September 18, 2024 • 48 mins
Week Eight has the Crown and Defence issuing their closing statements.
The Crown alleges that Philip Polkinghorne killed his wife, Pauline Hanna, on April 5 2021.
He maintains she took her own life.
After the Crown went first, it is now the turn of the defence - led by lawyer Ron Mansfield - to deliver its closing statement.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hilda. 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 a series of 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
(00:30):
Court at Auckland. A warning, this podcast contains disturbing content.
Philip Polkinghorn is accused of murdering his wife, Pauline Hannah,
who was found dead on April fifth, twenty twenty one.
He maintains she took her own life. Week eight of
(00:53):
the trial began with the Crown delivering their closing statement.
Now it's the defense's turn.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Your honor, mister Foreman and members of your jury. What
a final insult. The final insult doctor Pulkinghorn faces from
five April.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Twenty twenty one through to the day's date has just
been made.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
It suggested that he's blamed her, his own wife, for
her death. He's described as the master manipulator. The first
insult he faced was when the police attended at his
address on five April twenty twenty one, when they walk
(01:51):
through that door with our open mind, they would have
us believe, and I think we can accept. And then
very quickly saw the rope in the way in which
it was left by doctor Polkinghorn and gave it what
they describe as the tension check, and from there his
(02:16):
property and he was treated in a way that he
was alleged to have been involved.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
In his wife's own death.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
And so began the defense's closing argument, as given by
defense lawyer Ron Mansfield. He said, it has been a
long process leading up to the trial when Philip Polkinghorn
finally had the chance to show the evidence that vindicates
his position. Mansfield said his client wanted to help police
(02:51):
with his interview because he considered that was the right
thing to do. It was an insult because what lay
behind that was the suspicion they never informed him of
or gave him the opportunity to respond to then and there,
Mansfield said, despite grieving the death of his wife, Polkinghorn
(03:11):
agreed to be interviewed at the scene when he detailed
quite consistently what happened that morning.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
A master manipulator need not have done so, but he
did so in the state that he was in in
between taking messages, making calls, letting people know, as anyone
of us would like the dignity to do, to let
people know who loved Pauline off her passing, to allow
(03:43):
people to comfort you as you might when you suffer
such a loss. But nonetheless, during that interview, we know
this attention check took place, and we know things switched
from open mind and being objective by the attending police
(04:03):
officers to a focus now on establishing what they were
quickly coming to think was a potential homicide, despite any
objective evidence that might allow that assessment to be made.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
They came into that address expecting a full suspension hanging,
said Mansfield, and failed to turn their mind to an
incomplete or partial suspension hanging. He said ambulance officers did
not harbor suspicions, no doubt, because of their more robust
and informed experience with these type of hangings. He said,
(04:44):
he can understand the detective going upstairs and pulling on
the rope and thinking it's odd, but there's no record
of that moment.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Wasn't doctor Polkinghorn being asked to assist the police, It
was the fact that they failed to tell him that
they considered the situation to be suspicious and that he
might be a suspect for his own wife's death. Not
providing him with an opportunity to explain what he had
(05:14):
done and how he had done it by perhaps showing
them but without touching anything, just lured him to the
police station, albeit under a false pretense that they wanted
an interview, not from a grieving husband who might find
it cathartic to sit there and talk about his wife
(05:37):
and what he had found in the way in which
it appeared during the course of the interview he found it,
but treating him like a suspect for his own wife's death.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Mansfield said that Polkinghorn had no idea during his lengthy
police interview that an asound, forensic team and a photographer
had been set loose in his house. Mansfield says it
was another insult given he had been speaking with the
police openly and honestly to find his home was being
(06:13):
violated and he was being treated as a suspect. On
the deleted WhatsApp messages, Mansfield said that came after the
revelation to Polkinghorn that he was being treated as a suspect.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
And will come back to that.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
But when you think about the timing of that, and
given the level of suspicion he is now facing and
the focus of the police investigation, why would he Why
would he want the police to learn of something that
was private and always had been as far as he
(06:49):
was aware, private between him and his wife in relation
to what they or what he got up to by
way of sexual relations outside of their union. It is
entirely understandable at that point why he might seek to
(07:13):
delete or remove WhatsApp messages that revealed something which was
intimate and potentially embarrassing, and certainly something that would damage
both of their reputations.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Mansfield said. The police sealed off the Upland Road home
from April fifth to April sixteen. Hannah's funeral was in
April fifteen, and Polkinghorn had to investigate purchasing new clothes
for fear he wouldn't be able to get any of
her personal effects from the address. Hannah's autopsy happened on
(07:48):
April six but Polkinghorn wasn't advised of its outcome or
given any access to either a briefing or a report.
Mansfield said Polkinghorn reached out to another pathologist because he
was concerned and couldn't understand what was going on.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Further in soul, not treating him as a loved one,
not treating him with any respect, and giving him any
information in relation to the autopsy. And what would the
harm have been to share that information with him, To
share the information that she had died, albeit doctor Keisha
(08:33):
would have us accept by net compression as if that
was the only pathology outcome that could be given. What
would have been the harm to confirm to him that
what he had found and seen was entirely consistent with
the pathology that was revealed through the autopsy.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Polkinghorn then asked to have his own pathologist you the
position via a second autopsy.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Why if he had known that he had taken his
wife's life by way of a homicide, why would he
involve a pathologists to conduct a second autopsy.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
What he was.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Seeking to do was just learn why this was being
treated as suspicious and why he was being treated as
the suspect.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Mansfield said. Tongues were wagging around Remuerra because of the
presence of the police, and soon the press was onto
it and people soon came to know the death was
being treated as suspicious.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
When this became public that the death was being treated
as suspicious and he was the suspect, then everyone around
him starts to shut down, treats him differently, and he
becomes isolated. As a matter of common sense, that's how
(10:08):
you might react if.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
You were told by an authority to whom.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
You thought you could place some reliance on for being
objective and only relying on evidence, that if someone was
being treated as a suspect, there must be something to it,
and that changes everybody's attitude other than those really close
(10:34):
to him, and that knew better everybody else's attitude towards him.
What further insult could there be other than being accused,
as he was now of being the suspect, But for
it to be effectively leaked in this way through the media,
so that everybody friends and family became aware of this
(11:00):
allegation and hence reacted and treated him differently.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Mansfield said it made people think differently when it eventually
came time for them to be interviewed by police. Things
that might have otherwise been duly explained or seen as
drunken banter that they didn't place much weight on then
became quite important. Mansfield said, is not asking the jury
to ignore the evidence from Hannah's family or close friends,
(11:29):
but to consider how their mind's attitudes and experiences were
informed by the fact that Polkinghorn was suspected by police
of killing his wife. Mansfield says, a legitimate issue with
a contact lens, for example, became him dragging her away
from a party. Mansfield said, and as just one example
(11:50):
of how people's views changed in a flick of a switch.
Then there's the reality he is on his own. The
only person who was engaging with him was Madison Ashton,
with whom he had been in a relationship with for
six years since twenty fifteen. Mansfield asked for the jury
(12:11):
to consider the context.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Firstly, as a result of this and police investigation and
the way in which they are conducting it, he has
become entirely isolated.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
He is not getting.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Support other than from his sister Ruth, with whom he
is needing to stay during the period.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Of time that this address is out of bounds.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
All others have been informed of the police suspicion, either
by the media or had been told or.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
By word of mouth.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
The only person, and a person he has known for
five or six years as has his wife is reaching
out and communicating with him, And yeah, there's sexual discussion
and sexual engagement within that entirely consistent with the nature
of their relationship for that entiret period from twenty fifteen,
(13:10):
that entire period that both he and Pauline have known
this woman and utilized her services and support.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
And I'll come back to that.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
And secondly, given that she's the only person that's reaching
out to him, that's communicating with him, it is hardly
surprising that their relationship draws close and of the kind
that you.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
See discussed in that context, Polkinghorn's meeting with Ashton in
Mount Cook Village twenty five days after Hannah's death can
be understood. Mansfield said that isolation continued for sixteen months
as police continued their investigation and then charged him with murder.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
He might have thought that was the final insult he
would face and have to bear, the final insult he
would need to address when it came to trial, But no,
the final insult came when it was suggested that he
was to be blamed for blaming his own wife for
(14:22):
her own death. If you want to add insult to
injury there you have it, and that is with the
Crown knowing full well that the forensic material in this
case does answer this case for you. It provides the
(14:44):
complete answer and it always has it has provided the
complete answer from the sixth of April, the date that
the autopsy was conducted and the report was given.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Mansfield said that the pathology and what was found at
the house provides the complete answer that Tanner sadly died
by a partial or incomplete hanging. When you look at
the scene fairly, it was entirely consistent with Polkinghorn's police interview.
He said, the.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Answer has always been in the pathology. The answer is
still in the pathology. The problem is the answer doesn't
justify the way in which doctor Polkinghorn was treated. The
answer doesn't justify how long his address was under the
(15:45):
control of the police so that they could search it
in the way that they did.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
The answer doesn't.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Justify the very long way he had to wait until
he found out that he was going to be accused
of his wife's death, and it justified or answer why
we're here today. So they had to seek to justify
it through some other means by seeking to build a
(16:16):
motive for a crime. That has simply not been conducted,
a murder that has not been committed, And that is why,
and that is the only reason why. The absence of
pathology that helps him, the absence of forensic evidence from
(16:40):
the scene, the absence of any other evidence that you
would ordinarily find associated with a homicide. That is why
we have been here weeks touring through potential motives for
a crime that has not been committed, For a murder
(17:03):
that has not occurred.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
He has needed to.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Effectively take over and prosecute as if he needed to
establish that his wife died by way of suicide, even
though he has no onus or burden to prove anything.
And that you might think is entirely consistent with an
(17:29):
innocent man who finally gets an opportunity to establish his
innocence before our community, some of which has already condemned
him before having heard any evidence. This has been a
trial prosecuted by emotion, and where the victim is logic.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
A trial run by emotion.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Allows our murder mystery fantasies to run wild. And what
a blockbuster by learn of friends closing address was to
you our own very own modern day murder mystery.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
It was like a binge of every murder.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
She wrote, all in one session, by our own, our
very own Angela Lansbury presenting, or I suppose more correctly
put she was presenting the script written by the police.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
The murder.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
The police wrote the murder they started writing immediately after
the tension check.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Mansfield said, of the four pathologists heard in the case,
only two had potential examples of this phantom theory of
a potential death by way of homicidal strangulation but leaving
no injury at all.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Is this where we are to see this particular case
falling to be that exception, to be that phantom, to
be that case where despite the absence of any expected
injury from a homicidal strangulation, there is none.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
We have unmarked the phantom.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Folks apparently, and it's doctor Polkinghorn.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
It's a phantom murder that none of the four pathologists
had been able to confirm themselves, Mansfield said. In Polkinghorn,
without any training in martial arts, without being a big
or strong man, while yes he did brag about his fitness,
managed to kill his wife without leaving any of the
(19:49):
telltale signs.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
It sounds absurd because it is it sounds unachievable because.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
It is if that is the way this case is
being prosecuted based on this theory, this phantom that potentially exists,
that tells you a great deal, said Mansfield. He said
that the pathology is evidence based, and the two defense
pathologists said they would have reported this death by way
(20:21):
of hanging, and there's no need to leave it open.
In cases of a strangling of an intimate partner, the
red mist comes down and the assailants don't care about
if they're leaving injury. But there are none on Hannah's neck,
which you'd expect in a partial or a complete hanging.
(20:42):
There were no injuries on Hannah from her fighting for
her life, none of the scratches or bruises that can
occur as she fought back and trying to release the
pressure for coverage of other news events in New Zealand.
Listen to the front page The Herald's daily News podcast
(21:04):
wherever you get your podcasts onto the injury to Polkinghorn's head.
If that injury was left by Hannah, there was no
signs in her nails, nor in her three rings. It's
an injury. Polkinghorn didn't even know he had Mansfield said.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
And you might think, as a matter of logic, if
he had been involved in an altercation with her where
there was some form of struggle and he sustained any
form of injury, then he would know and might seek
to attend to that that he might have an explanation
for it, given he's the master manipulator when he's asked
(21:47):
about it, as he was at the scene by the
attending ambulance and by the police.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
The other injuries to Hannah's body, like her nose, her back,
her bruises on her arm, could not be shown to
be consistent with any assault or altercation that might occur
between two people in a homicidal strangulation. Mansfield said.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
The crowns say you should use your logic and consider
them as consistent with an assault, because the Crown has to.
Doesn't it point to some form of injury of an assault,
even though on the evidence it's not there.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
Because the Crown wants you to accept.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Its emotional plea that this was a homicidal strangulation which must,
by its varying nature, have incurred some struggle at some
time for some length, and the Crown, once it realized
that the absence of those kinds of injuries was a
(22:56):
real problem for its case. And despite the proferet or
advice you have had from four pathologists tells you that
logically you should consider these injuries as consistent with an assault,
entirely contrary with.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
The evidence that you have heard in this trial. That's
not logic.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
That's the crown and you going rogue if you agree
with that kind of approach.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Blood pulling in her legs and the disappearing belt mark
also fit with her death being a suicide, Mansfield said. Next,
the defense lawyer told the jury he'd take them through
the relationship between husband and wife and the use of math.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
It's murder, one oh one. For there to be a murder,
their first must be a culpable homicide. And we've already
discussed whether on the forensic evidence you have before you,
a case where a culpable homicide, so a strangulation, homicidal
(24:13):
strangulation has been established, and it hasn't. Every good murder
mystery starts at that point. Someone dies, usually in the
first five minutes, and usually the death is obvious, as
is the cause. The real issue is looking for who
(24:36):
might be the perpetrator of it. Here we can't even
start from that position. But a lot of time in
this trial has been invested in creating the villain that
every murder mystery requires.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Mansfield said that Alicia McClintock's framing of Polkinghorn as the
master manipulator is designed to turn the jury off his client.
He said that the Crown solicitor has attributed an arrogance
to Polkinghorn not born out by the evidence.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
None of us would want to be exposed as the
two individuals the subject of this prosecution have ended up
being exposed, but no one more so than doctor Polkinghorn.
His entire lifestyle has been laid bare. I would say,
unnecessarily before you simply to create the villain that the
(25:39):
Crown want you to see him as.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Mansfield said, Polkinghorn had a number of faults and some
members of the jury may see his traits or conduct
as something they might not like in a friend or partner.
But this is not a court of morals. That includes
not judging his meth use or his use of sex workers.
(26:04):
Mansfield said the evidence shows that Hannah was involved at
the outset of the relationship between Polkinghorn and Ashton in
twenty fifteen, and spoke of his use of sex workers
in the Longlands recording where she was less concerned about
sex workers and more that her husband was seeing a
woman in Auckland. Mansfield asked the jury not to put
(26:27):
their values on other people, and this is how Hannah
and Polkinghorn chose to live their life, and she made
her own choices in twenty nineteen around those relationships. He
said that Hannah was independent, intelligent, and earning an incredibly
good salary and would have been entitled to her share
(26:48):
of around ten point five million dollars worth of assets
if they separated. Mansfield said it would have been divided
between the two of them. He said messages from the
end of twenty two twenty and early twenty twenty one
show that Hannah and Polkinghorn still loved and supported each
other despite how they operated their relationship, and there's no
(27:10):
evidence Polkinghorn wanted to run off with Ashton. That might
have changed after Hannah's death when he was isolated and desperate.
There were clear tensions behind some of the things Hannah said,
such as the dispute at Auckland die but Hannah made
it clear to her family that she was not physically
(27:31):
battered despite Polkinghorn being beastly. Mansfield said he can't comment
on the recollections of the readings of a dinner with Hannah,
in which she allegedly described Polkinghorn attempting to strangle her.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
No, I'm not going to suggest that Physic and John
read and are liars.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
But I am going to.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Sedest that you need to look with Kia at what
they say when you contrast that against what she was
clearly saying to her own Bruce and Rose at Longlands.
I'm not physically bettered, i am not abused. I am safe, Darling,
Please think I am safe. I'm not a scapegoat or
(28:12):
a door mare.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
There is absolutely no other evidence of physical violence in
Hannah and Polkinghorn's relationship. He said. To go from no
violence to controlling and violence doesn't fit comfortably with what
others report of their relationship, Mansfield said. Onto auckland I
and the issues there, Mansfield said Polkinghorn's anger was not
(28:37):
about money, but about getting less than two doctors who
had left acrimoniously despite him being a founder of the clinic.
Onto the mathe Use, Mansfield said Crown witness Dr Emma
Schwartz's evidence was that people who use myth might be
prone to increased violence, but she made it clear it
(28:59):
wasn't a risk for everyone who used math or even
those with a meth use disorder. It would be hard
to understand why polking Horn would resort to violence when
it hadn't been a signature of their relationship, says Mansfield.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
And you might just see that from the basic stats
that exist within our community regarding methamphetamine use. It's everywhere.
And if everyone who used methamphetamine and the kind of
way that we know doctor Polkinghorn used methamphetamin became violent
or became homicidal all of a sudden, then our courts
(29:39):
would be even fuller than they are, and considerably so.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
Thirty seven point seven grams of math may have been
found at the Upland Road home, but Mansfield said there's
no evidence of Polkinghorn's meth use and that just represents
how much had been bought at one time. Mansfield said
there's no evidence of Polkinghorn having turned agitated because of
(30:05):
meth use, with only one reprimand at Auckland Eye for
being critical of support staff. Meth can linger in urine
for up to seven days in regular users, so the
meth found in the toilet water in Hannah's bathroom might
have nothing to do with its use the night of
her death, Mansfield said, and the investigation into the discovery
(30:30):
of the sweet puff pipe at Auckland Eye in October
twenty twenty did not prove conclusively that it belonged to Polkinghorn,
and meth traces were also found in other consultation rooms.
Paramedics and the police officer who took Polkinghorn's first statement
didn't notice anything to suggest he was on a come
(30:53):
down from meth use. Onto sex workers, Mansfield said, Polkinghorn
developed an interest the lives of these women and the
fact he helped them with personal and financial issues says
a great deal about him. Ultimately, the use of sex
workers may have been another factor that led to Hannah
(31:13):
feeling down and seeking to take her own life.
Speaker 4 (31:16):
Mansfield said, if a relationship was tested, if she fared
being on her own, or she was.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
Concerned about how that might appear to others, especially if
the concern related to medicineation are known. A well known
sex worker in Australia that might have had an impact
on her that impacted on a decision to take her
own life that morning. The problem with the crown theory
(31:45):
regarding his relationship with sex workers equally applies to providing
another risk factor for Pauline that might have meant that
she saw suicide as a decision for her that morning.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
It seems odd, you.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Might think, when if he was interested in a relationship
with medicination aught along and Pauline was in the way,
he couldn't just separate as they had discussed in twenty
nineteen and go their own way, he said.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
The Crown relies on a number of actions they say
were inconsistent with a grieving husband, such as the search
for leg edema after strangulation. Mansfield said that with police
giving him no information, Polkinghorn wanted to know why the
death was still being considered suspicious.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
There is nothing indicative of this search unmasking the murderer
as promoters. That is just scare tactics and frankly quite bizarre.
He is not simply conducting a search checking to see
(33:04):
whether he left behind a clue. What he's endeavoring to
do is to find out why it's thought that his
wife's death was suspicious and whether the swelling he's noted
in her leg might be indicative of that concern, and
you know it wasn't. It wasn't indicative of that concern,
(33:26):
because that kind of swelling is indicative of death by
way of homicidal strangulation as much as it is death
by way of suicide.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Mansfield said that police had no reason to influence Paul
Adrian's into not making a statement other than saying people
don't have to talk to police onto Alison Ring. Interactions
between the two souring was understandable, but there's nothing suspicious
in him showing her the note he believed to be
(33:59):
a suer side note from Hannah. On the Crown's suggestion
that Polkinghorn planted blood on the steps of his home
to explain his head injury, there was no evidence otherwise
of any altercation with Hannah, and the injury to his
head could be described as nonspecific, Mansfield said. Polkinghorn always
(34:21):
knew there was going to be the risk of contamination,
and the report furnished to the Crown makes that clear,
but consistent with an innocent man. He went to the
expense of enlisting overseas expert Dr Timothy Scanlon to assess
that area.
Speaker 4 (34:40):
Mansfield said, why would you go to that cost and
face that obvious criticism unless you were driven to prove
as beast you could that you didn't have an altercation
with your wife and this was not an injury caused
by that altercation, even though you knew that.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
But no pathologist, no doctor could say it was specific
of an altercation, And if there had been an altercation,
they would have expected quite different injuries to different parts
of both of them. The reality is that that evidence,
despite criticism, simply establishes his motivation to establish his innocence.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
And onto the blood found between Hannah's fingers.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Not one pathologist placed any weight on the blood that
could be found between her fingers as indicative or of
assistance to you in relation to the manner upon which
your death might have occurred. And that's relevant, folks, because
now the crown seek to rely on that is somehow
(35:48):
indicative of it being a homicidal killing.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
Rather than death.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
By way of hanging, whereas the expert evidence you have
heard tends to suggest that also.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
Other factors like redness on Hannah's legs, bruises on her
right arm, and the disappearing beltmark are consistent with what
Polkinghorn reported about Hannah's death. When you think about the
(36:22):
suggestion that he is a master manipulator, Mansfield asked the
jury to consider the other aspects of Polkinghorn. Mansfield turned
to people who spoke highly of the accused, noting that
they do so despite knowing they'd be named and associated
with him. He referenced colleagues and patients who thought highly
(36:44):
of him, of how Polkinghorn would wave fees on surgeries
for those who couldn't afford them, even meeting them on weekends.
Despite this, Mansfield said, Polkinghorn is not a perfect man,
but none of us are, and the jury can't deliver
just if they only focus on the negative.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
None of us would like all our messages drawled through
our inter net searchers, reviewed by others, or our personal
lives turned upside down in the way in which his
life and his wife's life was turned upside down as
a necessity because of this allegation. None of us could
stand there and say we are perfect, and none of
(37:25):
us would try if we knew that that kind of
review of our lives would take place. There would always
be things we wouldn't want others to know, and there
would always be things that we would want to keep
to ourselves and not be judged for. If you expect
that for yourself, I just asked that you expect and
ensure that for him.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
Police.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
Paulkinghorn didn't need to provide his voluntary statement to police,
Mansfield said, but he thought he was doing justice to Hannah.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
If he was this intelligent master manipulator, then he would
be in that interview driving home a couple of things.
He would be in that interview driving home how he
found his wife, and being very clear around the arrangement,
the way in which the rope was tied, how long
it was horrod was connected to the belt, and how
(38:16):
the belt was around her neck.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
He would be able to.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
Tell you about that with clarity or the detective, because
that would be key to the very setup he's meant
to have made this mocked suicide. What would be the
point of going to this effort of showing a mock
suicide in then not being able to tell the police
with some accuracy around how it was.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
If Polkinghorn was a mastermind, cold blooded killer, he wouldn't
have got Hannah down and covered her with a sheet.
Despite what people think about his interest with sex workers
and fascination with pornography. Polkinghorn loved Hannah and she loved him.
Man's Field said he told the jury those who have
had long term relationships or friendships will know they're not
(39:07):
always perfect. Onto the evidence from the electricity experts, Mansfield said,
both of them said the washing machine could have been
used up until eleven thirty pm the night before her death.
That's important because it shows her large acrylic toenail did
not come off in the fight. On Hannah's room, Mansfield
(39:28):
said it was not disheveled, but in a state of
being tidied, and Hannah had planned on finishing doing the
washing later. Mansfield then addressed Hannah's trip to the tip
and said it showed she knew where the rope was.
He said there also isn't any evidence of the rope
being cut that night.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
Doctor Polkinghorn talks and his interview about handling the rope
days earlier and sealing the rope by burning the inns.
He doesn't talk about two ripes and a fair in
the interview. He seems very confused by the suggestion that
there were two ropes, which adds weight to this point
(40:08):
I've made earlier that if he had secured the rope
to secure her in a way to mask her death
by suicide, he would know whether there was one or
two ropes and make it very clear, because why would
he not want to look very clear about that? But
there was no rope cut as part of the exercise
(40:30):
of Pauline taking her own life. If so, there would
have been tailtale signs of rope fiber found in that
house and around, and Fiona Mathison would have found it
because she was specifically looking for it.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
He said. It's pointless to view Polkinghorn's phone being placed
on airplane mode as being suspicious, as the only benefit
of this would be to track his movements if he
left the address, which no one in this case is.
Polkinghorn only remembered his phone was on airplane mode after
his one one one call, and he told police about
(41:08):
the airplane mode situation, Mansfield said. Polkinghorn also never said
he turned on the toaster and the jug at the
same time, only that he put toast in the toaster.
Speaker 2 (41:20):
It needed to be responded to because this suggestion he
didn't turn the jag on and put toast and the
toaster became a key point for the Crown in trying
to establish he was telling lies. Believe it or not,
Tea and Toast was meant to disclose whether he was truthful.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
Removing the belt from around Hannah's neck and lying her
down is entirely a natural consequence and would not have
been convoluted. Polkinghorn's account of the rope matches with the evidence,
and the rope expert confirmed the knot would have held
Hannah's weight, Mansfield said. On the cut on his head,
(42:00):
Polkinghorn told the police he didn't know how he got it,
but one of the Crown prosecutors described it as a cut,
not a scratch. Mansfield said it could have happened at
any occasion. On Hannah's mental health, Mansfield said the death
of her mother, fears of Polkinghorn seeing someone else, the
combination of medication and alcohol, and her perfectionist attitude can
(42:24):
contribute to poor mental health or depression. Mansfield said there's
no evidence she was dragged after her death, or that
there was a fight between the two that left her
with no injuries.
Speaker 2 (42:37):
It's implausible tissitis that could happen, that her life could
be taken by way of a homicidal strangulation, and there
be no injury and or a sign anywhere in that
bedroom consistent with that. No urine, no blood, no DNA nothing,
(42:58):
no damage, no scrape, no dragging, nothing.
Speaker 1 (43:02):
The other suggestion put to the jury by the Crown
is that Polkinghorn did it by stealth, that he managed
to achieve his wife's death without leaving an injury, and
he was able to bring her downstairs to mock up
the hanging. Mansfield said this suggestion made no sense as
there was no premeditation, no planning, no evidence he planned
(43:23):
to kill his wife. He alleges this is some of
the most gravest nonsense New Zealand courts had heard for
a long time. Continuing on mental health, Mansfield addressed to
the evidence of Hannah's sister Tracy. Mansfield said he fully
accepts anxiety and depression can come and go, but said
(43:45):
it's important not to lose sight of the evidence about
Hannah's mental health issues. He reminded the jury of evidence
from Hannah's sister, Tracy Hannah, who claimed Hannah told her
she'd tried to kill herself back in nineteen ninety two,
who Mansfield said that the suggestion Tracy has lied about.
This is unfortunate.
Speaker 2 (44:06):
She was upfront and told you what she knew in
the extent of it, and she was text about what
she did or didn't do back then when she was
a young person herself, and she needed to respond to
that as be she could, and entirely emotional circumstances. Anyway,
I obviously endorsed that evidence as reliable was given to
(44:28):
the police. It was consistently given to you, and it
wasn't embellished in any way that you might expect it
could have been if it was aimed at assisting one
party over the other.
Speaker 1 (44:39):
Mansfield said that Hannah had tensions with her brother Bruce
over dealings with their family farm. He said that in
Hannah's own words in the Longlands recording, she spoke about
not being physically battered, though perhaps emotionally so, and that
she loved Polkinghorn and didn't want to leave him, despite
knowing other men who fancied her. Mansfield said no one
(45:03):
was forcing her to participate in the sexual activity with
sex workers, and when she wanted to stop, she did.
Hannah's own emails detail how Polkinghorn was being supportive during
her work stresses. Other witnesses testified about noticing Hannah's stress.
In early twenty twenty one, Hannah's boss approached her over
(45:24):
her habit of sending emails early in the morning. In closing,
Mansfield said, there cannot be a suggestion that Hannah was
trapped from a relationship that she couldn't exit. If Polkinghorn
didn't realize how good he had it, that's a matter
for the couple. And there's a difference between being selfish
or self focused and taking someone's life emotions aside. All
(45:48):
the evidence clearly establishes that Pauline died by suicide. Mansfield said,
there is.
Speaker 2 (45:55):
No justice for Pauline if you ignore her vulnerabilities and
do not respect the decision she took. That is not respect,
That is not understanding, and that is not following your oath.
It is just being emotional vigilantes. We all need to
expect more. The decision you make must be on the evidence,
(46:21):
that is the oath that you swore. It can't be
based on emotion, and it can't be based on a
foundless theory that he wanted her out of his life
and he was prepared to kill her, for which there
is no forensic evidence to support. Hold him morally to
(46:42):
account if need be, as he has been in this
very public way. But you cannot convict a man of
murder when they did not do it out of anger
or sympathy, let alone the man poorly loved with all
her heart.
Speaker 3 (46:59):
Is that the way she should be remembered.
Speaker 2 (47:02):
If you believe in the need for evidence of a
crime before you convict any man, the crown obligation to
prove a charge here at deliberate killing to the required standard,
and you believe in honoring your oath, you already know
the correct verdict in this case, and it's not necessary
for me to tell you.
Speaker 1 (47:28):
You can listen to episodes of Accused the Polkinghorn 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 me Chelsea Daniels, with producer Ethan
Siles and sound engineer Patti Fox. Additional reporting from The
Heralds Craig Capatan, George Block, and Katie Harris. And for
(47:52):
more coverage of the Polkinghorn Trial, head to Ends at
Harold dot Co dot enz
Hilda. 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 a series of 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
(00:30):
Court at Auckland. A warning, this podcast contains disturbing content.
Philip Polkinghorn is accused of murdering his wife, Pauline Hannah,
who was found dead on April fifth, twenty twenty one.
He maintains she took her own life. Week eight of
(00:53):
the trial began with the Crown delivering their closing statement.
Now it's the defense's turn.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Your honor, mister Foreman and members of your jury. What
a final insult. The final insult doctor Pulkinghorn faces from
five April.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Twenty twenty one through to the day's date has just
been made.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
It suggested that he's blamed her, his own wife, for
her death. He's described as the master manipulator. The first
insult he faced was when the police attended at his
address on five April twenty twenty one, when they walk
(01:51):
through that door with our open mind, they would have
us believe, and I think we can accept. And then
very quickly saw the rope in the way in which
it was left by doctor Polkinghorn and gave it what
they describe as the tension check, and from there his
(02:16):
property and he was treated in a way that he
was alleged to have been involved.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
In his wife's own death.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
And so began the defense's closing argument, as given by
defense lawyer Ron Mansfield. He said, it has been a
long process leading up to the trial when Philip Polkinghorn
finally had the chance to show the evidence that vindicates
his position. Mansfield said his client wanted to help police
(02:51):
with his interview because he considered that was the right
thing to do. It was an insult because what lay
behind that was the suspicion they never informed him of
or gave him the opportunity to respond to then and there,
Mansfield said, despite grieving the death of his wife, Polkinghorn
(03:11):
agreed to be interviewed at the scene when he detailed
quite consistently what happened that morning.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
A master manipulator need not have done so, but he
did so in the state that he was in in
between taking messages, making calls, letting people know, as anyone
of us would like the dignity to do, to let
people know who loved Pauline off her passing, to allow
(03:43):
people to comfort you as you might when you suffer
such a loss. But nonetheless, during that interview, we know
this attention check took place, and we know things switched
from open mind and being objective by the attending police
(04:03):
officers to a focus now on establishing what they were
quickly coming to think was a potential homicide, despite any
objective evidence that might allow that assessment to be made.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
They came into that address expecting a full suspension hanging,
said Mansfield, and failed to turn their mind to an
incomplete or partial suspension hanging. He said ambulance officers did
not harbor suspicions, no doubt, because of their more robust
and informed experience with these type of hangings. He said,
(04:44):
he can understand the detective going upstairs and pulling on
the rope and thinking it's odd, but there's no record
of that moment.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Wasn't doctor Polkinghorn being asked to assist the police, It
was the fact that they failed to tell him that
they considered the situation to be suspicious and that he
might be a suspect for his own wife's death. Not
providing him with an opportunity to explain what he had
(05:14):
done and how he had done it by perhaps showing
them but without touching anything, just lured him to the
police station, albeit under a false pretense that they wanted
an interview, not from a grieving husband who might find
it cathartic to sit there and talk about his wife
(05:37):
and what he had found in the way in which
it appeared during the course of the interview he found it,
but treating him like a suspect for his own wife's death.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Mansfield said that Polkinghorn had no idea during his lengthy
police interview that an asound, forensic team and a photographer
had been set loose in his house. Mansfield says it
was another insult given he had been speaking with the
police openly and honestly to find his home was being
(06:13):
violated and he was being treated as a suspect. On
the deleted WhatsApp messages, Mansfield said that came after the
revelation to Polkinghorn that he was being treated as a suspect.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
And will come back to that.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
But when you think about the timing of that, and
given the level of suspicion he is now facing and
the focus of the police investigation, why would he Why
would he want the police to learn of something that
was private and always had been as far as he
(06:49):
was aware, private between him and his wife in relation
to what they or what he got up to by
way of sexual relations outside of their union. It is
entirely understandable at that point why he might seek to
(07:13):
delete or remove WhatsApp messages that revealed something which was
intimate and potentially embarrassing, and certainly something that would damage
both of their reputations.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Mansfield said. The police sealed off the Upland Road home
from April fifth to April sixteen. Hannah's funeral was in
April fifteen, and Polkinghorn had to investigate purchasing new clothes
for fear he wouldn't be able to get any of
her personal effects from the address. Hannah's autopsy happened on
(07:48):
April six but Polkinghorn wasn't advised of its outcome or
given any access to either a briefing or a report.
Mansfield said Polkinghorn reached out to another pathologist because he
was concerned and couldn't understand what was going on.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Further in soul, not treating him as a loved one,
not treating him with any respect, and giving him any
information in relation to the autopsy. And what would the
harm have been to share that information with him, To
share the information that she had died, albeit doctor Keisha
(08:33):
would have us accept by net compression as if that
was the only pathology outcome that could be given. What
would have been the harm to confirm to him that
what he had found and seen was entirely consistent with
the pathology that was revealed through the autopsy.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Polkinghorn then asked to have his own pathologist you the
position via a second autopsy.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Why if he had known that he had taken his
wife's life by way of a homicide, why would he
involve a pathologists to conduct a second autopsy.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
What he was.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Seeking to do was just learn why this was being
treated as suspicious and why he was being treated as
the suspect.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Mansfield said. Tongues were wagging around Remuerra because of the
presence of the police, and soon the press was onto
it and people soon came to know the death was
being treated as suspicious.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
When this became public that the death was being treated
as suspicious and he was the suspect, then everyone around
him starts to shut down, treats him differently, and he
becomes isolated. As a matter of common sense, that's how
(10:08):
you might react if.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
You were told by an authority to whom.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
You thought you could place some reliance on for being
objective and only relying on evidence, that if someone was
being treated as a suspect, there must be something to it,
and that changes everybody's attitude other than those really close
(10:34):
to him, and that knew better everybody else's attitude towards him.
What further insult could there be other than being accused,
as he was now of being the suspect, But for
it to be effectively leaked in this way through the media,
so that everybody friends and family became aware of this
(11:00):
allegation and hence reacted and treated him differently.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Mansfield said it made people think differently when it eventually
came time for them to be interviewed by police. Things
that might have otherwise been duly explained or seen as
drunken banter that they didn't place much weight on then
became quite important. Mansfield said, is not asking the jury
to ignore the evidence from Hannah's family or close friends,
(11:29):
but to consider how their mind's attitudes and experiences were
informed by the fact that Polkinghorn was suspected by police
of killing his wife. Mansfield says, a legitimate issue with
a contact lens, for example, became him dragging her away
from a party. Mansfield said, and as just one example
(11:50):
of how people's views changed in a flick of a switch.
Then there's the reality he is on his own. The
only person who was engaging with him was Madison Ashton,
with whom he had been in a relationship with for
six years since twenty fifteen. Mansfield asked for the jury
(12:11):
to consider the context.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Firstly, as a result of this and police investigation and
the way in which they are conducting it, he has
become entirely isolated.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
He is not getting.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Support other than from his sister Ruth, with whom he
is needing to stay during the period.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Of time that this address is out of bounds.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
All others have been informed of the police suspicion, either
by the media or had been told or.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
By word of mouth.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
The only person, and a person he has known for
five or six years as has his wife is reaching
out and communicating with him, And yeah, there's sexual discussion
and sexual engagement within that entirely consistent with the nature
of their relationship for that entiret period from twenty fifteen,
(13:10):
that entire period that both he and Pauline have known
this woman and utilized her services and support.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
And I'll come back to that.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
And secondly, given that she's the only person that's reaching
out to him, that's communicating with him, it is hardly
surprising that their relationship draws close and of the kind
that you.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
See discussed in that context, Polkinghorn's meeting with Ashton in
Mount Cook Village twenty five days after Hannah's death can
be understood. Mansfield said that isolation continued for sixteen months
as police continued their investigation and then charged him with murder.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
He might have thought that was the final insult he
would face and have to bear, the final insult he
would need to address when it came to trial, But no,
the final insult came when it was suggested that he
was to be blamed for blaming his own wife for
(14:22):
her own death. If you want to add insult to
injury there you have it, and that is with the
Crown knowing full well that the forensic material in this
case does answer this case for you. It provides the
(14:44):
complete answer and it always has it has provided the
complete answer from the sixth of April, the date that
the autopsy was conducted and the report was given.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Mansfield said that the pathology and what was found at
the house provides the complete answer that Tanner sadly died
by a partial or incomplete hanging. When you look at
the scene fairly, it was entirely consistent with Polkinghorn's police interview.
He said, the.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Answer has always been in the pathology. The answer is
still in the pathology. The problem is the answer doesn't
justify the way in which doctor Polkinghorn was treated. The
answer doesn't justify how long his address was under the
(15:45):
control of the police so that they could search it
in the way that they did.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
The answer doesn't.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Justify the very long way he had to wait until
he found out that he was going to be accused
of his wife's death, and it justified or answer why
we're here today. So they had to seek to justify
it through some other means by seeking to build a
(16:16):
motive for a crime. That has simply not been conducted,
a murder that has not been committed, And that is why,
and that is the only reason why. The absence of
pathology that helps him, the absence of forensic evidence from
(16:40):
the scene, the absence of any other evidence that you
would ordinarily find associated with a homicide. That is why
we have been here weeks touring through potential motives for
a crime that has not been committed, For a murder
(17:03):
that has not occurred.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
He has needed to.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Effectively take over and prosecute as if he needed to
establish that his wife died by way of suicide, even
though he has no onus or burden to prove anything.
And that you might think is entirely consistent with an
(17:29):
innocent man who finally gets an opportunity to establish his
innocence before our community, some of which has already condemned
him before having heard any evidence. This has been a
trial prosecuted by emotion, and where the victim is logic.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
A trial run by emotion.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Allows our murder mystery fantasies to run wild. And what
a blockbuster by learn of friends closing address was to
you our own very own modern day murder mystery.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
It was like a binge of every murder.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
She wrote, all in one session, by our own, our
very own Angela Lansbury presenting, or I suppose more correctly
put she was presenting the script written by the police.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
The murder.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
The police wrote the murder they started writing immediately after
the tension check.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Mansfield said, of the four pathologists heard in the case,
only two had potential examples of this phantom theory of
a potential death by way of homicidal strangulation but leaving
no injury at all.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Is this where we are to see this particular case
falling to be that exception, to be that phantom, to
be that case where despite the absence of any expected
injury from a homicidal strangulation, there is none.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
We have unmarked the phantom.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Folks apparently, and it's doctor Polkinghorn.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
It's a phantom murder that none of the four pathologists
had been able to confirm themselves, Mansfield said. In Polkinghorn,
without any training in martial arts, without being a big
or strong man, while yes he did brag about his fitness,
managed to kill his wife without leaving any of the
(19:49):
telltale signs.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
It sounds absurd because it is it sounds unachievable because.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
It is if that is the way this case is
being prosecuted based on this theory, this phantom that potentially exists,
that tells you a great deal, said Mansfield. He said
that the pathology is evidence based, and the two defense
pathologists said they would have reported this death by way
(20:21):
of hanging, and there's no need to leave it open.
In cases of a strangling of an intimate partner, the
red mist comes down and the assailants don't care about
if they're leaving injury. But there are none on Hannah's neck,
which you'd expect in a partial or a complete hanging.
(20:42):
There were no injuries on Hannah from her fighting for
her life, none of the scratches or bruises that can
occur as she fought back and trying to release the
pressure for coverage of other news events in New Zealand.
Listen to the front page The Herald's daily News podcast
(21:04):
wherever you get your podcasts onto the injury to Polkinghorn's head.
If that injury was left by Hannah, there was no
signs in her nails, nor in her three rings. It's
an injury. Polkinghorn didn't even know he had Mansfield said.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
And you might think, as a matter of logic, if
he had been involved in an altercation with her where
there was some form of struggle and he sustained any
form of injury, then he would know and might seek
to attend to that that he might have an explanation
for it, given he's the master manipulator when he's asked
(21:47):
about it, as he was at the scene by the
attending ambulance and by the police.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
The other injuries to Hannah's body, like her nose, her back,
her bruises on her arm, could not be shown to
be consistent with any assault or altercation that might occur
between two people in a homicidal strangulation. Mansfield said.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
The crowns say you should use your logic and consider
them as consistent with an assault, because the Crown has to.
Doesn't it point to some form of injury of an assault,
even though on the evidence it's not there.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
Because the Crown wants you to accept.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Its emotional plea that this was a homicidal strangulation which must,
by its varying nature, have incurred some struggle at some
time for some length, and the Crown, once it realized
that the absence of those kinds of injuries was a
(22:56):
real problem for its case. And despite the proferet or
advice you have had from four pathologists tells you that
logically you should consider these injuries as consistent with an assault,
entirely contrary with.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
The evidence that you have heard in this trial. That's
not logic.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
That's the crown and you going rogue if you agree
with that kind of approach.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Blood pulling in her legs and the disappearing belt mark
also fit with her death being a suicide, Mansfield said. Next,
the defense lawyer told the jury he'd take them through
the relationship between husband and wife and the use of math.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
It's murder, one oh one. For there to be a murder,
their first must be a culpable homicide. And we've already
discussed whether on the forensic evidence you have before you,
a case where a culpable homicide, so a strangulation, homicidal
(24:13):
strangulation has been established, and it hasn't. Every good murder
mystery starts at that point. Someone dies, usually in the
first five minutes, and usually the death is obvious, as
is the cause. The real issue is looking for who
(24:36):
might be the perpetrator of it. Here we can't even
start from that position. But a lot of time in
this trial has been invested in creating the villain that
every murder mystery requires.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Mansfield said that Alicia McClintock's framing of Polkinghorn as the
master manipulator is designed to turn the jury off his client.
He said that the Crown solicitor has attributed an arrogance
to Polkinghorn not born out by the evidence.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
None of us would want to be exposed as the
two individuals the subject of this prosecution have ended up
being exposed, but no one more so than doctor Polkinghorn.
His entire lifestyle has been laid bare. I would say,
unnecessarily before you simply to create the villain that the
(25:39):
Crown want you to see him as.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Mansfield said, Polkinghorn had a number of faults and some
members of the jury may see his traits or conduct
as something they might not like in a friend or partner.
But this is not a court of morals. That includes
not judging his meth use or his use of sex workers.
(26:04):
Mansfield said the evidence shows that Hannah was involved at
the outset of the relationship between Polkinghorn and Ashton in
twenty fifteen, and spoke of his use of sex workers
in the Longlands recording where she was less concerned about
sex workers and more that her husband was seeing a
woman in Auckland. Mansfield asked the jury not to put
(26:27):
their values on other people, and this is how Hannah
and Polkinghorn chose to live their life, and she made
her own choices in twenty nineteen around those relationships. He
said that Hannah was independent, intelligent, and earning an incredibly
good salary and would have been entitled to her share
(26:48):
of around ten point five million dollars worth of assets
if they separated. Mansfield said it would have been divided
between the two of them. He said messages from the
end of twenty two twenty and early twenty twenty one
show that Hannah and Polkinghorn still loved and supported each
other despite how they operated their relationship, and there's no
(27:10):
evidence Polkinghorn wanted to run off with Ashton. That might
have changed after Hannah's death when he was isolated and desperate.
There were clear tensions behind some of the things Hannah said,
such as the dispute at Auckland die but Hannah made
it clear to her family that she was not physically
(27:31):
battered despite Polkinghorn being beastly. Mansfield said he can't comment
on the recollections of the readings of a dinner with Hannah,
in which she allegedly described Polkinghorn attempting to strangle her.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
No, I'm not going to suggest that Physic and John
read and are liars.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
But I am going to.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Sedest that you need to look with Kia at what
they say when you contrast that against what she was
clearly saying to her own Bruce and Rose at Longlands.
I'm not physically bettered, i am not abused. I am safe, Darling,
Please think I am safe. I'm not a scapegoat or
(28:12):
a door mare.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
There is absolutely no other evidence of physical violence in
Hannah and Polkinghorn's relationship. He said. To go from no
violence to controlling and violence doesn't fit comfortably with what
others report of their relationship, Mansfield said. Onto auckland I
and the issues there, Mansfield said Polkinghorn's anger was not
(28:37):
about money, but about getting less than two doctors who
had left acrimoniously despite him being a founder of the clinic.
Onto the mathe Use, Mansfield said Crown witness Dr Emma
Schwartz's evidence was that people who use myth might be
prone to increased violence, but she made it clear it
(28:59):
wasn't a risk for everyone who used math or even
those with a meth use disorder. It would be hard
to understand why polking Horn would resort to violence when
it hadn't been a signature of their relationship, says Mansfield.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
And you might just see that from the basic stats
that exist within our community regarding methamphetamine use. It's everywhere.
And if everyone who used methamphetamine and the kind of
way that we know doctor Polkinghorn used methamphetamin became violent
or became homicidal all of a sudden, then our courts
(29:39):
would be even fuller than they are, and considerably so.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
Thirty seven point seven grams of math may have been
found at the Upland Road home, but Mansfield said there's
no evidence of Polkinghorn's meth use and that just represents
how much had been bought at one time. Mansfield said
there's no evidence of Polkinghorn having turned agitated because of
(30:05):
meth use, with only one reprimand at Auckland Eye for
being critical of support staff. Meth can linger in urine
for up to seven days in regular users, so the
meth found in the toilet water in Hannah's bathroom might
have nothing to do with its use the night of
her death, Mansfield said, and the investigation into the discovery
(30:30):
of the sweet puff pipe at Auckland Eye in October
twenty twenty did not prove conclusively that it belonged to Polkinghorn,
and meth traces were also found in other consultation rooms.
Paramedics and the police officer who took Polkinghorn's first statement
didn't notice anything to suggest he was on a come
(30:53):
down from meth use. Onto sex workers, Mansfield said, Polkinghorn
developed an interest the lives of these women and the
fact he helped them with personal and financial issues says
a great deal about him. Ultimately, the use of sex
workers may have been another factor that led to Hannah
(31:13):
feeling down and seeking to take her own life.
Speaker 4 (31:16):
Mansfield said, if a relationship was tested, if she fared
being on her own, or she was.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
Concerned about how that might appear to others, especially if
the concern related to medicineation are known. A well known
sex worker in Australia that might have had an impact
on her that impacted on a decision to take her
own life that morning. The problem with the crown theory
(31:45):
regarding his relationship with sex workers equally applies to providing
another risk factor for Pauline that might have meant that
she saw suicide as a decision for her that morning.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
It seems odd, you.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Might think, when if he was interested in a relationship
with medicination aught along and Pauline was in the way,
he couldn't just separate as they had discussed in twenty
nineteen and go their own way, he said.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
The Crown relies on a number of actions they say
were inconsistent with a grieving husband, such as the search
for leg edema after strangulation. Mansfield said that with police
giving him no information, Polkinghorn wanted to know why the
death was still being considered suspicious.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
There is nothing indicative of this search unmasking the murderer
as promoters. That is just scare tactics and frankly quite bizarre.
He is not simply conducting a search checking to see
(33:04):
whether he left behind a clue. What he's endeavoring to
do is to find out why it's thought that his
wife's death was suspicious and whether the swelling he's noted
in her leg might be indicative of that concern, and
you know it wasn't. It wasn't indicative of that concern,
(33:26):
because that kind of swelling is indicative of death by
way of homicidal strangulation as much as it is death
by way of suicide.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Mansfield said that police had no reason to influence Paul
Adrian's into not making a statement other than saying people
don't have to talk to police onto Alison Ring. Interactions
between the two souring was understandable, but there's nothing suspicious
in him showing her the note he believed to be
(33:59):
a suer side note from Hannah. On the Crown's suggestion
that Polkinghorn planted blood on the steps of his home
to explain his head injury, there was no evidence otherwise
of any altercation with Hannah, and the injury to his
head could be described as nonspecific, Mansfield said. Polkinghorn always
(34:21):
knew there was going to be the risk of contamination,
and the report furnished to the Crown makes that clear,
but consistent with an innocent man. He went to the
expense of enlisting overseas expert Dr Timothy Scanlon to assess
that area.
Speaker 4 (34:40):
Mansfield said, why would you go to that cost and
face that obvious criticism unless you were driven to prove
as beast you could that you didn't have an altercation
with your wife and this was not an injury caused
by that altercation, even though you knew that.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
But no pathologist, no doctor could say it was specific
of an altercation, And if there had been an altercation,
they would have expected quite different injuries to different parts
of both of them. The reality is that that evidence,
despite criticism, simply establishes his motivation to establish his innocence.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
And onto the blood found between Hannah's fingers.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Not one pathologist placed any weight on the blood that
could be found between her fingers as indicative or of
assistance to you in relation to the manner upon which
your death might have occurred. And that's relevant, folks, because
now the crown seek to rely on that is somehow
(35:48):
indicative of it being a homicidal killing.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
Rather than death.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
By way of hanging, whereas the expert evidence you have
heard tends to suggest that also.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
Other factors like redness on Hannah's legs, bruises on her
right arm, and the disappearing beltmark are consistent with what
Polkinghorn reported about Hannah's death. When you think about the
(36:22):
suggestion that he is a master manipulator, Mansfield asked the
jury to consider the other aspects of Polkinghorn. Mansfield turned
to people who spoke highly of the accused, noting that
they do so despite knowing they'd be named and associated
with him. He referenced colleagues and patients who thought highly
(36:44):
of him, of how Polkinghorn would wave fees on surgeries
for those who couldn't afford them, even meeting them on weekends.
Despite this, Mansfield said, Polkinghorn is not a perfect man,
but none of us are, and the jury can't deliver
just if they only focus on the negative.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
None of us would like all our messages drawled through
our inter net searchers, reviewed by others, or our personal
lives turned upside down in the way in which his
life and his wife's life was turned upside down as
a necessity because of this allegation. None of us could
stand there and say we are perfect, and none of
(37:25):
us would try if we knew that that kind of
review of our lives would take place. There would always
be things we wouldn't want others to know, and there
would always be things that we would want to keep
to ourselves and not be judged for. If you expect
that for yourself, I just asked that you expect and
ensure that for him.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
Police.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
Paulkinghorn didn't need to provide his voluntary statement to police,
Mansfield said, but he thought he was doing justice to Hannah.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
If he was this intelligent master manipulator, then he would
be in that interview driving home a couple of things.
He would be in that interview driving home how he
found his wife, and being very clear around the arrangement,
the way in which the rope was tied, how long
it was horrod was connected to the belt, and how
(38:16):
the belt was around her neck.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
He would be able to.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
Tell you about that with clarity or the detective, because
that would be key to the very setup he's meant
to have made this mocked suicide. What would be the
point of going to this effort of showing a mock
suicide in then not being able to tell the police
with some accuracy around how it was.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
If Polkinghorn was a mastermind, cold blooded killer, he wouldn't
have got Hannah down and covered her with a sheet.
Despite what people think about his interest with sex workers
and fascination with pornography. Polkinghorn loved Hannah and she loved him.
Man's Field said he told the jury those who have
had long term relationships or friendships will know they're not
(39:07):
always perfect. Onto the evidence from the electricity experts, Mansfield said,
both of them said the washing machine could have been
used up until eleven thirty pm the night before her death.
That's important because it shows her large acrylic toenail did
not come off in the fight. On Hannah's room, Mansfield
(39:28):
said it was not disheveled, but in a state of
being tidied, and Hannah had planned on finishing doing the
washing later. Mansfield then addressed Hannah's trip to the tip
and said it showed she knew where the rope was.
He said there also isn't any evidence of the rope
being cut that night.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
Doctor Polkinghorn talks and his interview about handling the rope
days earlier and sealing the rope by burning the inns.
He doesn't talk about two ripes and a fair in
the interview. He seems very confused by the suggestion that
there were two ropes, which adds weight to this point
(40:08):
I've made earlier that if he had secured the rope
to secure her in a way to mask her death
by suicide, he would know whether there was one or
two ropes and make it very clear, because why would
he not want to look very clear about that? But
there was no rope cut as part of the exercise
(40:30):
of Pauline taking her own life. If so, there would
have been tailtale signs of rope fiber found in that
house and around, and Fiona Mathison would have found it
because she was specifically looking for it.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
He said. It's pointless to view Polkinghorn's phone being placed
on airplane mode as being suspicious, as the only benefit
of this would be to track his movements if he
left the address, which no one in this case is.
Polkinghorn only remembered his phone was on airplane mode after
his one one one call, and he told police about
(41:08):
the airplane mode situation, Mansfield said. Polkinghorn also never said
he turned on the toaster and the jug at the
same time, only that he put toast in the toaster.
Speaker 2 (41:20):
It needed to be responded to because this suggestion he
didn't turn the jag on and put toast and the
toaster became a key point for the Crown in trying
to establish he was telling lies. Believe it or not,
Tea and Toast was meant to disclose whether he was truthful.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
Removing the belt from around Hannah's neck and lying her
down is entirely a natural consequence and would not have
been convoluted. Polkinghorn's account of the rope matches with the evidence,
and the rope expert confirmed the knot would have held
Hannah's weight, Mansfield said. On the cut on his head,
(42:00):
Polkinghorn told the police he didn't know how he got it,
but one of the Crown prosecutors described it as a cut,
not a scratch. Mansfield said it could have happened at
any occasion. On Hannah's mental health, Mansfield said the death
of her mother, fears of Polkinghorn seeing someone else, the
combination of medication and alcohol, and her perfectionist attitude can
(42:24):
contribute to poor mental health or depression. Mansfield said there's
no evidence she was dragged after her death, or that
there was a fight between the two that left her
with no injuries.
Speaker 2 (42:37):
It's implausible tissitis that could happen, that her life could
be taken by way of a homicidal strangulation, and there
be no injury and or a sign anywhere in that
bedroom consistent with that. No urine, no blood, no DNA nothing,
(42:58):
no damage, no scrape, no dragging, nothing.
Speaker 1 (43:02):
The other suggestion put to the jury by the Crown
is that Polkinghorn did it by stealth, that he managed
to achieve his wife's death without leaving an injury, and
he was able to bring her downstairs to mock up
the hanging. Mansfield said this suggestion made no sense as
there was no premeditation, no planning, no evidence he planned
(43:23):
to kill his wife. He alleges this is some of
the most gravest nonsense New Zealand courts had heard for
a long time. Continuing on mental health, Mansfield addressed to
the evidence of Hannah's sister Tracy. Mansfield said he fully
accepts anxiety and depression can come and go, but said
(43:45):
it's important not to lose sight of the evidence about
Hannah's mental health issues. He reminded the jury of evidence
from Hannah's sister, Tracy Hannah, who claimed Hannah told her
she'd tried to kill herself back in nineteen ninety two,
who Mansfield said that the suggestion Tracy has lied about.
This is unfortunate.
Speaker 2 (44:06):
She was upfront and told you what she knew in
the extent of it, and she was text about what
she did or didn't do back then when she was
a young person herself, and she needed to respond to
that as be she could, and entirely emotional circumstances. Anyway,
I obviously endorsed that evidence as reliable was given to
(44:28):
the police. It was consistently given to you, and it
wasn't embellished in any way that you might expect it
could have been if it was aimed at assisting one
party over the other.
Speaker 1 (44:39):
Mansfield said that Hannah had tensions with her brother Bruce
over dealings with their family farm. He said that in
Hannah's own words in the Longlands recording, she spoke about
not being physically battered, though perhaps emotionally so, and that
she loved Polkinghorn and didn't want to leave him, despite
knowing other men who fancied her. Mansfield said no one
(45:03):
was forcing her to participate in the sexual activity with
sex workers, and when she wanted to stop, she did.
Hannah's own emails detail how Polkinghorn was being supportive during
her work stresses. Other witnesses testified about noticing Hannah's stress.
In early twenty twenty one, Hannah's boss approached her over
(45:24):
her habit of sending emails early in the morning. In closing,
Mansfield said, there cannot be a suggestion that Hannah was
trapped from a relationship that she couldn't exit. If Polkinghorn
didn't realize how good he had it, that's a matter
for the couple. And there's a difference between being selfish
or self focused and taking someone's life emotions aside. All
(45:48):
the evidence clearly establishes that Pauline died by suicide. Mansfield said,
there is.
Speaker 2 (45:55):
No justice for Pauline if you ignore her vulnerabilities and
do not respect the decision she took. That is not respect,
That is not understanding, and that is not following your oath.
It is just being emotional vigilantes. We all need to
expect more. The decision you make must be on the evidence,
(46:21):
that is the oath that you swore. It can't be
based on emotion, and it can't be based on a
foundless theory that he wanted her out of his life
and he was prepared to kill her, for which there
is no forensic evidence to support. Hold him morally to
(46:42):
account if need be, as he has been in this
very public way. But you cannot convict a man of
murder when they did not do it out of anger
or sympathy, let alone the man poorly loved with all
her heart.
Speaker 3 (46:59):
Is that the way she should be remembered.
Speaker 2 (47:02):
If you believe in the need for evidence of a
crime before you convict any man, the crown obligation to
prove a charge here at deliberate killing to the required standard,
and you believe in honoring your oath, you already know
the correct verdict in this case, and it's not necessary
for me to tell you.
Speaker 1 (47:28):
You can listen to episodes of Accused the Polkinghorn 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 me Chelsea Daniels, with producer Ethan
Siles and sound engineer Patti Fox. Additional reporting from The
Heralds Craig Capatan, George Block, and Katie Harris. And for
(47:52):
more coverage of the Polkinghorn Trial, head to Ends at
Harold dot Co dot enz
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