August 7, 2024 • 38 mins
The court has gotten its first glimpse of evidence from those closest to Philip Polkinghorne and Paulina Hanna – and some insight into his infidelity. And we have heard directly from Polkinghorne, with the court hearing his interview with Police for the first time.
The former Auckland eye surgeon is accused of murdering his DHB boss wife in April 2021 - but he says, she took her own life.
Day 7 heard from a friend of the couple who owned the bach next to them, before the court heard from a power expert to analyse Polkinghorne's version of events from the morning Hanna died.
On Day 8, more people who had come into contact with the couple, including a personal trainer due to see Hanna the morning she died. Police also detailed a raid on a chalet where Polkinghorne was staying with a sex worker in the weeks after his wife's death, before his Police interview was played.
For the transcripts from Polkinghorne's interview, go here:https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/crime/philip-polkinghorne-murder-trial-jurors-hear-defendant-in-his-own-words-as-police-interview-played/U7YXHIMVBRBO3NDL2BJRGO5NZI/
You can listen to episodes of Accused: The Polkinghorne Trial through The Front Page podcast feed, or find it on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts.
This series is presented and produced by, Chelsea Daniels, with producer Ethan Sills and sound engineer Paddy Fox.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Kyota. I'm Chelsea Daniels and from the team behind the
front page the New Zealand Herald's daily news podcast, This
is Accused the Polkinghorn Trial. Over the next six weeks,
in conjunction with our usual daily episodes, we'll be bringing
you regular coverage as one of the most high profile
trials of the year makes its way through the High
(00:29):
Court at Auckland. A warning, this podcast contains disturbing content.
The court has gotten its first glimpse of evidence from
those closest to Philip Polkinghorn and Pauline Hannah, and some
insight into his infidelity, and we have heard directly from Polkinghorn,
(00:52):
with the court hearing his interview with police for the
first time. The former Auckland ice surgeon is accused of
murdering his his DHB boss wife in April twenty twenty one,
but he says she took her own life. Day seven
(01:17):
of the seventy one year old's trial saw Stephen McIntyre
take the stand. He and his wife were family friends
of Polkinghorn and Hannah. Both couples had batches at Rings
Beach on the Corimandel, about fifteen minutes north of Fitty
younger and became close over about twenty five years. Let's
see each other over public holidays, long weekends, and over
(01:40):
the Christmas period. Those usual times people would escape the
city and head to their holiday homes. That'd spend time together,
coffee in the morning, a bit of diving, fishing, dinners
and barbecues.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
She was a very vivacious woman. She was a very
proud woman and a woman that was always to put
her best foot forward. Obviously a professional woman. We used
to talk about her career and life in general.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
And when you say she was a proud woman, what
do you mean by that?
Speaker 2 (02:14):
She was always meticulously turned out. She didn't really like
you seeing her in the morning until until she was
made up.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Yeah, she was a well presented woman.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
In the twelve to eighteen months before Hannah's death, McIntyre
says Polkinghorn had changed.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
He was a very intelligent, funny, witty, generous man and
we always had a lot of laughs together. And I
felt that in that period leading up to Pauline's death,
I felt that he was quite changed. He told me
some things that turned out well, I doubted the truth
(02:59):
of them. His nature changed her in his physical presence
changed he became.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
Slimmer and.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Sort of more muscly, a different physique from what he'd had.
He became a bit more manic, a little bit irrational,
I felt at times, and as I said, I didn't
think he was behaving normally or truthfully to me at
all times.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Okay, can we just talk about that a little bit?
Speaker 5 (03:38):
He said, he became he changed and became a little
bit more I think manic and irrational were the words
you used.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Can you just explain why you use those words.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
I felt he was using drugs.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
McIntyre said. Polkinghorn, or Polky to which the community came
to know him, was becoming slimmer, more mustly. He says,
he became jumpy, slightly irrational. He would talk fast at times,
would change the subject. He was being a weirdo, he said.
McIntire spoke of a time when Polkinghorn had told him
(04:12):
of a car accident. He'd swerved to miss a dog
on the road, rolled his ute into a field and
drove off without anyone seeing. A couple of weeks later,
he would say he had fallen asleep at the wheel
and asked him not to tell his wife. McIntire thought
his friend was lying. How did Polkinghorn get a bill
for a fence when he said no one had seen it?
(04:34):
On cross examination, defense lawyer Ron Mansfield clarified some details
about this car accident. Did McIntyre know the accident was
captured on security footage? He didn't. Did he know his
friend had paid to fix the fence and then some
repairs had cost four hundred dollars but Polkinghorn had given
two thousand dollars.
Speaker 6 (04:55):
Now we know that because the owner of the fence
has been spoken to him affirmed those details, DAMI that
was called on the security footage, the damage to the
fence being just under four hundred, and that he paid
them two thousand.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
So you would accept that. Yep.
Speaker 6 (05:16):
So some of what he has told you, as far
as what you can recall.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
In fact, he is correct, doesn't it? Yes?
Speaker 6 (05:29):
And what you thought was an unusual story from him
perhaps appears less unusual in.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Light of those details. Correct, it's a little more plausable.
Speaker 6 (05:44):
I mean, these things can happen, Right, You have a conversation,
you think that doesn't seem quite right, You learn some
more information and you go, okay, well it's not as
odd as I thought.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Correct.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Correct, Polky told his friend about his frustration over the
issues he was having at auckland I relating to his retirement.
Polkinghorn watched his longtime friend intently as he gave evidence,
leaning forward and rubbing his chin. The Crown next called
(06:19):
former Consumer and Z product test manager Paul Smith, who
gave evidence on the power usage at the Upland Road home.
Power data reports in thirty minute intervals and shows how
much power was used in a half hour period, but
there's no way to be precise and look at it
minute by minute. Every house has a baseline amount of energy,
(06:42):
for instance, overnight used by a fridge or a freezer,
clocks or other things that are always plugged in and
always on. Looking at Smith's graph, there are four heightened periods.
From nine am April fourth to nine am April fifth,
the morning Hannah was found dead. Six thirty pm to
ten thirty pm on April fourth, was the highest usage.
(07:06):
There's no way to assign any particular appliance to these spikes,
but you can look at what's in the house and
make an estimate based on their usual energy use. Smith
was asked to establish whether a toaster or jug could
have been used For example, we know Polkinghorn told police
had gone downstairs about seven forty five am to make
(07:26):
tea and toast. These appliances could be used at any
time during those skyscraper periods, those four I mentioned before,
But there's an early morning period with a little jump
in energy use.
Speaker 7 (07:40):
The early morning period has a very small jump in energy,
not as great in each period or on average as
the amount of energy that the toaster or the kettle
would need to use. So I reasonably ruled out the
use of either of those appliances during that period.
Speaker 5 (07:58):
Just be clear and reading from your graph for us
what that period is that you rule out the use
of the toaster and kettle.
Speaker 7 (08:05):
So that period the early morning starts at four am
and runs up until the end of the seven thirty
am period, so right up before eight.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
Am on the fifth.
Speaker 5 (08:19):
So does that mean seven fifty nine and fifty nine
second and.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Fifty nine seconds, so we could almost call that eight o'clock.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
It could almost call that eight o'clock.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
So that energy increase over that baseline during that early
morning period isn't sufficient for both the use of the
toaster and the kettle. From eight am, there's a slightly
larger increase in energy, which is sufficient to support the
use of either the toaster or the kettle, not both.
He was also asked about the washing machine. The model
(08:52):
in the remuware a home uses very little energy.
Speaker 7 (08:55):
A washing machine tends to use most of its energy
to heat water for a hot or warm wash cycle.
The model in question had a hot water connection, so
it didn't use a lot of energy in its cycle,
actually less than the toaster or the kettle.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Really yeah. It also.
Speaker 7 (09:16):
Also it also used that energy over a longer period.
So a typical wash cycle for that model is about
forty five minutes. So we're looking at a period where
we're using less energy than the kettle over a much
longer period and a period that spans multiple.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Half hours intervals.
Speaker 7 (09:39):
So it was very difficult to rule out the use
of the washing machine outside of the overnight baseline period.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
In the period from ten thirty to eleven thirty, there's
a small increase in energy. He can't roll out the
use of the washing machine during that period. The dryer,
on the other hand, uses a significantly larger amount, and
given it does use so much and over a longer period.
There was only one skyscraper period where it could have
(10:06):
been on April fourth, between six thirty pm and ten
thirty pm, the night before Hannah's death. On cross examination,
Mansfield eluded He'll be calling his own power expert. Later
in the trial, he referenced a report from a man
named Beattie who concluded the jug could have been used
prior to eight am on the morning of April fifth.
(10:28):
He also alerted Smith to the fact the toaster had
been on level one Consumer and Z testing is done
on the assumption a piece of bread is toasted brown
and not by individual settings. He got Smith to clarify,
you can't know exactly what appliance has used, only make
assumptions on what could be. The Crown called Helen Poulson,
(10:54):
an e SR forensic scientist who gave evidence on toxicology.
She examined hannah blood, urine, and the liquid from inside
the eye. Twenty seven milligrams per one hundred millilters of
alcohol was found in the blood. The legal limit is
fifty milligrams. Legal drugs were also found in Hannah's blood.
(11:15):
They were fluoxetine, an antidepressant, phenamine, an appetite suppressant, and zopoclone,
a sedative or hypnotic. The levels of fluoxetine and phenamine
were normal. The amount of zopoclone was twice the normal
therapeutic dose. Poulson said it's also not recommended to mix
(11:35):
it with alcohol. Methamphetamine and amphetamine were detected in the
liquid found in the unflushed on sweet toilet in the
guest room. Hannah had been sleeping in. Meth metabolizes to
amphetamine in the body, so it's normal to find it
in the fluids of a meth user. Hannah's thirty four
centimeter long hair sample was sent to Melbourne for testing
(11:59):
and they were asked to analyze about six months of growth.
Speaker 8 (12:03):
Zobiklone was the only drug detected in the hair sample,
no others.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
No other drugs were detected A.
Speaker 5 (12:09):
Right, So what does it suggest then in terms of
myth amphetamine usage of the deceison There.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
Is no evidence that she induced methmphetamine.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
And a cross low period of time.
Speaker 8 (12:22):
Six months certainly was in the six months prior to
her death.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
On cross examination, Ron Mansfield asked Paulson about whether when
has regularly dyed, could it reduce the ability for drugs
to be found in it. He made her read out
a list of chemicals found in the dye used in
Hannah's hair, to which he asked whether they could strip
math or other drugs from the sample. She said she
couldn't exactly say. The phentamene, or weight loss drug, which
(12:50):
Hannah was prescribed forty scripts over ten years, didn't show
up in the hair sample, although Paulson said it would have.
Pulson agreed the die could explain why a drug she
took frequently, like the diet drug, might not be found
in her hair. Another arsal forensic scientist, Timothy Power, was
(13:11):
called to the stand late on day seven. After going
through the intricacies of the DNA tests used around the home,
Power agreed with Mansfield that the fact Polkinghorn and his
wife lived in the home meant their DNA would be
all over it. On day eight, the Crown first called
(13:37):
Barry Payne, the couple's personal trainer. He trained them at
City Fitness, Newmarket about twice a week, a Monday and
a Saturday, sometimes a Wednesday. He's trained polking Horn for
about fifteen years and Hannah about eight. Pip McNabb, a
prosecutor assisting Crown Solicitor Alsia McClintock questioned him about the
(13:58):
couple's relationship. He said, generally they got on pretty well.
It was pretty normal.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
Did she talk at all about her relationship with doctor Polkinghorn.
Speaker 9 (14:08):
Ah, they seemed okay at times, but she once meted
and mentioned that she thought Philip Haetta had a girlfriend,
and I ignored it, really hope the next year answer,
it was not the sort of conversation I wanted to
get in with, so I didn't really follow that up.
(14:28):
And I'm like, I wouldn't with any couple really yet,
I don't want to know their business and never.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Sense Hannah didn't really talk about her personal life to him.
The chat about movies, her work, other tidbits. She was
in good shape, took pride in how she presented herself,
and Polkinghorn trained well and strictly for a man his
age too. Payne saw the couple on the Saturday that
long weekend and had organized to see them on the
(14:53):
Easter Monday, the morning of Hannah's death. He was all dressed,
having a coffee sitting on his couch at home ahead
of the nine am appointment with Hannah when Polkinghorn called, and.
Speaker 9 (15:04):
When I answered, I said I thought, he said she's gone.
You know, she's dead, She's gone.
Speaker 4 (15:10):
I thought. I didn't take it seriously. I thought, which
is sleeping?
Speaker 9 (15:15):
I said something stupid like that, you know, And and
Philip was pretty distraught at that time and said, no, no,
she's dead and gone.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
And I've stunn mollot I was.
Speaker 9 (15:27):
I didn't know how to respond particularly, and I said
what happened? And he didn't say, she's just she's gone.
And I thought it was a car act. I didn't
know what had happened, so it was a bit grimmer,
and and I said, oh, we'll see you well he
(15:48):
said I can't which way her And it was I'll
see you later in the week and have a copy
and we'll go over it. And I hung up.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
They didn't meet for coffee that week. Defense lawyer Ron
Mansfield asked Pain about Polkinghorn's behavior before his wife's death.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
Didn't seem menic, No, No, not at all. Didn't seem distracted.
Speaker 9 (16:11):
Not that I noticed. No, Philip was always very focused.
I thought, was.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
It jumping around from tobok to tobock?
Speaker 9 (16:18):
No, No, I can't remember that. No, wasn't a retic, no,
no way, no, And.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Didn't turn into a weirdow in the.
Speaker 9 (16:25):
Last No, no, not at all.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
No, No, I never thought that this contradicts evidence given
on day seven from the couple's long term friend, Stephen McIntyre.
The court briefly heard from a nurse at County's Monaco
DHB who knew Hannah from her role in the vaccination program.
She administered the vaccine to Hannah on April fourth, the
(16:50):
day before her death. She spent less than three minutes
with her that day, but said there were no injuries
or marks on her body by late morning. To take
Senior Sergeant Lisa Jane Anderson was called to the stand.
She went to Mount Cook in the South Island, where
Polkinghorn and his girlfriend Madison Ashton was staying after Hannah's death.
(17:13):
You'll remember Ashton mentioned in the Crown's opening. She's a
Sydney based sex worker. Anderson arrived at Mount Cook Lakeside
Retreat about seven o six pm on April thirty. A
white Toyota Polkinghorn had hired was parked out the front
of a standalone unit called the Matsariki Room. Anderson was
(17:34):
there with two christ Church detectives to seize Madison Ashton's phones,
which were then handed over to a digital forensic unit
in christ Church.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
She declined to provide the pin numbers.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
Mister Polkinghorn prison at that point, as he was.
Speaker 10 (17:52):
What happened after she refused to supply the pin numbers
as she was asked again he refused.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
To King The Crown then called Rob Masters, who was
living in a unit in Northcote Point, a block of
twelve apartments in the North Shore known as Melrose Court.
Masters noticed a white Mercedes with the number plate Rattina.
He first saw the car about twenty nineteen, and it
visited the complex on a weekly basis, sometimes more frequently.
(18:21):
Over time, he came to recognize the man who drove
that car. He met him a couple of times on
the driveway where he'd trained clients. He was a personal trainer.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Did you learn of the individual's name? Yes? I did.
Speaker 11 (18:33):
What was that Philip Pulkinghorn And how did you come
to learn of his name? He was introduced at one
of our agms as Philip John something along those lines.
I can't remember where there is surname. And then obviously
during the media attention right once his wife at being
(19:00):
passed away.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
The woman who lived at the complex was rachel Or
A Laria. She used both names. She was in her
early to mid fifties with long blondish grayish hair. Polkinhorn
would visit a bag, usually in tow. Masters saw bottles
of champagne, women's clothing. Perhaps it would never be a
farmer's bag or something like that. He said they were
(19:23):
fancy bags. He described him as being well dressed. He
had seen him once wearing scrubs like the ones a
doctor would wear. Rachel Or A Laria would have a
couple of other regular visitors as well, but none as
frequent as the white Mercedes with the number plate Retina.
He disappeared during the COVID lockdowns.
Speaker 11 (19:43):
I don't recall seeing him during level four lockdown, but
the day after week, the day we went to level three.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
He appeared on that day a couple of lockdowns, as
I recall.
Speaker 5 (19:55):
Yeah, if you recall if it was the first or
the second longer lockdown, looklan that.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
No, I couldn't say for certain. It was definitely the
day after because it was like, oh yeah, that didn't.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
Take long sort of thing.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Rember. Yeah, thank you man.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Yes, Brian Dickie asked Masters what his neighbor, Rachel did
for work.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
My understanding is that Rachel was a sex worker.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
After Hannah's death, the neighbor noticed the car with the
number plate RETNA vanished. Marah Riddington also lived at that
block of apartments, and she knew Rachel, who'd asked one
day to be referred to as Alaria. She also saw
polking Horn at the address.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
Did you make a.
Speaker 5 (20:38):
Link to the writtena number plate after you saw media
around the death of miss Pulling Hannah?
Speaker 8 (20:45):
I know I saw him the first times he came
because he was a terrible driver, terrible at parking and
nearly ran into me. So the first thing you do
is look at the number plate.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
She'd see him while she was in her garden and
say hello, nothing more. She too noticed his gift bags
along with the champagne he'd visited in his white Mercedes
and a red ute.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
He was noticeable because.
Speaker 8 (21:12):
He's a man who likes to stand out. You know,
he'd come with champagne and gifts for her, and one
time wearing his hospital scrubs, you know, complete with hat
and COVID. I mean that stands out.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
In the afternoon, Jacob Pollock was called to the stand.
He's a private investigator. He told the court about Pauline
Hannah making an inquiry through his firm's website. She wanted
to arrange a meeting to conduct an infidelity investigation on
her husband. She didn't give away too much detail other
than that, but wanted to speak by phone. She said
(21:51):
she'd call, but Pollock never heard from her again. This
contact was made. On July twenty, twenty twenty, Detective Sergeant
I Lona Walton was recalled to the stand. You'll remember
her from earlier on in the trial. She conducted the
(22:12):
videoed police interview with Polkinghorn, which is nearly three hours long.
The video was then played for the jury. Because the
content of the lengthy interview jumped around a lot, we're
not going to go through every detail of it, but
it's fair to say the interview was jumpy and erratic.
You can read transcripts of this interview on the ends
(22:34):
at Herald website. There'll be a link in our show notes,
but we'll be playing you a few snippets. Polkinghorn's interview
canvass is a range of topics before he even gets
to the morning of his wife's death. In it, Polkinghorn
explains the layout of the house and draws it on
a piece of paper for Walton. There's talk of the
visit to the Highbury Vaccination Center that weekend, details about
(22:57):
a tent and a phylaxus cases, and Hannah's work in general.
He spoke of him being away and funk at eight
in the days prior, and an incident about ten years
before where someone had tried to break into the home
while he was away.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Double wooden.
Speaker 10 (23:16):
Seat in the garden and thought she when I was
away once someone up turned it on the side, so
he used it as a letter to climb up into
the deck into the library and tried to break him
and she was petrified. Oh wow, okay, so were there's
a result that she's put security lighting around the thing,
(23:37):
so the only blink outside the lights come on, And.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
Was that reported to the police?
Speaker 10 (23:45):
I don't like Why don't you camp It was a
long as ten years ago probably?
Speaker 1 (23:51):
He jumps around the events of days beforehand. He goes
into detail about the ute Hannah had taken to the
tip the day before and her inability to put it
into reverse. The pair wanted to clear the garage of junk.
He talks about the orange rope.
Speaker 4 (24:06):
The orange rope is a nylon rope.
Speaker 10 (24:11):
It's it's free coarse, but it was fry frying at
one end. We both ended on and I boomed it
to see the thing that stopped fraying.
Speaker 4 (24:23):
And but she took a lot by company and what dad.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Did it a couple of days ago, He mentions an
argument or discussion as he calls it, about staining their
beach house, the one in the Corimandel. He details an
episode of New Amsterdam that watched the night before on Netflix,
and he mentions she had called a range of people
the day before, which he deemed unusual. Polkinghorn told Walton
about Hannah's mother dying about six weeks prior. He tells
(24:49):
a story about Hannah going to call her mother about
a cricket game but realizing she was gone. So the
night before they had a couple of drinks in the library,
talked about the day and watched the medical drama on Netflix,
New Amsterdam. She was helping him draft a letter. He
gives a blow by blow about troubles converting the document
on his computer from Hannah's and the difficulty in printing it.
(25:11):
He was drinking chiraz. She preferred Pino noir. He thinks
she drank about a bottle and a half of wine.
He probably had about two glasses.
Speaker 4 (25:20):
Like an intoxication. It was on things last night. Never
seen a drunker, have never seen a drunk never, So
she wasn't drunk last night. No, No, I wouldn't say
she was drunk before. She probably wasn't toxicate. But she
wasn't mad.
Speaker 10 (25:38):
She had a drunken driving offense once, so she's never
done that again, and.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
I was not very happy with that.
Speaker 12 (25:49):
Yeah, how long ago was that?
Speaker 10 (25:52):
It probably ten years or something. Maybe, yeah, a long time,
quite a long time. It doesn't it's an excuson.
Speaker 4 (26:02):
In my opinion. But she wasn't presenting. She wouldn't fall
over and stuff like that.
Speaker 12 (26:08):
Nothing like that, you know, or No, sometimes people get
a little bit bigly or silly or.
Speaker 10 (26:14):
Well she I know, I don't think so at all.
Speaker 8 (26:18):
She was.
Speaker 4 (26:18):
She was a bit emotional about some of the TVs.
Speaker 10 (26:21):
I don't think if she watched it in the afternoon,
she would have been crying about some of the things.
Speaker 4 (26:25):
If you know what I mean.
Speaker 10 (26:26):
But the God of the float cat, you know, I mean,
it's tragic for the story, and they I think I've
over make a comment because the lady did a tracheost
to me his wife. He's not medically qualified to do
it with a pen knife, and they.
Speaker 4 (26:42):
Put a straw into his trachea, so you breathe now.
The unfortunate thing about that bit of.
Speaker 10 (26:50):
Is that if you think how big your mouth is now,
and the tricky goes basically downline that to put a
thing a little straw and to think that ain't gonna
make much difference.
Speaker 4 (26:59):
But she recklessly saved its life and they had a
cops and back. But she thought he might have died.
I see he won't die.
Speaker 10 (27:06):
It won't die in it for the next week.
Speaker 4 (27:09):
The max good television. It does makes good television. And
then she she might have said it was too harsh
or something.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
He goes into their daily routines. He'd usually be up
before her and makes her breakfast in.
Speaker 10 (27:20):
Bed, so I make put in breakfast and being in Warner,
she has yeah, they always have, but she's opus.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
I know I can drink a cup of tuo lying
on her back. Good skill. And then sometimes she saves me.
We have my breakfast eating it. She doesn't even know
she's eating it. Do you make a good breakfast?
Speaker 10 (27:37):
She has the same thing every day she has she
has one piece of toast and it has to be
mckimsy bread and she has on a veno margarine or something.
And then she likes lime marmalade, roses lime marmalade, and
then she has we have because we discovered this tea
(28:01):
its cinder burtle wing, but it's technically maybe by a
company called the Tea Company Tea Letter not me T
two actually, And we discovered this thing called French Earl graystious.
Speaker 4 (28:17):
Wow, isn't it fantastic?
Speaker 10 (28:19):
Yeah, once I made a mistake buy it online, showing
how clever I was, and I came back with the
Earl Gray.
Speaker 4 (28:27):
And it was we came away.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
I think she usually gets home after him, so he
cooks a dinner. She usually lets him know when she's
on her way home.
Speaker 4 (28:36):
And she and I said to her, look, then will
be really later? Just tell me. I didn't care what
time it does.
Speaker 10 (28:43):
And then so when she comes in the door, I
usually the garage door open with her now cleaned if
you come open the leaves and but yeah, so she
has ever gaged door and sometimes if she's very lucky.
I'm standing at at the top of the stairs that
she comes up the garage holding a glass of wine
for it.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
He eventually gets to the events of that morning the downstairs.
Speaker 10 (29:10):
Intended on the jugger and put three bits of toast
and the toaster okay, and then got the butter and
stuff out ready for that now, great tea. I find
that you've got to before attended the toaster because kensy.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
Bout a quite big. I think what you're doing now
a good.
Speaker 10 (29:28):
Old He put the toast in and I have it
on the low setting, but it only will do the
leaves the top cup of things. So what happens that
once the tea's made? So while the keeople poured the
tea in, then I turned the toast over to the
remaining a couple of centimeters plus it browns it off
(29:51):
of it into the dish washer too, I can't remember.
So that's what I was sort of fiddling around with.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
He didn't think he'd gotten far into the process. He
doesn't think he turned on the kettle before he found
Hannah and the entrance way. He panicked, he said, and
dialed one one, one four before realizing and correctly calling
one one one.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
I didn't. I just didn't know.
Speaker 8 (30:14):
And what.
Speaker 10 (30:16):
To put me through the ambulance people and they said,
stayed with her.
Speaker 4 (30:19):
She breathing horse says no, I said, and she's cold.
And then I and then I I.
Speaker 10 (30:29):
Was trying to get her out and put it down flat.
Speaker 4 (30:34):
I think they told me to do that. I can't remember.
And as I did, side dropped the phone.
Speaker 10 (30:40):
Yeah, and that crashed all over the copy of the tiles,
and I couldn't. There's almost I just something uncontrollably. Really,
I mean, it's society having an arm pulled off you.
Speaker 4 (30:56):
It was just it was just horrible. And I lay
it down and then and and but Tom Ruth came over.
Speaker 10 (31:07):
She we gave her a pillo and we're trying to
make it comfortable, which is sounds stupid, and we're not.
Speaker 4 (31:14):
We don't got off the chair. Her legs buckled.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
Hawkinghorn walked Walton through what he thought he did with
the belt and rope around Hannah's neck. The belt wasn't
that tight. He thought he could put his hand under it.
He spoke of undoing granny knots in the rope and
how he laid her on the floor. Her rings were
all in the inside, he said. He turned them around.
She loved those bloody rings, he said. The rope was
(31:40):
attached to the balustrade above. He mentions they were granny
knots too. From memory, was.
Speaker 10 (31:45):
It the rope attached to or the rope was attached
to the bellustrade above?
Speaker 8 (31:51):
Okay?
Speaker 10 (31:52):
Yes, yes, the attached the bellustrade above. Now, and that
was granny knots too. From memory, I might have been
district be grandy knots, but along those lines at the
bottom of the balustrade, okay, because I said to someone afterwards,
I was surprised that the balustrade would take a weight,
(32:17):
shall we say, adweight of seventy kgs. So whether the knots,
I don't know, whether they're not slipped or why don't
I'm just trying to think, why was she sitting there
in a chair, if you like, Maybe maybe she stood
on the chair and.
Speaker 4 (32:35):
Went off.
Speaker 10 (32:36):
But and the knots, I don't know. I don't know
whether they're not held and slipped or what. I just
don't know. I just I still think that seventy kg's
on that balustrade.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
There's a hell of a weight.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
He was in a hurry to undo the rope, and
he said it looked horrible just hanging there.
Speaker 4 (32:58):
It looked too hideous to me, the the rope.
Speaker 10 (33:00):
And I undered the rope upstairs and did Grannie nots upstairs?
Speaker 4 (33:06):
You under the grannieknots upstairs? Yes, and got rid of
the rope.
Speaker 10 (33:09):
Well, when I say it got everyone, but it just didn't,
you know, it looked awful just hanging there.
Speaker 4 (33:16):
It just was horrible the rope. And then she's down
there on the floor. Yeah, I can't remember she's coming on.
Speaker 10 (33:24):
I think we were, but it was a quite ah,
I'll say, but afterwards it made me it's still there
when the ambulance people are right, but it just looked
it was offensive to me the rope.
Speaker 4 (33:39):
So wouldn't either arrived. It was at the rope and
there when you were right, yeah, but so I wasn't
first time saying so.
Speaker 12 (33:45):
The ambulance were right, yeah, and the uniform police staff arrived,
and then after that I'm not sure which order. I
think there were a couple of remember, and then we
arrived after that right, and there were us. So I'm
just confused. There was rope.
Speaker 10 (34:04):
Straight and then not taken off by at the time
you got I thought, I do, not straight away but
near enough straight away. But why do I leave for
the ambulance drive with an uniform policeman the un and
then take it.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
Off the.
Speaker 4 (34:19):
Well? It was still there when I left.
Speaker 10 (34:22):
Oh no, it wasn't because it was unscrewed it and
I hadn't It wasn't hanging by, but it was a
hanging when you were still there.
Speaker 4 (34:29):
So where have you put it?
Speaker 3 (34:32):
Have you you were? No?
Speaker 4 (34:34):
I put it. All I did was I thought, I thought.
Speaker 10 (34:37):
I it's either up at the top or it's on
the stairway going out.
Speaker 4 (34:43):
Of the garage.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
After a while, he asks if he could see his
wife anyway.
Speaker 4 (34:50):
That's that.
Speaker 10 (34:52):
And I talked to one of the officers about the
clothes because he said I might.
Speaker 4 (34:55):
Be able to go and visit or the mortuary. Yeah,
say goodbye to her.
Speaker 13 (35:03):
So that there's something bad to today an.
Speaker 4 (35:22):
The gossip of hard You need to get clearance from
the bosses. But we can see what we can do.
And I also like it to be in some clothes.
Speaker 10 (35:35):
She's got some bignity, not them, just a body bag or.
Speaker 4 (35:38):
Something horrible.
Speaker 10 (35:41):
Unfortunately, if possible, Okay, I'm it's something that is it's
beyond your break, beyond your breath.
Speaker 4 (35:50):
When she gets to the funeral home and okay, I
don't really like accepting oak. No no, no, no, no, no, okay,
that's fine.
Speaker 12 (35:57):
I've got one which.
Speaker 4 (36:02):
She got cause yeah, because the funeral actually has a funeral,
I can say goodbye to a their you can. That's
probably there's probably been way I would say. I didn't
even think about all that stuff. You know, I haven't
got my head around all that. So of course I
can say goodbye to with it. I don't need to
say goodbye to her in a bloody could mortuary.
Speaker 10 (36:21):
Guy, I would situ asult lots of times in mortuary,
so I know what don't like.
Speaker 4 (36:26):
We used to take eyes for donors, so I know
what they like.
Speaker 10 (36:30):
So there's a family room and a family viewing room
and no, no, no, no no, no, you're quite well
both do it at the the funeral funeral home.
Speaker 4 (36:38):
Yes, yeah, it's her mother was in a funeral home
and Headlock North and we did it extraordinary tastefully.
Speaker 10 (36:51):
They had a room like a little in the in
this big building they had there's room they had there
was like little houses in there.
Speaker 4 (36:58):
Yeah. So if you go into a ring a room
like that and it's a kitchen off thee and where
in a beef and where fate was?
Speaker 10 (37:06):
Yeah, because god, I don't know if you're interfunerals in Auckland,
but the bloody awful you know that they're just.
Speaker 4 (37:14):
You know, yes, it's awful.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
In the interview, Polkinghorn would trail off and not answer questions.
One he couldn't answer was at the end, how did
he come to suffer the wound on his forehead. That
added to the suspicions of the detectives.
Speaker 10 (37:30):
I don't know, I said, I don't even know I've
done it. Ruth said, I may have hit the tiles
or something on the steat. I can't measure. It's horizontal,
and that's horizontal, which is odd.
Speaker 4 (37:43):
I've got no idea. I didn't even know head it
until some signory or bleeding looking at But.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
The trial continues tomorrow. You can listen to episodes of
Accused the polking Horn Trial through the Front Page podcast
or find it on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts.
This series is presented and produced by me Chelsea Daniels
with producer Ethan Siles and sound engineer Patti Fox. Additional
(38:13):
reporting from The Heralds Craig Capatan and George Block, and
for more coverage of the Polkinghorn trial, head to ensidherld
dot co dot enz
Kyota. I'm Chelsea Daniels and from the team behind the
front page the New Zealand Herald's daily news podcast, This
is Accused the Polkinghorn Trial. Over the next six weeks,
in conjunction with our usual daily episodes, we'll be bringing
you regular coverage as one of the most high profile
trials of the year makes its way through the High
(00:29):
Court at Auckland. A warning, this podcast contains disturbing content.
The court has gotten its first glimpse of evidence from
those closest to Philip Polkinghorn and Pauline Hannah, and some
insight into his infidelity, and we have heard directly from Polkinghorn,
(00:52):
with the court hearing his interview with police for the
first time. The former Auckland ice surgeon is accused of
murdering his his DHB boss wife in April twenty twenty one,
but he says she took her own life. Day seven
(01:17):
of the seventy one year old's trial saw Stephen McIntyre
take the stand. He and his wife were family friends
of Polkinghorn and Hannah. Both couples had batches at Rings
Beach on the Corimandel, about fifteen minutes north of Fitty
younger and became close over about twenty five years. Let's
see each other over public holidays, long weekends, and over
(01:40):
the Christmas period. Those usual times people would escape the
city and head to their holiday homes. That'd spend time together,
coffee in the morning, a bit of diving, fishing, dinners
and barbecues.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
She was a very vivacious woman. She was a very
proud woman and a woman that was always to put
her best foot forward. Obviously a professional woman. We used
to talk about her career and life in general.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
And when you say she was a proud woman, what
do you mean by that?
Speaker 2 (02:14):
She was always meticulously turned out. She didn't really like
you seeing her in the morning until until she was
made up.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Yeah, she was a well presented woman.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
In the twelve to eighteen months before Hannah's death, McIntyre
says Polkinghorn had changed.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
He was a very intelligent, funny, witty, generous man and
we always had a lot of laughs together. And I
felt that in that period leading up to Pauline's death,
I felt that he was quite changed. He told me
some things that turned out well, I doubted the truth
(02:59):
of them. His nature changed her in his physical presence
changed he became.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
Slimmer and.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Sort of more muscly, a different physique from what he'd had.
He became a bit more manic, a little bit irrational,
I felt at times, and as I said, I didn't
think he was behaving normally or truthfully to me at
all times.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Okay, can we just talk about that a little bit?
Speaker 5 (03:38):
He said, he became he changed and became a little
bit more I think manic and irrational were the words
you used.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Can you just explain why you use those words.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
I felt he was using drugs.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
McIntyre said. Polkinghorn, or Polky to which the community came
to know him, was becoming slimmer, more mustly. He says,
he became jumpy, slightly irrational. He would talk fast at times,
would change the subject. He was being a weirdo, he said.
McIntire spoke of a time when Polkinghorn had told him
(04:12):
of a car accident. He'd swerved to miss a dog
on the road, rolled his ute into a field and
drove off without anyone seeing. A couple of weeks later,
he would say he had fallen asleep at the wheel
and asked him not to tell his wife. McIntire thought
his friend was lying. How did Polkinghorn get a bill
for a fence when he said no one had seen it?
(04:34):
On cross examination, defense lawyer Ron Mansfield clarified some details
about this car accident. Did McIntyre know the accident was
captured on security footage? He didn't. Did he know his
friend had paid to fix the fence and then some
repairs had cost four hundred dollars but Polkinghorn had given
two thousand dollars.
Speaker 6 (04:55):
Now we know that because the owner of the fence
has been spoken to him affirmed those details, DAMI that
was called on the security footage, the damage to the
fence being just under four hundred, and that he paid
them two thousand.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
So you would accept that. Yep.
Speaker 6 (05:16):
So some of what he has told you, as far
as what you can recall.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
In fact, he is correct, doesn't it? Yes?
Speaker 6 (05:29):
And what you thought was an unusual story from him
perhaps appears less unusual in.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Light of those details. Correct, it's a little more plausable.
Speaker 6 (05:44):
I mean, these things can happen, Right, You have a conversation,
you think that doesn't seem quite right, You learn some
more information and you go, okay, well it's not as
odd as I thought.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Correct.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Correct, Polky told his friend about his frustration over the
issues he was having at auckland I relating to his retirement.
Polkinghorn watched his longtime friend intently as he gave evidence,
leaning forward and rubbing his chin. The Crown next called
(06:19):
former Consumer and Z product test manager Paul Smith, who
gave evidence on the power usage at the Upland Road home.
Power data reports in thirty minute intervals and shows how
much power was used in a half hour period, but
there's no way to be precise and look at it
minute by minute. Every house has a baseline amount of energy,
(06:42):
for instance, overnight used by a fridge or a freezer,
clocks or other things that are always plugged in and
always on. Looking at Smith's graph, there are four heightened periods.
From nine am April fourth to nine am April fifth,
the morning Hannah was found dead. Six thirty pm to
ten thirty pm on April fourth, was the highest usage.
(07:06):
There's no way to assign any particular appliance to these spikes,
but you can look at what's in the house and
make an estimate based on their usual energy use. Smith
was asked to establish whether a toaster or jug could
have been used For example, we know Polkinghorn told police
had gone downstairs about seven forty five am to make
(07:26):
tea and toast. These appliances could be used at any
time during those skyscraper periods, those four I mentioned before,
But there's an early morning period with a little jump
in energy use.
Speaker 7 (07:40):
The early morning period has a very small jump in energy,
not as great in each period or on average as
the amount of energy that the toaster or the kettle
would need to use. So I reasonably ruled out the
use of either of those appliances during that period.
Speaker 5 (07:58):
Just be clear and reading from your graph for us
what that period is that you rule out the use
of the toaster and kettle.
Speaker 7 (08:05):
So that period the early morning starts at four am
and runs up until the end of the seven thirty
am period, so right up before eight.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
Am on the fifth.
Speaker 5 (08:19):
So does that mean seven fifty nine and fifty nine
second and.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Fifty nine seconds, so we could almost call that eight o'clock.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
It could almost call that eight o'clock.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
So that energy increase over that baseline during that early
morning period isn't sufficient for both the use of the
toaster and the kettle. From eight am, there's a slightly
larger increase in energy, which is sufficient to support the
use of either the toaster or the kettle, not both.
He was also asked about the washing machine. The model
(08:52):
in the remuware a home uses very little energy.
Speaker 7 (08:55):
A washing machine tends to use most of its energy
to heat water for a hot or warm wash cycle.
The model in question had a hot water connection, so
it didn't use a lot of energy in its cycle,
actually less than the toaster or the kettle.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Really yeah. It also.
Speaker 7 (09:16):
Also it also used that energy over a longer period.
So a typical wash cycle for that model is about
forty five minutes. So we're looking at a period where
we're using less energy than the kettle over a much
longer period and a period that spans multiple.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Half hours intervals.
Speaker 7 (09:39):
So it was very difficult to rule out the use
of the washing machine outside of the overnight baseline period.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
In the period from ten thirty to eleven thirty, there's
a small increase in energy. He can't roll out the
use of the washing machine during that period. The dryer,
on the other hand, uses a significantly larger amount, and
given it does use so much and over a longer period.
There was only one skyscraper period where it could have
(10:06):
been on April fourth, between six thirty pm and ten
thirty pm, the night before Hannah's death. On cross examination,
Mansfield eluded He'll be calling his own power expert. Later
in the trial, he referenced a report from a man
named Beattie who concluded the jug could have been used
prior to eight am on the morning of April fifth.
(10:28):
He also alerted Smith to the fact the toaster had
been on level one Consumer and Z testing is done
on the assumption a piece of bread is toasted brown
and not by individual settings. He got Smith to clarify,
you can't know exactly what appliance has used, only make
assumptions on what could be. The Crown called Helen Poulson,
(10:54):
an e SR forensic scientist who gave evidence on toxicology.
She examined hannah blood, urine, and the liquid from inside
the eye. Twenty seven milligrams per one hundred millilters of
alcohol was found in the blood. The legal limit is
fifty milligrams. Legal drugs were also found in Hannah's blood.
(11:15):
They were fluoxetine, an antidepressant, phenamine, an appetite suppressant, and zopoclone,
a sedative or hypnotic. The levels of fluoxetine and phenamine
were normal. The amount of zopoclone was twice the normal
therapeutic dose. Poulson said it's also not recommended to mix
(11:35):
it with alcohol. Methamphetamine and amphetamine were detected in the
liquid found in the unflushed on sweet toilet in the
guest room. Hannah had been sleeping in. Meth metabolizes to
amphetamine in the body, so it's normal to find it
in the fluids of a meth user. Hannah's thirty four
centimeter long hair sample was sent to Melbourne for testing
(11:59):
and they were asked to analyze about six months of growth.
Speaker 8 (12:03):
Zobiklone was the only drug detected in the hair sample,
no others.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
No other drugs were detected A.
Speaker 5 (12:09):
Right, So what does it suggest then in terms of
myth amphetamine usage of the deceison There.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
Is no evidence that she induced methmphetamine.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
And a cross low period of time.
Speaker 8 (12:22):
Six months certainly was in the six months prior to
her death.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
On cross examination, Ron Mansfield asked Paulson about whether when
has regularly dyed, could it reduce the ability for drugs
to be found in it. He made her read out
a list of chemicals found in the dye used in
Hannah's hair, to which he asked whether they could strip
math or other drugs from the sample. She said she
couldn't exactly say. The phentamene, or weight loss drug, which
(12:50):
Hannah was prescribed forty scripts over ten years, didn't show
up in the hair sample, although Paulson said it would have.
Pulson agreed the die could explain why a drug she
took frequently, like the diet drug, might not be found
in her hair. Another arsal forensic scientist, Timothy Power, was
(13:11):
called to the stand late on day seven. After going
through the intricacies of the DNA tests used around the home,
Power agreed with Mansfield that the fact Polkinghorn and his
wife lived in the home meant their DNA would be
all over it. On day eight, the Crown first called
(13:37):
Barry Payne, the couple's personal trainer. He trained them at
City Fitness, Newmarket about twice a week, a Monday and
a Saturday, sometimes a Wednesday. He's trained polking Horn for
about fifteen years and Hannah about eight. Pip McNabb, a
prosecutor assisting Crown Solicitor Alsia McClintock questioned him about the
(13:58):
couple's relationship. He said, generally they got on pretty well.
It was pretty normal.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
Did she talk at all about her relationship with doctor Polkinghorn.
Speaker 9 (14:08):
Ah, they seemed okay at times, but she once meted
and mentioned that she thought Philip Haetta had a girlfriend,
and I ignored it, really hope the next year answer,
it was not the sort of conversation I wanted to
get in with, so I didn't really follow that up.
(14:28):
And I'm like, I wouldn't with any couple really yet,
I don't want to know their business and never.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Sense Hannah didn't really talk about her personal life to him.
The chat about movies, her work, other tidbits. She was
in good shape, took pride in how she presented herself,
and Polkinghorn trained well and strictly for a man his
age too. Payne saw the couple on the Saturday that
long weekend and had organized to see them on the
(14:53):
Easter Monday, the morning of Hannah's death. He was all dressed,
having a coffee sitting on his couch at home ahead
of the nine am appointment with Hannah when Polkinghorn called, and.
Speaker 9 (15:04):
When I answered, I said I thought, he said she's gone.
You know, she's dead, She's gone.
Speaker 4 (15:10):
I thought. I didn't take it seriously. I thought, which
is sleeping?
Speaker 9 (15:15):
I said something stupid like that, you know, And and
Philip was pretty distraught at that time and said, no, no,
she's dead and gone.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
And I've stunn mollot I was.
Speaker 9 (15:27):
I didn't know how to respond particularly, and I said
what happened? And he didn't say, she's just she's gone.
And I thought it was a car act. I didn't
know what had happened, so it was a bit grimmer,
and and I said, oh, we'll see you well he
(15:48):
said I can't which way her And it was I'll
see you later in the week and have a copy
and we'll go over it. And I hung up.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
They didn't meet for coffee that week. Defense lawyer Ron
Mansfield asked Pain about Polkinghorn's behavior before his wife's death.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
Didn't seem menic, No, No, not at all. Didn't seem distracted.
Speaker 9 (16:11):
Not that I noticed. No, Philip was always very focused.
I thought, was.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
It jumping around from tobok to tobock?
Speaker 9 (16:18):
No, No, I can't remember that. No, wasn't a retic, no,
no way, no, And.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Didn't turn into a weirdow in the.
Speaker 9 (16:25):
Last No, no, not at all.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
No, No, I never thought that this contradicts evidence given
on day seven from the couple's long term friend, Stephen McIntyre.
The court briefly heard from a nurse at County's Monaco
DHB who knew Hannah from her role in the vaccination program.
She administered the vaccine to Hannah on April fourth, the
(16:50):
day before her death. She spent less than three minutes
with her that day, but said there were no injuries
or marks on her body by late morning. To take
Senior Sergeant Lisa Jane Anderson was called to the stand.
She went to Mount Cook in the South Island, where
Polkinghorn and his girlfriend Madison Ashton was staying after Hannah's death.
(17:13):
You'll remember Ashton mentioned in the Crown's opening. She's a
Sydney based sex worker. Anderson arrived at Mount Cook Lakeside
Retreat about seven o six pm on April thirty. A
white Toyota Polkinghorn had hired was parked out the front
of a standalone unit called the Matsariki Room. Anderson was
(17:34):
there with two christ Church detectives to seize Madison Ashton's phones,
which were then handed over to a digital forensic unit
in christ Church.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
She declined to provide the pin numbers.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
Mister Polkinghorn prison at that point, as he was.
Speaker 10 (17:52):
What happened after she refused to supply the pin numbers
as she was asked again he refused.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
To King The Crown then called Rob Masters, who was
living in a unit in Northcote Point, a block of
twelve apartments in the North Shore known as Melrose Court.
Masters noticed a white Mercedes with the number plate Rattina.
He first saw the car about twenty nineteen, and it
visited the complex on a weekly basis, sometimes more frequently.
(18:21):
Over time, he came to recognize the man who drove
that car. He met him a couple of times on
the driveway where he'd trained clients. He was a personal trainer.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Did you learn of the individual's name? Yes? I did.
Speaker 11 (18:33):
What was that Philip Pulkinghorn And how did you come
to learn of his name? He was introduced at one
of our agms as Philip John something along those lines.
I can't remember where there is surname. And then obviously
during the media attention right once his wife at being
(19:00):
passed away.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
The woman who lived at the complex was rachel Or
A Laria. She used both names. She was in her
early to mid fifties with long blondish grayish hair. Polkinhorn
would visit a bag, usually in tow. Masters saw bottles
of champagne, women's clothing. Perhaps it would never be a
farmer's bag or something like that. He said they were
(19:23):
fancy bags. He described him as being well dressed. He
had seen him once wearing scrubs like the ones a
doctor would wear. Rachel Or A Laria would have a
couple of other regular visitors as well, but none as
frequent as the white Mercedes with the number plate Retina.
He disappeared during the COVID lockdowns.
Speaker 11 (19:43):
I don't recall seeing him during level four lockdown, but
the day after week, the day we went to level three.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
He appeared on that day a couple of lockdowns, as
I recall.
Speaker 5 (19:55):
Yeah, if you recall if it was the first or
the second longer lockdown, looklan that.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
No, I couldn't say for certain. It was definitely the
day after because it was like, oh yeah, that didn't.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
Take long sort of thing.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Rember. Yeah, thank you man.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Yes, Brian Dickie asked Masters what his neighbor, Rachel did
for work.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
My understanding is that Rachel was a sex worker.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
After Hannah's death, the neighbor noticed the car with the
number plate RETNA vanished. Marah Riddington also lived at that
block of apartments, and she knew Rachel, who'd asked one
day to be referred to as Alaria. She also saw
polking Horn at the address.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
Did you make a.
Speaker 5 (20:38):
Link to the writtena number plate after you saw media
around the death of miss Pulling Hannah?
Speaker 8 (20:45):
I know I saw him the first times he came
because he was a terrible driver, terrible at parking and
nearly ran into me. So the first thing you do
is look at the number plate.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
She'd see him while she was in her garden and
say hello, nothing more. She too noticed his gift bags
along with the champagne he'd visited in his white Mercedes
and a red ute.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
He was noticeable because.
Speaker 8 (21:12):
He's a man who likes to stand out. You know,
he'd come with champagne and gifts for her, and one
time wearing his hospital scrubs, you know, complete with hat
and COVID. I mean that stands out.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
In the afternoon, Jacob Pollock was called to the stand.
He's a private investigator. He told the court about Pauline
Hannah making an inquiry through his firm's website. She wanted
to arrange a meeting to conduct an infidelity investigation on
her husband. She didn't give away too much detail other
than that, but wanted to speak by phone. She said
(21:51):
she'd call, but Pollock never heard from her again. This
contact was made. On July twenty, twenty twenty, Detective Sergeant
I Lona Walton was recalled to the stand. You'll remember
her from earlier on in the trial. She conducted the
(22:12):
videoed police interview with Polkinghorn, which is nearly three hours long.
The video was then played for the jury. Because the
content of the lengthy interview jumped around a lot, we're
not going to go through every detail of it, but
it's fair to say the interview was jumpy and erratic.
You can read transcripts of this interview on the ends
(22:34):
at Herald website. There'll be a link in our show notes,
but we'll be playing you a few snippets. Polkinghorn's interview
canvass is a range of topics before he even gets
to the morning of his wife's death. In it, Polkinghorn
explains the layout of the house and draws it on
a piece of paper for Walton. There's talk of the
visit to the Highbury Vaccination Center that weekend, details about
(22:57):
a tent and a phylaxus cases, and Hannah's work in general.
He spoke of him being away and funk at eight
in the days prior, and an incident about ten years
before where someone had tried to break into the home
while he was away.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Double wooden.
Speaker 10 (23:16):
Seat in the garden and thought she when I was
away once someone up turned it on the side, so
he used it as a letter to climb up into
the deck into the library and tried to break him
and she was petrified. Oh wow, okay, so were there's
a result that she's put security lighting around the thing,
(23:37):
so the only blink outside the lights come on, And.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
Was that reported to the police?
Speaker 10 (23:45):
I don't like Why don't you camp It was a
long as ten years ago probably?
Speaker 1 (23:51):
He jumps around the events of days beforehand. He goes
into detail about the ute Hannah had taken to the
tip the day before and her inability to put it
into reverse. The pair wanted to clear the garage of junk.
He talks about the orange rope.
Speaker 4 (24:06):
The orange rope is a nylon rope.
Speaker 10 (24:11):
It's it's free coarse, but it was fry frying at
one end. We both ended on and I boomed it
to see the thing that stopped fraying.
Speaker 4 (24:23):
And but she took a lot by company and what dad.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Did it a couple of days ago, He mentions an
argument or discussion as he calls it, about staining their
beach house, the one in the Corimandel. He details an
episode of New Amsterdam that watched the night before on Netflix,
and he mentions she had called a range of people
the day before, which he deemed unusual. Polkinghorn told Walton
about Hannah's mother dying about six weeks prior. He tells
(24:49):
a story about Hannah going to call her mother about
a cricket game but realizing she was gone. So the
night before they had a couple of drinks in the library,
talked about the day and watched the medical drama on Netflix,
New Amsterdam. She was helping him draft a letter. He
gives a blow by blow about troubles converting the document
on his computer from Hannah's and the difficulty in printing it.
(25:11):
He was drinking chiraz. She preferred Pino noir. He thinks
she drank about a bottle and a half of wine.
He probably had about two glasses.
Speaker 4 (25:20):
Like an intoxication. It was on things last night. Never
seen a drunker, have never seen a drunk never, So
she wasn't drunk last night. No, No, I wouldn't say
she was drunk before. She probably wasn't toxicate. But she
wasn't mad.
Speaker 10 (25:38):
She had a drunken driving offense once, so she's never
done that again, and.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
I was not very happy with that.
Speaker 12 (25:49):
Yeah, how long ago was that?
Speaker 10 (25:52):
It probably ten years or something. Maybe, yeah, a long time,
quite a long time. It doesn't it's an excuson.
Speaker 4 (26:02):
In my opinion. But she wasn't presenting. She wouldn't fall
over and stuff like that.
Speaker 12 (26:08):
Nothing like that, you know, or No, sometimes people get
a little bit bigly or silly or.
Speaker 10 (26:14):
Well she I know, I don't think so at all.
Speaker 8 (26:18):
She was.
Speaker 4 (26:18):
She was a bit emotional about some of the TVs.
Speaker 10 (26:21):
I don't think if she watched it in the afternoon,
she would have been crying about some of the things.
Speaker 4 (26:25):
If you know what I mean.
Speaker 10 (26:26):
But the God of the float cat, you know, I mean,
it's tragic for the story, and they I think I've
over make a comment because the lady did a tracheost
to me his wife. He's not medically qualified to do
it with a pen knife, and they.
Speaker 4 (26:42):
Put a straw into his trachea, so you breathe now.
The unfortunate thing about that bit of.
Speaker 10 (26:50):
Is that if you think how big your mouth is now,
and the tricky goes basically downline that to put a
thing a little straw and to think that ain't gonna
make much difference.
Speaker 4 (26:59):
But she recklessly saved its life and they had a
cops and back. But she thought he might have died.
I see he won't die.
Speaker 10 (27:06):
It won't die in it for the next week.
Speaker 4 (27:09):
The max good television. It does makes good television. And
then she she might have said it was too harsh
or something.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
He goes into their daily routines. He'd usually be up
before her and makes her breakfast in.
Speaker 10 (27:20):
Bed, so I make put in breakfast and being in Warner,
she has yeah, they always have, but she's opus.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
I know I can drink a cup of tuo lying
on her back. Good skill. And then sometimes she saves me.
We have my breakfast eating it. She doesn't even know
she's eating it. Do you make a good breakfast?
Speaker 10 (27:37):
She has the same thing every day she has she
has one piece of toast and it has to be
mckimsy bread and she has on a veno margarine or something.
And then she likes lime marmalade, roses lime marmalade, and
then she has we have because we discovered this tea
(28:01):
its cinder burtle wing, but it's technically maybe by a
company called the Tea Company Tea Letter not me T
two actually, And we discovered this thing called French Earl graystious.
Speaker 4 (28:17):
Wow, isn't it fantastic?
Speaker 10 (28:19):
Yeah, once I made a mistake buy it online, showing
how clever I was, and I came back with the
Earl Gray.
Speaker 4 (28:27):
And it was we came away.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
I think she usually gets home after him, so he
cooks a dinner. She usually lets him know when she's
on her way home.
Speaker 4 (28:36):
And she and I said to her, look, then will
be really later? Just tell me. I didn't care what
time it does.
Speaker 10 (28:43):
And then so when she comes in the door, I
usually the garage door open with her now cleaned if
you come open the leaves and but yeah, so she
has ever gaged door and sometimes if she's very lucky.
I'm standing at at the top of the stairs that
she comes up the garage holding a glass of wine
for it.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
He eventually gets to the events of that morning the downstairs.
Speaker 10 (29:10):
Intended on the jugger and put three bits of toast
and the toaster okay, and then got the butter and
stuff out ready for that now, great tea. I find
that you've got to before attended the toaster because kensy.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
Bout a quite big. I think what you're doing now
a good.
Speaker 10 (29:28):
Old He put the toast in and I have it
on the low setting, but it only will do the
leaves the top cup of things. So what happens that
once the tea's made? So while the keeople poured the
tea in, then I turned the toast over to the
remaining a couple of centimeters plus it browns it off
(29:51):
of it into the dish washer too, I can't remember.
So that's what I was sort of fiddling around with.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
He didn't think he'd gotten far into the process. He
doesn't think he turned on the kettle before he found
Hannah and the entrance way. He panicked, he said, and
dialed one one, one four before realizing and correctly calling
one one one.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
I didn't. I just didn't know.
Speaker 8 (30:14):
And what.
Speaker 10 (30:16):
To put me through the ambulance people and they said,
stayed with her.
Speaker 4 (30:19):
She breathing horse says no, I said, and she's cold.
And then I and then I I.
Speaker 10 (30:29):
Was trying to get her out and put it down flat.
Speaker 4 (30:34):
I think they told me to do that. I can't remember.
And as I did, side dropped the phone.
Speaker 10 (30:40):
Yeah, and that crashed all over the copy of the tiles,
and I couldn't. There's almost I just something uncontrollably. Really,
I mean, it's society having an arm pulled off you.
Speaker 4 (30:56):
It was just it was just horrible. And I lay
it down and then and and but Tom Ruth came over.
Speaker 10 (31:07):
She we gave her a pillo and we're trying to
make it comfortable, which is sounds stupid, and we're not.
Speaker 4 (31:14):
We don't got off the chair. Her legs buckled.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
Hawkinghorn walked Walton through what he thought he did with
the belt and rope around Hannah's neck. The belt wasn't
that tight. He thought he could put his hand under it.
He spoke of undoing granny knots in the rope and
how he laid her on the floor. Her rings were
all in the inside, he said. He turned them around.
She loved those bloody rings, he said. The rope was
(31:40):
attached to the balustrade above. He mentions they were granny
knots too. From memory, was.
Speaker 10 (31:45):
It the rope attached to or the rope was attached
to the bellustrade above?
Speaker 8 (31:51):
Okay?
Speaker 10 (31:52):
Yes, yes, the attached the bellustrade above. Now, and that
was granny knots too. From memory, I might have been
district be grandy knots, but along those lines at the
bottom of the balustrade, okay, because I said to someone afterwards,
I was surprised that the balustrade would take a weight,
(32:17):
shall we say, adweight of seventy kgs. So whether the knots,
I don't know, whether they're not slipped or why don't
I'm just trying to think, why was she sitting there
in a chair, if you like, Maybe maybe she stood
on the chair and.
Speaker 4 (32:35):
Went off.
Speaker 10 (32:36):
But and the knots, I don't know. I don't know
whether they're not held and slipped or what. I just
don't know. I just I still think that seventy kg's
on that balustrade.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
There's a hell of a weight.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
He was in a hurry to undo the rope, and
he said it looked horrible just hanging there.
Speaker 4 (32:58):
It looked too hideous to me, the the rope.
Speaker 10 (33:00):
And I undered the rope upstairs and did Grannie nots upstairs?
Speaker 4 (33:06):
You under the grannieknots upstairs? Yes, and got rid of
the rope.
Speaker 10 (33:09):
Well, when I say it got everyone, but it just didn't,
you know, it looked awful just hanging there.
Speaker 4 (33:16):
It just was horrible the rope. And then she's down
there on the floor. Yeah, I can't remember she's coming on.
Speaker 10 (33:24):
I think we were, but it was a quite ah,
I'll say, but afterwards it made me it's still there
when the ambulance people are right, but it just looked
it was offensive to me the rope.
Speaker 4 (33:39):
So wouldn't either arrived. It was at the rope and
there when you were right, yeah, but so I wasn't
first time saying so.
Speaker 12 (33:45):
The ambulance were right, yeah, and the uniform police staff arrived,
and then after that I'm not sure which order. I
think there were a couple of remember, and then we
arrived after that right, and there were us. So I'm
just confused. There was rope.
Speaker 10 (34:04):
Straight and then not taken off by at the time
you got I thought, I do, not straight away but
near enough straight away. But why do I leave for
the ambulance drive with an uniform policeman the un and
then take it.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
Off the.
Speaker 4 (34:19):
Well? It was still there when I left.
Speaker 10 (34:22):
Oh no, it wasn't because it was unscrewed it and
I hadn't It wasn't hanging by, but it was a
hanging when you were still there.
Speaker 4 (34:29):
So where have you put it?
Speaker 3 (34:32):
Have you you were? No?
Speaker 4 (34:34):
I put it. All I did was I thought, I thought.
Speaker 10 (34:37):
I it's either up at the top or it's on
the stairway going out.
Speaker 4 (34:43):
Of the garage.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
After a while, he asks if he could see his
wife anyway.
Speaker 4 (34:50):
That's that.
Speaker 10 (34:52):
And I talked to one of the officers about the
clothes because he said I might.
Speaker 4 (34:55):
Be able to go and visit or the mortuary. Yeah,
say goodbye to her.
Speaker 13 (35:03):
So that there's something bad to today an.
Speaker 4 (35:22):
The gossip of hard You need to get clearance from
the bosses. But we can see what we can do.
And I also like it to be in some clothes.
Speaker 10 (35:35):
She's got some bignity, not them, just a body bag or.
Speaker 4 (35:38):
Something horrible.
Speaker 10 (35:41):
Unfortunately, if possible, Okay, I'm it's something that is it's
beyond your break, beyond your breath.
Speaker 4 (35:50):
When she gets to the funeral home and okay, I
don't really like accepting oak. No no, no, no, no, no, okay,
that's fine.
Speaker 12 (35:57):
I've got one which.
Speaker 4 (36:02):
She got cause yeah, because the funeral actually has a funeral,
I can say goodbye to a their you can. That's
probably there's probably been way I would say. I didn't
even think about all that stuff. You know, I haven't
got my head around all that. So of course I
can say goodbye to with it. I don't need to
say goodbye to her in a bloody could mortuary.
Speaker 10 (36:21):
Guy, I would situ asult lots of times in mortuary,
so I know what don't like.
Speaker 4 (36:26):
We used to take eyes for donors, so I know
what they like.
Speaker 10 (36:30):
So there's a family room and a family viewing room
and no, no, no, no no, no, you're quite well
both do it at the the funeral funeral home.
Speaker 4 (36:38):
Yes, yeah, it's her mother was in a funeral home
and Headlock North and we did it extraordinary tastefully.
Speaker 10 (36:51):
They had a room like a little in the in
this big building they had there's room they had there
was like little houses in there.
Speaker 4 (36:58):
Yeah. So if you go into a ring a room
like that and it's a kitchen off thee and where
in a beef and where fate was?
Speaker 10 (37:06):
Yeah, because god, I don't know if you're interfunerals in Auckland,
but the bloody awful you know that they're just.
Speaker 4 (37:14):
You know, yes, it's awful.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
In the interview, Polkinghorn would trail off and not answer questions.
One he couldn't answer was at the end, how did
he come to suffer the wound on his forehead. That
added to the suspicions of the detectives.
Speaker 10 (37:30):
I don't know, I said, I don't even know I've
done it. Ruth said, I may have hit the tiles
or something on the steat. I can't measure. It's horizontal,
and that's horizontal, which is odd.
Speaker 4 (37:43):
I've got no idea. I didn't even know head it
until some signory or bleeding looking at But.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
The trial continues tomorrow. You can listen to episodes of
Accused the polking Horn Trial through the Front Page podcast
or find it on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts.
This series is presented and produced by me Chelsea Daniels
with producer Ethan Siles and sound engineer Patti Fox. Additional
(38:13):
reporting from The Heralds Craig Capatan and George Block, and
for more coverage of the Polkinghorn trial, head to ensidherld
dot co dot enz
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