Pauline Hanna in the mid-1990s, when she was the manager of the eye department at Auckland Hospital (before the department moved to Greenlane).
"I thought she did a good job in that role," the witness says.
She became redundant in that position and moved to a role with the Counties Manukau District Health Board.
Hanna remained with the Counties DHB until her death, "a remarkable length of time," the witness says.
Polkinghorne would regularly travel to overseas conferences? asks Mansfield and the witness agrees.
"She seemed to regularly travel with him," the witness says of Hanna.
Witness describes professional relationship with Polkinghorne
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Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield is leading his evidence. The witness said that over the last three decades ophthalmology - his and the defendant's speciality, has become very sub-specialised.
The Herald cannot print the witness' sub-speciality because of the risk it will identify him. But he said his speciality is "completely different" from Polkinghorne's.
Mansfield asks about the passage through to being an ophthalmologist.
The witness said when he trained, medical school took six years. Graduates then work for two years as a house officer before going into some surgical or medical programme, lasting for four or five years.
Then, most people in a speciality like ophthalmology would head overseas for further training in their sub-speciality.
In the witness' day, it took him 15 years training all now.
Now it's even longer, the witness said.
Most people are now 35, 36 or 37 by the time they become consultant ophthalmologists.
The witness said ophthalmologists become very specialised and don't undertake general medical work apart from being called to "arrests" sometimes.
Justice Lang asks him to clarify and the witness says he means cardiac arrests.
"We talk about arrests quite differently in this court," says Mansfield.
The witness said he has known the defendant since Polkinghorne was completing his training in London in the early 1990s.
The witness says it's common for ophthalmologists to work both in private practice and in the public system, as Polkinghorne did.
The witness says Polkinghorne and another provided retinal services in private practice in the early-1990s.
"The only real treatment back then was lasering some conditions," says the witness.
But now, there are injections, the witness says. Polkinghorne did retinal surgery including macular holes and retinal detachments.
The witness said Polkinghorne started what would become Auckland Eye in the mid-1990s, alongside several other ophthalmologists. The practice expanded, building a standalone operating facility, and changed its name to Auckland Eye in around 2000.
The witness says Auckland Eye offered services in other locations, such as the Whangārei and Papatoetoe clinics the trial has already heard Polkinghorne worked at, among his other roles.
Polkinghorne also went on to work at the University of Auckland in an academic role, where he gained an associate professorship.
Mansfield asks about his reputation.
The witness agrees he was respected as an expert in his subspecialty, and his standing was reflected by invitations to speak overseas.
The trial heard earlier Polkinghorne was a vitreoretinal specialist.
Mansfield is asking about the witness' personal relationship with Polkinghorne. He says they would sometimes see each other on holiday, and on other social occasions, maybe once or twice a year.
But the majority of their social interactions were via their professional work, at functions organised by Auckland Eye.
Defence calls new witness
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The jury is filtering in and week six of the trial is under way, with a new defence witness.
Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield has called a man who has interim name suppression. Certain identifying details are also suppressed. His lawyer, who is in the public gallery, told the Herald he is intending to pursue permanent suppression.
Trial set to resume for day 24
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The trial is set to begin. The dozens of people who come to watch proceedings each day have had to be told to move away from the doors Auckland they crowd around the entrance to Courtroom 11 each day in the hopes of getting a seat.
Much of the front row is now reserved for family. One of Polkinghorne's sons, and his sister, are in the gallery, alongside several relatives of Hanna.
The public gallery, consisting of 75 seats, is full to capacity and a few people have been unable to secure a seat.
Polkinghorne murder trial day 24 - a new defence witness
Vera Alves
Welcome to the Herald’s live coverage of day one of week six 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. He maintains she killed herself and the defence case is under way.
They contend the science is in their corner and Hanna, overworked in her Covid role and with a history of mental health issues, took her life by hanging.
The trial is set down for six weeks but Justice Graham Lang told the jury it will likely run over time and proceedings look set to bleed into next week at least.
Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield KC opened his case and began calling witnesses on Friday. This morning, he will call another witness. Proceedings begin at 10am in Courtroom 11 of the High Court at Auckland.
In his opening address, Mansfield said those witnesses included an Australian pathologist who concluded Hanna died by neck compression consistent with hanging, and a British pathologist who had reviewed and supported those findings.
He told the jury he would call an engineer to show how the belt and rope mechanism described by Polkinghorne to police on April 5, 2021 could provide sufficient pressure for a death by hanging.
Mansfield said the defence will be calling an expert to put to bed what he says are suicide myths promulgated by the Crown, including the idea that people who are successful, have much to live for and who take pride in their appearance don’t kill themselves.
Also in his roster of experts are a psychologist, a psychiatrist and an electrical power specialist who would help the trial understand when the washing machine, dryer and toaster were switched on in the Polkinghorne home before Hanna was reported dead, the jury heard.
During his opening, it became clear Mansfield will try to steer the jury away from the tabloid details of sex and drugs in the leafy suburbs they heard from Crown witnesses.
He will attempt to bring them back to the fundamental question, he said, of whether a culpable homicide was committed. He said there is no real evidence of a struggle on Hanna’s body or in the rooms of the home and no sign of her having been dragged from the guest bedroom to the landing where police found her body.
"I suppose, folks, that's the perfect murder; no evidence at the scene, no evidence on the body, that would have to be the perfect murder,” said Mansfield.
"Can I suggest it's not, it's a phantom."
Mansfield told the jury Polkinghorne will not be entering the witness box himself to give evidence in his own defence. He says that is because the jury already had the benefit of his hours-long police interview on the afternoon of April 5, when he answered all the questions he was asked and his recollections would have been freshest.
While today’s evidence looks set to be dominated by an expert witness, all six called by the Crown on Friday were lay witnesses.
To recap brief who they were and the main points of their evidence:
- Tracey Hanna: Pauline Hanna’s younger sister, who flew over from the UK where she has lived for more than 30 years to give evidence for Polkinghorne’s defence. She said that in the early 1990s, following an emotional argument between Pauline and their mother, Pauline had disclosed that she had previously attempted suicide, before holding up her wrists. Tracey said she had regularly seen Polkinghorne and his wife over the years and they appeared to be a happy, normal couple. During increasingly tense cross-examination, prosecutor Brian Dickey questioned her recollection of the suicide attempt. He suggested she provided no details, such as the date or location of the actual attempt, that would have allowed them to verify her claim. Dickey also raised the point that neither Hanna’s close friend Pheasant Riordan nor her brother Bruce Hanna had heard anything of this suicide attempt, and there was no written record of it. Tracey conceded she had told no one of Pauline’s disclosure and never followed it up with her, due in part, she said, to a different culture in the 1980s and 1990s, where such things weren’t discussed. “I was completely inadequate and I regret that deeply." But, through tears, she hit back and said she took offence at Dickey’s suggestion she was lying in an attempt to help Polkinghorne. "I'm not lying. That's what Pauline Hanna told me,” she said.
- Polkinghorne’s first wife: sought and was granted name suppression shortly before she gave evidence. She spoke quietly, replying in single-word answers wherever possible to Mansfield’s questions. She confirmed she was the mother of his three children. They separated in the 1990s because Polkinghorne had an affair, she said. He had never threatened or used violence during the marriage, she said.
- Irene Lien: an optometrist who worked at Specsavers Hastings in 2020. She said Polkinghorne had come in around that time seeking treatment for what he thought was a contact lens stuck in his eye. The point of her evidence was to try to undercut claims by Crown witnesses that Polkinghorn had used the stuck contact lens as an excuse to force his wife to leave a party early. A friend of Hanna’s had cast doubt an eye surgeon would need help removing a stuck contact lens, but it appears Polkinghorne did indeed seek help. But there was no contact lens or lens fragment found in his eye. Lien said sometimes when you try to remove a contact lens, and it has already fallen out, you can scratch your eye causing a similar sensation to a stuck lens.
- Zhen Xuen Lim: another optometrist. She said she worked with Polkinghorne at the eye clinic in Papatoetoe, which he would run a couple of mornings a week. Her father would drop her off at his Remuera home and he’d give her a ride to the South Auckland satellite clinic. He was easy to work with, had a dry sense of humour and was committed to his patients, she said.
- Gillian Reid: an Anglican priest who, like Polkinghorne, has a home at Rings Beach in the Coromandel. She said Hanna had told her she had reluctantly taken her role in the Covid response after being repeatedly passed over for other management roles. Reid remembered a conversation in January 2021 in which she said Hanna told her she was under significant stress and struggling to do the role well. She said she’d also noticed a change in Hanna’s appearance. Reid said Hanna was frequently changing her clothes, which she took to be a sign of low self-esteem.
- David Daniels: a mechanic who has a bach next to the Polkinghorne property at Rings Beach. He said he’d never heard any yelling or arguments between the pair, or seen any sign Polkinghorne may have been under the influence of drugs." Did you have a few things in common?" asked Mansfield. "Yeah, we're accident-prone," he said. Daniels said he counted himself among Polkinghorne’s fishing buddies. "He can be quite eccentric," he said.
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STORY CONTINUES
Today’s first witness, someone in the medical field who has been granted interim name suppression, recounted Hanna talking about her work stress during a dinner at the couple’s Coromandel bach on February 2, 2021, just two months before her death.
“It sounded terrible, the calls she was getting,” he said of her job, which involved helping manage the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine. “The fact she was trying to manage this with one arm tied behind her back – it was very political...
“I know that she was under a lot of stress to do that work.”
The witness said he tried calling Polkinghorne on the day of Hanna’s death but he was busy talking to police at the time. He reached him by telephone the next day. At the end of the “distraught” conversation, the witness said Polkinghorne asked him to be involved in Hanna’s funeral, which he said was a surprise since he didn’t consider himself an especially close friend of the couple but an “honour”.
Sharon Jenkins, a former receptionist at Auckland Eye where Polkinghorne worked, was asked about house-sitting for the couple about six times over several years.
She recalled seeing the defendant one other time in the office after the death of his wife.
“He was obviously very upset and distraught,” she recalled. “He’d obviously been crying.”
Multiple defence witnesses were asked today to describe Polkinghorne’s work ethic, and all provided glowing reviews.
“His patients loved him,” Jenkins said. “He always treated his patients very well.”
If patients needed him over the weekend, he’d be there, she and others said. If they couldn’t afford to pay, the doctor would forgo his fees, they said.
Jenkins said she did notice weight loss and tiredness around 2018.
“I did wonder if he did maybe have cancer or something, because it was quite dramatic,” she said.
Former Auckland Eye operating theatre hostess Leonie Darlington described the defendant as a perfectionist at work who had very high standards.
“His approach to patients was very outstanding – he always put them first,” Darlington said.
Former Auckland Eye nurse Jillian Blakely had similar praise, adding that he could get “a bit cheeky” in the operating room during stressful situations if he didn’t have silence. But he always thanked the employees afterwards and always put patients at ease, she said.
It would have taken about 15 years of medical training for Polkinghorne to have reached his medical specialty, the witness with name suppression said. While other ophthalmologists might become senior lecturers, Polkinghorne was somewhat rare in that he had earned the higher position of associate professor at Auckland University, he said.
None of the witnesses recalled having ever seen the surgeon intoxicated on drugs.
Under cross-examination, the witness with name suppression said he was surprised to learn of drug use at all, much less the defendant having the equivalent of 370 doses of methamphetamine in his home. He was also surprised to hear of his friend’s relationship with Ashton, the Sydney sex worker.
“I found out about that about the same time as everyone else in Auckland,” he said.
Two witnesses were asked today to discuss the couple’s finances.
One served as a trustee on the Hanna Polkinghorne Trust, a bank account that had been referred to repeatedly during testimony from a forensic accountant who had been called by the Crown. It was suggested by prosecutors that the sale of a $1 million home previously belonging to Hanna had been put into the trust before being drained over the course of a year, with some of the money going to accounts controlled solely by Polkinghorne and used to pay sex workers.
The witness said he became a trustee around 2000 but had a hands-off approach, knowing very little about how the money was spent. He said he saw himself mostly to serve as a referee if needed, which it never was. Hanna was involved in the account and would sometimes have him sign papers, he recalled.
Tony Glucina, an investment advisor at JBWere, described investing $500,000 from the home sale for the couple, with the goal of providing income after retirement. Polkinghorne was the primary investor so he was the person who he dealt with, he said. Had Hanna called to check on the investments, he legally couldn’t have given her any information without checking in with Polkinghorne first, he said. But she never did call, he said.
Glucina also recalled a dinner with the couple at their Coromandel bach in the months before Hanna’s death, and also recalled leaving with the impression that Hanna was suffering work stress. He and his partner noticed and discussed afterwards that Hanna hadn’t touched her three-course meal, he said.
Polkinghorne and Hanna had discussed a stuff-up involving “Covid protection equipment” that was coming to light, he recalled.
“She was pretty stressed at that time,” he said, explaining that it wasn’t so much an observation as much as the couple’s own words that left him with that impression. “There was a lot of discussion about that from them both.”
Testimony is set to continue this afternoon before Justice Graham Lang and the jury.
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.
The Herald will be covering the case in a daily podcast, Accused: The Polkinghorne Trial. You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, through The Front Page feed, or wherever you get your podcasts.