September 5, 2024 • 41 mins
Week six of the trial of Philip Polkinghorne continued with the defence’s case.
The former Auckland eye surgeon is accused of murdering his wife, Pauline Hanna, who was found dead on 5 April, 2021.
He maintains she took her own life.
Witnesses for the defence revealed a different side of Polkinghorne then what we’ve previously heard, with former colleagues and neighbours describing him as funny, generous and caring.
While the case took another dive into the couple’s accounts, electricity usage the morning Hanna died, and the reappearance of a red mark on the stairs – and the defence pathologist weighed in as well.
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 Dan Goodwin. Additional production support by Helen King. Additional reporting by Craig Kapitan and George Block.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Kyoda. 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 several weeks, in conjunction
with our usual daily episodes, will be bringing you regular
coverage as one of the most high profile trials of
(00:28):
the year makes its way through the High Court at Auckland.
A warning, this podcast contains disturbing content. Week six of
the trial of Philip Polkinghorn continued with the defense's case.
The former Auckland eye surgeon is accused of murdering his wife,
Pauline Hannah, who was found dead on April fifth, twenty
(00:52):
twenty one. He maintains she took her own life. Witnesses
for the defense revealed a different side to polking Horn
then what we've previously heard, with former colleagues and neighbors
describing him as funny, generous and caring, while the case
took another dive into the couple's accounts, electricity usage the
(01:12):
morning Hannah died and the reappearance of a red mark
on the stairs, and the defense pathologist weighed in as well.
Day twenty four started with an ophthalmologist the man is
intending to seek permanent name suppression, so we can't reveal
(01:35):
much about him, including his sub speciality. The man, like
all defense witnesses so far in the trial, declined to
be filmed or recorded, but we can still report on
what they said. The witness said he's known the defendant
since Polkinghorn was completing his training in London in the
early nineteen nineties. The witness says he met Pauline Hannah
(01:59):
in the mid nineteen nineties when she was a manager
of the eye department at Auckland Hospital, before she went
on to work with the county's Monaco DHB, where she
remained until her death. Defense lawyer Ron Mansfield asked about
Polkinghorn's reputation. The witness agrees he was respected as an
expert in his sub specialty and his standing was reflected
(02:22):
by invitations to speak overseas. Polkinghorn had founded the business
that became Auckland I in two thousand and he worked
in other parts of the country providing services as well.
He gained an associate professorship at the University of Auckland too.
The witness said that Hannah would travel with Polkinghorn regularly
for those overseas trips. Mansfield asked about the witness's personal
(02:45):
relationship with Polkinghorn. He says they would sometimes see each
other on holiday and on other social occasions, maybe once
or twice a year. The majority of their social interactions
were via their professional work at functions organized by auckland I.
The witness became a trustee on one of Polkinghorn's various trusts.
(03:06):
When he became the trustee, it was the fashion for
there to be someone outside the trust to be a trustee,
someone trusted by a family. I saw my role as
a tie breaker if there was a need, he said.
In twenty nineteen, he asked to be removed from the
trust due to an increasing pressure in general in New
Zealand on trustees to be more involved. He was contacted
(03:28):
by Hannah in August twenty twenty and asked if he
could sign something for the trust. In March twenty twenty one,
the month before Hannah's death, the witness had further contact
with Hannah regarding documents so he could finally come off
the trust as a trustee. Hannah brought the document about
midday to their practice and she signed it in February
(03:50):
twenty twenty one, the witness and his wife had dinner
with polking Horn and Hannah at their Rings Beach batch.
It was a pleasant night, he said, though finished early
so Hannah would visit her gravely ill mother. The witness
didn't notice anything out of the ordinary that night. Moving
ahead to the day Hannah died. April fifth, twenty twenty one,
(04:10):
the witness heard from someone at Auckland Eye that Hannah
had committed suicide. The witness messaged Polkinghorn to express his
condolences and asked if he wanted to meet. Polkinghorn contacted
the witness on April sixth and was distraught. It was
one of the worst conversations I've had, the witness said.
At the end of the difficult conversation, Polkinghorn asked him
(04:31):
to be a poll bearer. He said he was assisting
police in their inquiries and had been asked a lot
about their relationship. Mansfield asked the witness if he'd ever
seen Polkinghorn use or be under the influence of any
controlled drugs, to which he said no. Prosecutor Brian Dickie
then began his cross examination, asking if Hannah did most
(04:55):
of the running around for the couple regarding the trusts.
The witness agreed and said he had very little understanding
of the trust and its accounting and didn't know enough
to answer anything about assets or financials. The witness isn't
aware of Polkinghorn's relationship with Madison Ashton. I found out
about that about the same time as everyone else in Auckland.
He said. He was also unaware of Polkinghorn using methanphetamine.
(05:19):
The witness again agrees it was remarkable the amount of
time Hannah spent at County's Monaco DHB and said it
was a hard job. There are cuts every six months.
People are leaning on you to increase volumes and reduce costs.
She would have had a tough job, he said. Mansfield
then asked more questions about Hannah's COVID role. She discussed
(05:41):
it at the Rings Beach batch dinner, the witness said,
and he said it sounded terrible the calls she was getting,
the fact that she was having to manage this kind
of thing with one arm tied behind her back. It
was very political. I know that she was under a
lot of stress, he said. The next witness was Sharon Jenkins,
(06:04):
a receptionist at Auckland Eye between twenty fourteen and twenty
twenty two. She told defense barrister Harrison Smith that she
was one of seven receptionists and one of abround seventy
people who worked at Auckland Eye and Oasis Surgical. After
a restructure in twenty nineteen, she was assigned to work
specifically with Polkinghorn and two other doctors. One of her
(06:28):
duties involved looking after Polkinghorn's outer clinics and Pappatoy Toy
and funger Ay, organizing administrative tasks, and preparing his lists.
Jenkins had a house sitting arrangement with Polkinghorn and Hannah
over Christmas each year, beginning in twenty seventeen. Polkinghorn had
come to the reception and asked if someone could house
sit over Christmas. When she arrived, Hannah took Jenkins on
(06:51):
a tour around the house and showed her the two cats,
the pop plants she had to water, which bedroom she
could sleep in. Jenkins was shown the which had laundry
in it that day. They didn't have a physical outside line,
so it was always in the dryer, Jenkins said. Smith
asked what security measures Hannah described to Jenkins on her
(07:12):
initial tour of the house, Jenkins says she showed her
the main alarm and keypads around the house. Smith later
referred to photos of the master and guest bedroom, which
both contained a red button. Smith referred to them as
panic buttons, but Justice Lang asked Jenkins what she understood
them to be. She said she wasn't sure, but had
(07:34):
called them panic buttons in her police statement in April
twenty twenty one that initial house sitting went well and
led to Jenkins doing it again over the next several years.
She said that Polkinghorn had a good relationship with staff
at Auckland Eye, that patients loved him, and he and
Hannah were very kind and generous. She said when Polkinghorn
(07:55):
came to the clinic after Hannah's death, he was distraught
and had clearly been crying. In his cross examination, prosecutor
Brian Dicky asked Jenkins about Polkinghorn's weight loss. She said
it was noticeable and seemed quite sudden. Asked if she
had worked out the red buttons were panic buttons or
if she'd just been told that. Jenkins said her ex
(08:17):
partner had looked at them and told her they were
panic buttons. Smith then asked a follow up question on
when she noticed Polkinghorn's weight loss. Jenkins said it was
around twenty eighteen and it was quite dramatic, to the
point she wondered if he had cancer. The next witness
(08:37):
was Leoni Darlington, who worked at auckland I from two
thousand and four to twenty twenty two in various roles,
including as a theater hostess and as a surgical booker
at Oasis Surgical, the specialist surgical center built by auckland
Ie in twenty ten. He was very good to work with.
He was a perfectionist. He had a very high standard
(08:59):
and he expected that from his staff as well. She
said they had a good rapport and he would come
to her for all of his bookings. Darlington said he
was polite, courteous and generous to staff and to patients
and would do anything for them, including sometimes foregoing his
surgeon's fee so a patient could undergo an important surgery.
She said she never saw him under the influence of drugs.
(09:22):
Under cross examination from the Crown, she said she was
not looking for signs of intoxication. Next was Gillian Mary Blakely,
a registered nurse specializing in ophthalmology. She met Polkinghorn in
late nineteen ninety one when she was a junior theater
nurse assisting Polkinghorn in surgeries. Blakely says she used to
(09:43):
order Polkinghorn's stock and supplies for the theater and helped
him with teaching staff as the years went on. He
was very dedicated, very committed. He always had the patient's
interest at heart, and I really respected him for those attributes,
she said. Blakely started doing morning shifts at ORCA and
I in nineteen ninety seven. Ultimately, she worked with Polkinghorn
(10:04):
for the best part of twenty seven years. She would
be in surgery with him once a week over that period.
They had a good working relationship, she said. She said
he could get a bit rattled during stressful moments. He
liked people to be interested in the case and preferred
silence in the theater when operating. Like earlier witnesses, She
says he had a great relationship with his patients. She
(10:27):
said Polkinghorn did not share much about his home life
beyond surface level friendly chats, and she didn't notice his
weight loss. Theatre scrubs are theater scrubs, she said. Defense
lawyer Ron Mansfield next called Tony Robert Glucina. He's an
investment advisor at JB Whirr, which manages seventeen billion dollars
(10:51):
of trusts for New Zealand clients. The trial heard earlier
Polkinghorn had invested about five hundred thousand dollars of proceed
from the sale of a Pappatoy toy rental property into
that managed fund with JB Whirr. Glucina says JBI Werer
had provided services to Polkinghorn and Hannah for about ten
years and that he dealt primarily with Polkinghorn as the
(11:14):
investments were registered in his name. Asked about separations, he
said that's common and even if the investment is held
in one of the couple's names, it's considered shared matrimonial property.
He met Hannah at a Christmas function where she accompanied
Polkinghorn and Glucina and his partner, Buffy, a well known
naturopath and nutritionist, had also socialized with the couple. Polkinghorn
(11:38):
invited the couple to a dinner in January twenty twenty
one at the Rings Beach Batch. He said it was
a good dinner, but his partner noticed Hannah didn't eat anything,
despite there being three courses and a substantial dessert. Polkinghorn
is flamboyant, he said, and gave them a tour of
the house, which they were very proud of. He didn't
(11:58):
observe Polkinghorn treating Hannah badly, and it didn't seem that
there was any secret about Polkinghorn's investment with JB. Whirr.
The Crown in their case had repeatedly suggested Polkinghorn was
squirreling away money that was at least partly Hannah's, including
transferring her salary to accounts he controlled. Crown Prosecutor Brian
(12:19):
Dickie then asked Lucina if he ever discussed the JB
were accounts when he met with Hannah socially. He said
he didn't. He said that Polkinghorn did not act out
of the ordinary when they met him at Rings Beach.
He said that he was told at the dinner that
Hannah was stressed. The next witness was doctor Timothy Scanlon,
(12:42):
who appeared via audio visual link from his home in
New Orleans. He runs a forensic consulting firm providing services
and training to crime labs. He worked for the Jefferson
Parish Sheriff's office for more than twenty years. After Polkinghorn
had been charged with mer in August twenty twenty two,
he was instructed to provide assistance, including to travel to
(13:05):
the Upland Road property and review it as a crime scene.
He visited the scene on March eighth and ninth last year.
When he was at the property, he found an area
with a mark and a blood stain or smear. He
collected the sample, he told the court. Defense lawyer Ron
Mansfield showed the photo to the court via the screens
in the courtroom. It's an image of a set of
(13:27):
three stairs just off the kitchen, between the kitchen and
the garage. The mark, which appeared to Scanlan as potentially blood,
was on the second step from the ground, on the
lightwood paneling on the right of the staircase. Earlier in
the trial, we heard about this mark from s A
forensic scientist Fiona Matheson. The mark was tested after Hannah's death,
(13:50):
and in a photograph from April twenty twenty one, the
mark resembled a red line with a gap in it
with a black mark running through. Athson didn't test the
mark for DNA at the time, as the area tested
negative for blood. In the photo taken from twenty twenty three,
the black mark appears to have a slightly different appearance
(14:12):
with the passage of time, as Mansfield puts it. He noted,
and Scanlon agreed that police had said they had put
commercial cleaners through the property. Scanlan says he documented the
mark with photography and swabbed it for future DNA testing.
He said the sample was sent to a lab in
Virginia for testing. Two samples was sent to the lab,
(14:34):
the blood like substance he recovered from the stair and
a reference sample from Philip J. Polkinghorn. Scanlan says the
first sample was positive for blood and came back as
a match to Polkinghorn's DNA. Under cross examination, Crown Prosecutor
Brian Dickey asked who was present when he visited the
Upland Road property in March twenty twenty three. Zalie Burrows
(14:57):
and Polkinghorn were there. Scanlon said the trial already heard
Zalie Burrows was Madison Ashton's lawyer who she recommended to Polkinghorn.
Dickie asked if there was a risk of contamination if
there's a long delay between scene examinations. Scanlon agreed. Would
that risk be heightened if that suspect had access to
(15:18):
the scene, Dickie asked. Scanlon said, he thinks that would
be fair to say. Dickie asked about the ESR examination
of the home. He recapped that Fiona Matheson had testified earlier.
Reading one bit of her testimony, I have not detected
any blood in that area. Now, two years later, you've
detected blood in that area, Dickie asked, that's correct, Scandlon said.
(15:42):
Dickie moved on to the two photos. Scanlon agreed that
they are different in appearance. Miraculously, on the right we've
got two tracks of red showing, whereas on the left
there's only one line, Dickie said. Scanlon agreed that the
second photo from twenty twenty three, the mark appears to
have been altered, but it's of the same length, at
(16:05):
the same position and has the same void in the middle.
But said Dickie, it's not as if the mark has
been smudged while cleaning. Dickie then asked that could have
come from contamination of the scene, couldn't it. Yes, that's
a possibility, Scanlan said. Dickie said he's not contesting that
it's got Polkinghorn's blood on it, but that he's asking
(16:27):
about the fact there are two different stains different in appearance.
Dickie said one stain has one line and the latter
photo of the stain has two lines. Scanlon said it's
fair that the risk of interference and contamination is exacerbated
if the suspect has access to the scene over that period.
Ron Mansfield then asked why Scanlon put the photo from
(16:50):
the police in his report. Scanlon said he noticed it
looked like it had been altered, so he specifically put
that in his report to bring it to the attention
of the court. He said new fr things could have
happened after the stain. Mansfield then refers to Fiona Matheson's
earlier testimony. She said she didn't take samples from the
wooden area, and Scanlan said that's his understanding too. The
(17:15):
next defense witness was Dominic Simon Foote. He's known Polkinghorn
and Hannah for some years after his family bought a
batch in Rings Beach, two doors down from the polking Horns.
Foot said he goes their most long weekends and family holidays.
His parents were friends with polking Horn and Hannah, and
he dived and fished with the couple and still fishes
with Polkinghorn to this day. Polky some call him Foot, said,
(17:39):
the first time the trial has heard that nickname in
a few weeks. He called him kind, generous, a great neighbor.
He never saw him act erratically. He said, Polkinghorn and
Hannah enjoyed carrying comically large glasses of wine. Brian Dicky,
in his cross examination, referenced the earliest testimony of crown
witness Stephen MacIntyre, another Rings Beach neighbor, who said Polkinghorn
(18:03):
had acted erratically in the years before Hannah's death and
he suspected he was on drugs. Foot saw nothing of
the sort. He was in bed by nine thirty every
night for two and a half decades, even on New
Year's Eve, he said. The defense's Harrison Smith called the
final witness of the day Ronald Beatty. Beatty's an electrical
(18:25):
engineer with expertise and forensic data analysis with fifty two
years experience in the electricity industry. Earlier, the trial heard
how police instructed Paul Smith from Consumer and Z to
look at usage data from Polkinghorn's home in Remuera's Upland Road.
The Defense instructed Ronald Beatty to perform a similar exercise
(18:47):
to see if Polkinghorn's explanation matched the power usage data.
Beattie said, the electricity industry settles in thirty minute increments,
so it's not possible to look at one or two
days to consider what could happened within the premises. A
wider set of data has to be used, but we
can never actually say what exactly happened on any given day.
(19:09):
Smith's report looked only at one or two days of
consumption and didn't look at what happened on similar days
in the past. That is I think a failing actually
of that side of the investigation. Beatty said he also
had issues with some of the figures Smith used too.
The washing machine used in his modeling wasn't the same
as Polkinghorn's, Betty said, and that Smith had made assumptions
(19:32):
around the jug. Betty said on April fifth, there was
a standing load until about six am, when there's a
steep increase. The increase in load was followed by a
larger increase at about eight am. Too great just to
be lighting. It needed to be other appliances turned on
as well at eight am, He said, Beatty can't tell
(19:54):
us what appliances specifically we used. For example, he can't
say for certain if the jug and toaster were both
used at around eight am, but Betty's able to use
a list of appliances to determine whether or not they
may have been used in that period, and the data
indicates a regular pattern of electricity consumption to other days.
(20:16):
He said that if the washing machine had been used,
he would have expected to see the washing machine turning
off in the data on April fifth, which the data
doesn't show, so in his view, it could have only
been run on the evening of April fourth, and the
same goes for the dryer. You'll remember from earlier in
the trial, a damp top sheet was found in the
(20:36):
dryer by police. It's believed to have come from the
room Polkinghorn said Hanna had slept in. It was found
disheveled and missing the sheet. Under cross examination from the
Crowns Brian Dickie, Beatty said that it'd be too refined
an analysis to say if the kettle or toaster both
could have been runner that morning, but that he would
(20:57):
exclude the notion the washing machine was running. Asked about
the small rise at six am, which he took to
be Ellie d lights switched on by polkinghorn in his
bedroom when he rose, Beattie said he can't say who
switched the lights on, or in fact where in the
house the lights might have been switched.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
On that morning.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Day twenty five started with Pauline Hannah's hairdresser and Miller.
She owned a Remuwerer hair salon where Pauline Hannah had
been a client for about twenty five years. Testifying via
audio visual feed from her holiday hotel in Europe, Miller
remembers seeing Hannah every four weeks to have her hair
retouched with hair tint and condition her hair. The impact
(21:48):
of hair dye on the effectiveness of drug testing on
strands of the hair has been raised previously in the trial.
You'll remember Hannah's hairstrand test was negative for meth. Defense
lawyer Ron Mansfield asked Miller how she would describe Hannah's
appearance when she attended her appointments.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
How would she ordinarily appear as far as her presentation
is consented, immaculate, so by that hair would always be immaculate. Yes,
cleare nails make up.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
The whole thing.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
Yes, Yes, it's fair to say that she took her
presentation very carefully. Correct.
Speaker 4 (22:34):
That is correct.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
And I think you've told us that for a woman
her age, she had an amazing figure.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Yes, Miller explained, Hannah was always busy with work during
the appointments, often using her time to take Zoom meetings.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
How would she do the zoom meetings while getting her
hair done?
Speaker 1 (22:55):
I would do her hair for I would put the
color on first, and then I would leave her while
la color was processing.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
And would be on her laptop, yes, doing work and
taking Zoom meetings. Yes, and that would be on a Saturday. Yes,
(23:26):
So how did she appear during her time with you
on that Saturday? In relation to her work commitments, she was.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Always very professional when she came into the salon. You'll recall.
Mansfield has repeatedly raised throughout the trial that Hannah had
at times a thankless job. During the COVID vaccine rollout,
Miller said she could tell her client was busier than usual.
During her third to last appointment on February six, twenty
twenty one, Hannah had showed up uncharacteristically late to her
(24:06):
last appointment on March twentieth, and was busy and distracted.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
That's today that you stayed late to accommodate that for her,
because she was a good giant correct, Yes, and a
person that you liked correct.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
And she talked to you about her job on that
occasion as well. Yes, And she had her laptop out
and she was working away.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
And then as I understand that the last appointment was
twenty March twenty twenty one, that's correct, she had an
appointment at two thirty. Yes, she arrived at two forty,
which wasn't unusual for her. That was unusual for he
(25:00):
was unusual. Yes, thank you.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
During cross examination by the Crown, Miller agreed Hannah was
a busy, professional woman who was remembered as positive in
outlook and attitude. Milla remembered she was enjoying being a grandmother.
Speaker 4 (25:18):
And she remained very positive in her outlooks and attitudes
throughout the time that you dealt with her or cut
colored her hair. Yes, the whole time, including all particularly
that March twenty twenty one, Is that right?
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (25:33):
And I think she was she looking forward to a
four wheel drive treple something that was coming up with
friends in a little while. Yes, she was, and she
also really enjoyed the family life, particularly with a young grandchild. Yes,
and she spoke of the children as her an. She
didn't speak of them as a stepmother all the time.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
Next up for the defense was Robert John Willis, an
accountant who, at the end of a long career, worked
with the firm RSM. He met Polkinghorn in late two
thousand and nine as a patient. They got talking about accounting,
and shortly thereafter Willis became professionally involved with Polkinghorn and Hannah,
(26:19):
looking after their financial affairs for RSM until twenty eighteen,
when he retired. Willis transferred his clients to a younger
partner at RSM, but stayed in touch with the couple
regarding their financial affairs and remained their first port of
call for financial matters. He met the couple on about
four social occasions over the years. He would speak to
(26:41):
Hannah at these occasions, which once involved picking them up
from their Upland Road home and taking them to an
event related to the Rugby World Cup. The couple also
visited Willis at his apartment in Prince's Wharf in downtown Auckland.
Polkinghorn had said the couple were interested in selling Upland Road,
spending more time at rings Beach, and we're looking at
(27:03):
the idea of buying a city apartment, perhaps in the viaduct.
He said. They later went out for dinner at a
restaurant and Prince's Wharf. Willis said that the couple appeared
fine when he saw them interact, and he wouldn't have
thought there was any problems with their relationship. On to
their financial affairs, Willis confirms he would deal with Polkinghorn,
(27:24):
but said Hannah was aware Willis was the accountant for
their financial entities, including trusts and companies. Earlier, Willis said
it's not uncommon for one party in a marriage to
take greater interest in the trust and company related affairs.
The lengthy testimony from Willis went through specifics of various deeds,
(27:44):
trustees and joint ventures related to these trusts, which you
can read in full at enzid Herald dot co dot nz.
There is a point to Willis's testimony. While the Crown
earlier has argued that the network of trusts and companies
were used to hide money from Hannah and Squirrel away
her salary in accounts Polkinghorn controlled. Mansfield's point via this
(28:08):
witness is to suggest the structure of his companies and
trusts were standard practice for taxation purposes and to protect
personal property, and there would have been a fifty to
fifty matrimonial property split should they have separated. Willis said
the specific trust, the Hannah Polkinghorn Trust, was set up
(28:29):
to give Poline a separate accumulation of wealth. Under cross
examination later, Brian Dicky asked Willis about this. If that
was the case, then it would entirely make sense that
upon the sale of its only asset, the Pappatoy Toy
rental property, for the funds of that to be distributed
to the trust, not Polkinghorn. Willis answered, you'd have to
(28:52):
look into the minds of the trustees at the time
the property was sold to determine what they intended. Willis
said he doesn't know if Hanna would have seen in
the accounts before her death. Willis said he wasn't aware
of payments made to a Polkinghorn controlled account in Australia,
or to a woman named Jody, or to Madison Ashton,
Polkinghorn's longtime sex worker companion who lived in Australia. The
(29:19):
next testimony was from Andrew McGregor, a mechanical engineer. He
was instructed by Polkinghorn's legal team to investigate the circumstances
of what was said to be a partial hanging at
the doctor's upland wrote Home Justice Graham Lang suppressed most
parts of his testimony and as such we won't be
able to cover the full testimony here, but we can
(29:42):
report what McGregor's broad conclusion was that it was physically
possible for Hannah to have died via hanging in the
manner described by Polkinghorn to police in the immediate aftermath
of his wife's death. The engineer conducted his tests at
the remiwaer A home on the third of June and
the ninth of July this year. Polkinghorn was home, but
(30:05):
not observing the simulation he said. During cross examination, Crown
Solicitor Alicia McClintock suggested to the jury that there were
so many unknown variables that the expert's calculation was basically meaningless.
His testimony also missed the point. McClintock suggested, do you
understand the theoretical possibility of this is not the issue,
(30:29):
she asked. At one point, McGregor said he didn't take
into consideration how loose the rope found tied to the
upstairs balustrade was when conducting his tests because there wasn't
enough information about how the rope had been tied. He
also agreed with McClintock that while understanding angles and weights,
(30:49):
due to his background as an engineer, he doesn't have
a pathology qualification. He also agreed that he needed to
do some medical research on the suicide method ahead of
the simulation. Were you aware if Pauline Hannah had any
engineering qualifications, McClintock asked, adding were you aware if Pauline
(31:10):
Hannah did any research like you did? No, I'm not
aware of that history, he responded, but McGregor said he
doubted an engineering degree or research was necessary. Day twenty
six was taken up solely by the defense's pathologist, Professor
(31:33):
Stephen Cordner, lives in Melbourne and is an emeritus professor
at the Department of Forensic Medicine at Monash University, Mansfield
spent around sixteen minutes traversing the witness's credentials to show
how Cordner might be able to help the case. Mansfield
started his questioning by asking Cordner to explain what he's
(31:55):
required to do as a forensic pathologist when he's required
to help courts or police.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
What I do as a forensic pathologist, I mentioned, you know,
sometimes you go to the scene, but you're fundamentally it's
an autopsy based medical specialty. So the central feature of
the medical investigation of the death is the undertaking of
(32:22):
the autopsy and external examination of the body and internal
examination of the body, the aim of which is to
help or try to help reconstruct what happened back at
the scene. So that's what it's all about.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
Cordner went on to outline what he was looking for
when examining Hannah's body. He said he looks for natural disease,
adding none was found in Hannah. When disease is excluded,
they're looking for evidence of injury.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
She's been killed, then that men's assault. So then are
there injuries that are commonly associated with assault broadly sort
of construed and have that been for me a central
(33:19):
central concern in this case. There is a general appreciation
and forensic pathology that people who are strangled, whether manually
or by ligature, also in a very significant number of
(33:40):
instances have injuries of a general assault have been beaten up.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
The next part of Mansfield's questioning highlighted the difference of
interpretation between the Crown and the defense concerning two important
factors of the case. Cordner said, manual strangulation or ligature
strauation our injuries with special characteristics. You'll remember part of
the Crown case was the belt mark found on Hannah's
(34:07):
neck by police on April fifth, that it all but
disappeared by the time of the autopsy conducted by doctor
keelak kesh At the following day. Mansfield moved on to
another pivotal part of the defense's argument, the scene visit.
During Mansfield's cross examination of pathologists and detectives who gave
evidence for the Crown, he repeatedly questioned why they didn't
(34:31):
photograph or measure the ligature mark on Hannah's neck at
the scene before it mostly disappeared. Part of the Crown
case is the direction of the mark more horizontal than vertical.
It showed the ligature was applied from directly behind and
not from a rope secured to the balustrade above. The
Crown said much of Cordner's evidence on injuries relating to
(34:55):
suicide and hanging by strangulation was suppressed by the JAR,
though we are allowed to report on the type of
injuries associated with different types of hangings. Cordner's testimony on
Wednesday was lengthy, covering many aspects around suicide, the types
of injuries to the body that are found after different
(35:16):
forms of strangulation, and the state of a Hannah's body.
You can get the full details at Ensit Herald dot
co dot nz, but here's a general summary of what
Cordner said. Suicide is ten times as common as homicide,
he said, and in twenty twenty two in New Zealand,
(35:37):
suspected suicides would double the row toll. They're more likely
to happen in domestic settings indoors. While people think suicide
and a suicide note go together, that's not the case
in more than half of cases, Cordner said. You'll remember
police did not find a note from Hannah during their investigation,
(35:57):
but Polkinghorn claimed to a friend after he was charged
that had found one. Asked about injuries sustained from homicidal
manual strangulations, Cordner said that there's a likelihood the assault
will be over an extended period because the victim will
probably resist and fight back. Seventy percent of all victims
(36:18):
of manual or ligature strangulation were the victim of a
much more sustained assault, probably including fractures to the skull.
Cordner testified that there was no sign of assault, of
injuries to Hannah or any of Polkinghorn's DNA under her
fingernails to suggest should fought him off onto injuries. Cordner
(36:40):
said Hannah was of the age when skin bruises become
easier to cause and the skin becomes thinner and easier
to break. We heard earlier in the trial Hannah had
bruise marks on her arm and the shape of fingers
like she'd been grabbed, but the defense contends this could
have been by someone stabilizing her, like a personal trainer
(37:01):
who she had an appointment with two days before she died.
As for her injury's post death, Cordner said that they're
all consistent with the death by hanging. He said a
lack of drag marks suggest a homicide did not take place,
and the beltmark that appeared on Hannah's neck does not
show she was murdered that Mark's disappearance is of no significance,
(37:25):
he said. Cordner said the lividity of the body is
also consistent with Polkinghorn's version of events. He also said
it would be difficult for Polkinghorn to have manipulated Hannah's
body to look like there'd been a hanging.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
I think people in the court would need to imagine
what it is like to manipulate an unconscious I use
that word because that's how a dead body would be
like to move around and to simulate a hanging by
(38:03):
perhaps sitting the individual and the dead individual in a
chair and setting it up to try and create this
sort of thing. And it really is quite mind boggling
to imagine that because the looseness and the floppiness is
(38:24):
extremely difficult to sort of imagine. I think fantic pathologists
talking about this sort of thing. The starting point is
that it takes two people to really successfully and easily
handle a dead body.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
Defense lawyer Ron Mansfield pulled out a surprise photo not
seen before the trial that showed no bruises on Hannah's
right arm when photographed at Upland Road. That's despite a
cluster of for contrusion or bruises like a grip being
visible on her body during her autopsy. After a lengthy
(39:06):
testimony that took up the whole day, Cordner's testimony can
perhaps best be summed up by Ron Mansfield's last question
to him in relation.
Speaker 3 (39:16):
To an incomplete hanging where we don't expect to see
any type of injury. Here we have, of course the
belt impression correct where we wouldn't expect to see an injury.
So every such case of incomplete hanging in that category,
(39:36):
it could be said it's theeatically possible that there was
either a manual or literature strangulation.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
And I think theoretical possibility is a good formulation.
Speaker 3 (39:53):
But there is just no indicative injury, either externally or
internally of the clients that we've discussed here to support
a finding that there was a homicidal manual or ligature strangulation.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
There's no evident of a forensic pathology kind to positively
support a conclusion that this deceased has been homicidally, manually
or legaturely killed.
Speaker 3 (40:23):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
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 production support by
(40:48):
Helen King. Additional reporting from The Herald's Craig Capitan and
George Block and for more coverage of the Polkinghorn trial
had to enst Herald dot co dot nz it
Kyoda. 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 several weeks, in conjunction
with our usual daily episodes, will be bringing you regular
coverage as one of the most high profile trials of
(00:28):
the year makes its way through the High Court at Auckland.
A warning, this podcast contains disturbing content. Week six of
the trial of Philip Polkinghorn continued with the defense's case.
The former Auckland eye surgeon is accused of murdering his wife,
Pauline Hannah, who was found dead on April fifth, twenty
(00:52):
twenty one. He maintains she took her own life. Witnesses
for the defense revealed a different side to polking Horn
then what we've previously heard, with former colleagues and neighbors
describing him as funny, generous and caring, while the case
took another dive into the couple's accounts, electricity usage the
(01:12):
morning Hannah died and the reappearance of a red mark
on the stairs, and the defense pathologist weighed in as well.
Day twenty four started with an ophthalmologist the man is
intending to seek permanent name suppression, so we can't reveal
(01:35):
much about him, including his sub speciality. The man, like
all defense witnesses so far in the trial, declined to
be filmed or recorded, but we can still report on
what they said. The witness said he's known the defendant
since Polkinghorn was completing his training in London in the
early nineteen nineties. The witness says he met Pauline Hannah
(01:59):
in the mid nineteen nineties when she was a manager
of the eye department at Auckland Hospital, before she went
on to work with the county's Monaco DHB, where she
remained until her death. Defense lawyer Ron Mansfield asked about
Polkinghorn's reputation. The witness agrees he was respected as an
expert in his sub specialty and his standing was reflected
(02:22):
by invitations to speak overseas. Polkinghorn had founded the business
that became Auckland I in two thousand and he worked
in other parts of the country providing services as well.
He gained an associate professorship at the University of Auckland too.
The witness said that Hannah would travel with Polkinghorn regularly
for those overseas trips. Mansfield asked about the witness's personal
(02:45):
relationship with Polkinghorn. He says they would sometimes see each
other on holiday and on other social occasions, maybe once
or twice a year. The majority of their social interactions
were via their professional work at functions organized by auckland I.
The witness became a trustee on one of Polkinghorn's various trusts.
(03:06):
When he became the trustee, it was the fashion for
there to be someone outside the trust to be a trustee,
someone trusted by a family. I saw my role as
a tie breaker if there was a need, he said.
In twenty nineteen, he asked to be removed from the
trust due to an increasing pressure in general in New
Zealand on trustees to be more involved. He was contacted
(03:28):
by Hannah in August twenty twenty and asked if he
could sign something for the trust. In March twenty twenty one,
the month before Hannah's death, the witness had further contact
with Hannah regarding documents so he could finally come off
the trust as a trustee. Hannah brought the document about
midday to their practice and she signed it in February
(03:50):
twenty twenty one, the witness and his wife had dinner
with polking Horn and Hannah at their Rings Beach batch.
It was a pleasant night, he said, though finished early
so Hannah would visit her gravely ill mother. The witness
didn't notice anything out of the ordinary that night. Moving
ahead to the day Hannah died. April fifth, twenty twenty one,
(04:10):
the witness heard from someone at Auckland Eye that Hannah
had committed suicide. The witness messaged Polkinghorn to express his
condolences and asked if he wanted to meet. Polkinghorn contacted
the witness on April sixth and was distraught. It was
one of the worst conversations I've had, the witness said.
At the end of the difficult conversation, Polkinghorn asked him
(04:31):
to be a poll bearer. He said he was assisting
police in their inquiries and had been asked a lot
about their relationship. Mansfield asked the witness if he'd ever
seen Polkinghorn use or be under the influence of any
controlled drugs, to which he said no. Prosecutor Brian Dickie
then began his cross examination, asking if Hannah did most
(04:55):
of the running around for the couple regarding the trusts.
The witness agreed and said he had very little understanding
of the trust and its accounting and didn't know enough
to answer anything about assets or financials. The witness isn't
aware of Polkinghorn's relationship with Madison Ashton. I found out
about that about the same time as everyone else in Auckland.
He said. He was also unaware of Polkinghorn using methanphetamine.
(05:19):
The witness again agrees it was remarkable the amount of
time Hannah spent at County's Monaco DHB and said it
was a hard job. There are cuts every six months.
People are leaning on you to increase volumes and reduce costs.
She would have had a tough job, he said. Mansfield
then asked more questions about Hannah's COVID role. She discussed
(05:41):
it at the Rings Beach batch dinner, the witness said,
and he said it sounded terrible the calls she was getting,
the fact that she was having to manage this kind
of thing with one arm tied behind her back. It
was very political. I know that she was under a
lot of stress, he said. The next witness was Sharon Jenkins,
(06:04):
a receptionist at Auckland Eye between twenty fourteen and twenty
twenty two. She told defense barrister Harrison Smith that she
was one of seven receptionists and one of abround seventy
people who worked at Auckland Eye and Oasis Surgical. After
a restructure in twenty nineteen, she was assigned to work
specifically with Polkinghorn and two other doctors. One of her
(06:28):
duties involved looking after Polkinghorn's outer clinics and Pappatoy Toy
and funger Ay, organizing administrative tasks, and preparing his lists.
Jenkins had a house sitting arrangement with Polkinghorn and Hannah
over Christmas each year, beginning in twenty seventeen. Polkinghorn had
come to the reception and asked if someone could house
sit over Christmas. When she arrived, Hannah took Jenkins on
(06:51):
a tour around the house and showed her the two cats,
the pop plants she had to water, which bedroom she
could sleep in. Jenkins was shown the which had laundry
in it that day. They didn't have a physical outside line,
so it was always in the dryer, Jenkins said. Smith
asked what security measures Hannah described to Jenkins on her
(07:12):
initial tour of the house, Jenkins says she showed her
the main alarm and keypads around the house. Smith later
referred to photos of the master and guest bedroom, which
both contained a red button. Smith referred to them as
panic buttons, but Justice Lang asked Jenkins what she understood
them to be. She said she wasn't sure, but had
(07:34):
called them panic buttons in her police statement in April
twenty twenty one that initial house sitting went well and
led to Jenkins doing it again over the next several years.
She said that Polkinghorn had a good relationship with staff
at Auckland Eye, that patients loved him, and he and
Hannah were very kind and generous. She said when Polkinghorn
(07:55):
came to the clinic after Hannah's death, he was distraught
and had clearly been crying. In his cross examination, prosecutor
Brian Dicky asked Jenkins about Polkinghorn's weight loss. She said
it was noticeable and seemed quite sudden. Asked if she
had worked out the red buttons were panic buttons or
if she'd just been told that. Jenkins said her ex
(08:17):
partner had looked at them and told her they were
panic buttons. Smith then asked a follow up question on
when she noticed Polkinghorn's weight loss. Jenkins said it was
around twenty eighteen and it was quite dramatic, to the
point she wondered if he had cancer. The next witness
(08:37):
was Leoni Darlington, who worked at auckland I from two
thousand and four to twenty twenty two in various roles,
including as a theater hostess and as a surgical booker
at Oasis Surgical, the specialist surgical center built by auckland
Ie in twenty ten. He was very good to work with.
He was a perfectionist. He had a very high standard
(08:59):
and he expected that from his staff as well. She
said they had a good rapport and he would come
to her for all of his bookings. Darlington said he
was polite, courteous and generous to staff and to patients
and would do anything for them, including sometimes foregoing his
surgeon's fee so a patient could undergo an important surgery.
She said she never saw him under the influence of drugs.
(09:22):
Under cross examination from the Crown, she said she was
not looking for signs of intoxication. Next was Gillian Mary Blakely,
a registered nurse specializing in ophthalmology. She met Polkinghorn in
late nineteen ninety one when she was a junior theater
nurse assisting Polkinghorn in surgeries. Blakely says she used to
(09:43):
order Polkinghorn's stock and supplies for the theater and helped
him with teaching staff as the years went on. He
was very dedicated, very committed. He always had the patient's
interest at heart, and I really respected him for those attributes,
she said. Blakely started doing morning shifts at ORCA and
I in nineteen ninety seven. Ultimately, she worked with Polkinghorn
(10:04):
for the best part of twenty seven years. She would
be in surgery with him once a week over that period.
They had a good working relationship, she said. She said
he could get a bit rattled during stressful moments. He
liked people to be interested in the case and preferred
silence in the theater when operating. Like earlier witnesses, She
says he had a great relationship with his patients. She
(10:27):
said Polkinghorn did not share much about his home life
beyond surface level friendly chats, and she didn't notice his
weight loss. Theatre scrubs are theater scrubs, she said. Defense
lawyer Ron Mansfield next called Tony Robert Glucina. He's an
investment advisor at JB Whirr, which manages seventeen billion dollars
(10:51):
of trusts for New Zealand clients. The trial heard earlier
Polkinghorn had invested about five hundred thousand dollars of proceed
from the sale of a Pappatoy toy rental property into
that managed fund with JB Whirr. Glucina says JBI Werer
had provided services to Polkinghorn and Hannah for about ten
years and that he dealt primarily with Polkinghorn as the
(11:14):
investments were registered in his name. Asked about separations, he
said that's common and even if the investment is held
in one of the couple's names, it's considered shared matrimonial property.
He met Hannah at a Christmas function where she accompanied
Polkinghorn and Glucina and his partner, Buffy, a well known
naturopath and nutritionist, had also socialized with the couple. Polkinghorn
(11:38):
invited the couple to a dinner in January twenty twenty
one at the Rings Beach Batch. He said it was
a good dinner, but his partner noticed Hannah didn't eat anything,
despite there being three courses and a substantial dessert. Polkinghorn
is flamboyant, he said, and gave them a tour of
the house, which they were very proud of. He didn't
(11:58):
observe Polkinghorn treating Hannah badly, and it didn't seem that
there was any secret about Polkinghorn's investment with JB. Whirr.
The Crown in their case had repeatedly suggested Polkinghorn was
squirreling away money that was at least partly Hannah's, including
transferring her salary to accounts he controlled. Crown Prosecutor Brian
(12:19):
Dickie then asked Lucina if he ever discussed the JB
were accounts when he met with Hannah socially. He said
he didn't. He said that Polkinghorn did not act out
of the ordinary when they met him at Rings Beach.
He said that he was told at the dinner that
Hannah was stressed. The next witness was doctor Timothy Scanlon,
(12:42):
who appeared via audio visual link from his home in
New Orleans. He runs a forensic consulting firm providing services
and training to crime labs. He worked for the Jefferson
Parish Sheriff's office for more than twenty years. After Polkinghorn
had been charged with mer in August twenty twenty two,
he was instructed to provide assistance, including to travel to
(13:05):
the Upland Road property and review it as a crime scene.
He visited the scene on March eighth and ninth last year.
When he was at the property, he found an area
with a mark and a blood stain or smear. He
collected the sample, he told the court. Defense lawyer Ron
Mansfield showed the photo to the court via the screens
in the courtroom. It's an image of a set of
(13:27):
three stairs just off the kitchen, between the kitchen and
the garage. The mark, which appeared to Scanlan as potentially blood,
was on the second step from the ground, on the
lightwood paneling on the right of the staircase. Earlier in
the trial, we heard about this mark from s A
forensic scientist Fiona Matheson. The mark was tested after Hannah's death,
(13:50):
and in a photograph from April twenty twenty one, the
mark resembled a red line with a gap in it
with a black mark running through. Athson didn't test the
mark for DNA at the time, as the area tested
negative for blood. In the photo taken from twenty twenty three,
the black mark appears to have a slightly different appearance
(14:12):
with the passage of time, as Mansfield puts it. He noted,
and Scanlon agreed that police had said they had put
commercial cleaners through the property. Scanlan says he documented the
mark with photography and swabbed it for future DNA testing.
He said the sample was sent to a lab in
Virginia for testing. Two samples was sent to the lab,
(14:34):
the blood like substance he recovered from the stair and
a reference sample from Philip J. Polkinghorn. Scanlan says the
first sample was positive for blood and came back as
a match to Polkinghorn's DNA. Under cross examination, Crown Prosecutor
Brian Dickey asked who was present when he visited the
Upland Road property in March twenty twenty three. Zalie Burrows
(14:57):
and Polkinghorn were there. Scanlon said the trial already heard
Zalie Burrows was Madison Ashton's lawyer who she recommended to Polkinghorn.
Dickie asked if there was a risk of contamination if
there's a long delay between scene examinations. Scanlon agreed. Would
that risk be heightened if that suspect had access to
(15:18):
the scene, Dickie asked. Scanlon said, he thinks that would
be fair to say. Dickie asked about the ESR examination
of the home. He recapped that Fiona Matheson had testified earlier.
Reading one bit of her testimony, I have not detected
any blood in that area. Now, two years later, you've
detected blood in that area, Dickie asked, that's correct, Scandlon said.
(15:42):
Dickie moved on to the two photos. Scanlon agreed that
they are different in appearance. Miraculously, on the right we've
got two tracks of red showing, whereas on the left
there's only one line, Dickie said. Scanlon agreed that the
second photo from twenty twenty three, the mark appears to
have been altered, but it's of the same length, at
(16:05):
the same position and has the same void in the middle.
But said Dickie, it's not as if the mark has
been smudged while cleaning. Dickie then asked that could have
come from contamination of the scene, couldn't it. Yes, that's
a possibility, Scanlan said. Dickie said he's not contesting that
it's got Polkinghorn's blood on it, but that he's asking
(16:27):
about the fact there are two different stains different in appearance.
Dickie said one stain has one line and the latter
photo of the stain has two lines. Scanlon said it's
fair that the risk of interference and contamination is exacerbated
if the suspect has access to the scene over that period.
Ron Mansfield then asked why Scanlon put the photo from
(16:50):
the police in his report. Scanlon said he noticed it
looked like it had been altered, so he specifically put
that in his report to bring it to the attention
of the court. He said new fr things could have
happened after the stain. Mansfield then refers to Fiona Matheson's
earlier testimony. She said she didn't take samples from the
wooden area, and Scanlan said that's his understanding too. The
(17:15):
next defense witness was Dominic Simon Foote. He's known Polkinghorn
and Hannah for some years after his family bought a
batch in Rings Beach, two doors down from the polking Horns.
Foot said he goes their most long weekends and family holidays.
His parents were friends with polking Horn and Hannah, and
he dived and fished with the couple and still fishes
with Polkinghorn to this day. Polky some call him Foot, said,
(17:39):
the first time the trial has heard that nickname in
a few weeks. He called him kind, generous, a great neighbor.
He never saw him act erratically. He said, Polkinghorn and
Hannah enjoyed carrying comically large glasses of wine. Brian Dicky,
in his cross examination, referenced the earliest testimony of crown
witness Stephen MacIntyre, another Rings Beach neighbor, who said Polkinghorn
(18:03):
had acted erratically in the years before Hannah's death and
he suspected he was on drugs. Foot saw nothing of
the sort. He was in bed by nine thirty every
night for two and a half decades, even on New
Year's Eve, he said. The defense's Harrison Smith called the
final witness of the day Ronald Beatty. Beatty's an electrical
(18:25):
engineer with expertise and forensic data analysis with fifty two
years experience in the electricity industry. Earlier, the trial heard
how police instructed Paul Smith from Consumer and Z to
look at usage data from Polkinghorn's home in Remuera's Upland Road.
The Defense instructed Ronald Beatty to perform a similar exercise
(18:47):
to see if Polkinghorn's explanation matched the power usage data.
Beattie said, the electricity industry settles in thirty minute increments,
so it's not possible to look at one or two
days to consider what could happened within the premises. A
wider set of data has to be used, but we
can never actually say what exactly happened on any given day.
(19:09):
Smith's report looked only at one or two days of
consumption and didn't look at what happened on similar days
in the past. That is I think a failing actually
of that side of the investigation. Beatty said he also
had issues with some of the figures Smith used too.
The washing machine used in his modeling wasn't the same
as Polkinghorn's, Betty said, and that Smith had made assumptions
(19:32):
around the jug. Betty said on April fifth, there was
a standing load until about six am, when there's a
steep increase. The increase in load was followed by a
larger increase at about eight am. Too great just to
be lighting. It needed to be other appliances turned on
as well at eight am, He said, Beatty can't tell
(19:54):
us what appliances specifically we used. For example, he can't
say for certain if the jug and toaster were both
used at around eight am, but Betty's able to use
a list of appliances to determine whether or not they
may have been used in that period, and the data
indicates a regular pattern of electricity consumption to other days.
(20:16):
He said that if the washing machine had been used,
he would have expected to see the washing machine turning
off in the data on April fifth, which the data
doesn't show, so in his view, it could have only
been run on the evening of April fourth, and the
same goes for the dryer. You'll remember from earlier in
the trial, a damp top sheet was found in the
(20:36):
dryer by police. It's believed to have come from the
room Polkinghorn said Hanna had slept in. It was found
disheveled and missing the sheet. Under cross examination from the
Crowns Brian Dickie, Beatty said that it'd be too refined
an analysis to say if the kettle or toaster both
could have been runner that morning, but that he would
(20:57):
exclude the notion the washing machine was running. Asked about
the small rise at six am, which he took to
be Ellie d lights switched on by polkinghorn in his
bedroom when he rose, Beattie said he can't say who
switched the lights on, or in fact where in the
house the lights might have been switched.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
On that morning.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Day twenty five started with Pauline Hannah's hairdresser and Miller.
She owned a Remuwerer hair salon where Pauline Hannah had
been a client for about twenty five years. Testifying via
audio visual feed from her holiday hotel in Europe, Miller
remembers seeing Hannah every four weeks to have her hair
retouched with hair tint and condition her hair. The impact
(21:48):
of hair dye on the effectiveness of drug testing on
strands of the hair has been raised previously in the trial.
You'll remember Hannah's hairstrand test was negative for meth. Defense
lawyer Ron Mansfield asked Miller how she would describe Hannah's
appearance when she attended her appointments.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
How would she ordinarily appear as far as her presentation
is consented, immaculate, so by that hair would always be immaculate. Yes,
cleare nails make up.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
The whole thing.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
Yes, Yes, it's fair to say that she took her
presentation very carefully. Correct.
Speaker 4 (22:34):
That is correct.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
And I think you've told us that for a woman
her age, she had an amazing figure.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Yes, Miller explained, Hannah was always busy with work during
the appointments, often using her time to take Zoom meetings.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
How would she do the zoom meetings while getting her
hair done?
Speaker 1 (22:55):
I would do her hair for I would put the
color on first, and then I would leave her while
la color was processing.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
And would be on her laptop, yes, doing work and
taking Zoom meetings. Yes, and that would be on a Saturday. Yes,
(23:26):
So how did she appear during her time with you
on that Saturday? In relation to her work commitments, she was.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Always very professional when she came into the salon. You'll recall.
Mansfield has repeatedly raised throughout the trial that Hannah had
at times a thankless job. During the COVID vaccine rollout,
Miller said she could tell her client was busier than usual.
During her third to last appointment on February six, twenty
twenty one, Hannah had showed up uncharacteristically late to her
(24:06):
last appointment on March twentieth, and was busy and distracted.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
That's today that you stayed late to accommodate that for her,
because she was a good giant correct, Yes, and a
person that you liked correct.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
And she talked to you about her job on that
occasion as well. Yes, And she had her laptop out
and she was working away.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
And then as I understand that the last appointment was
twenty March twenty twenty one, that's correct, she had an
appointment at two thirty. Yes, she arrived at two forty,
which wasn't unusual for her. That was unusual for he
(25:00):
was unusual. Yes, thank you.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
During cross examination by the Crown, Miller agreed Hannah was
a busy, professional woman who was remembered as positive in
outlook and attitude. Milla remembered she was enjoying being a grandmother.
Speaker 4 (25:18):
And she remained very positive in her outlooks and attitudes
throughout the time that you dealt with her or cut
colored her hair. Yes, the whole time, including all particularly
that March twenty twenty one, Is that right?
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (25:33):
And I think she was she looking forward to a
four wheel drive treple something that was coming up with
friends in a little while. Yes, she was, and she
also really enjoyed the family life, particularly with a young grandchild. Yes,
and she spoke of the children as her an. She
didn't speak of them as a stepmother all the time.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
Next up for the defense was Robert John Willis, an
accountant who, at the end of a long career, worked
with the firm RSM. He met Polkinghorn in late two
thousand and nine as a patient. They got talking about accounting,
and shortly thereafter Willis became professionally involved with Polkinghorn and Hannah,
(26:19):
looking after their financial affairs for RSM until twenty eighteen,
when he retired. Willis transferred his clients to a younger
partner at RSM, but stayed in touch with the couple
regarding their financial affairs and remained their first port of
call for financial matters. He met the couple on about
four social occasions over the years. He would speak to
(26:41):
Hannah at these occasions, which once involved picking them up
from their Upland Road home and taking them to an
event related to the Rugby World Cup. The couple also
visited Willis at his apartment in Prince's Wharf in downtown Auckland.
Polkinghorn had said the couple were interested in selling Upland Road,
spending more time at rings Beach, and we're looking at
(27:03):
the idea of buying a city apartment, perhaps in the viaduct.
He said. They later went out for dinner at a
restaurant and Prince's Wharf. Willis said that the couple appeared
fine when he saw them interact, and he wouldn't have
thought there was any problems with their relationship. On to
their financial affairs, Willis confirms he would deal with Polkinghorn,
(27:24):
but said Hannah was aware Willis was the accountant for
their financial entities, including trusts and companies. Earlier, Willis said
it's not uncommon for one party in a marriage to
take greater interest in the trust and company related affairs.
The lengthy testimony from Willis went through specifics of various deeds,
(27:44):
trustees and joint ventures related to these trusts, which you
can read in full at enzid Herald dot co dot nz.
There is a point to Willis's testimony. While the Crown
earlier has argued that the network of trusts and companies
were used to hide money from Hannah and Squirrel away
her salary in accounts Polkinghorn controlled. Mansfield's point via this
(28:08):
witness is to suggest the structure of his companies and
trusts were standard practice for taxation purposes and to protect
personal property, and there would have been a fifty to
fifty matrimonial property split should they have separated. Willis said
the specific trust, the Hannah Polkinghorn Trust, was set up
(28:29):
to give Poline a separate accumulation of wealth. Under cross
examination later, Brian Dicky asked Willis about this. If that
was the case, then it would entirely make sense that
upon the sale of its only asset, the Pappatoy Toy
rental property, for the funds of that to be distributed
to the trust, not Polkinghorn. Willis answered, you'd have to
(28:52):
look into the minds of the trustees at the time
the property was sold to determine what they intended. Willis
said he doesn't know if Hanna would have seen in
the accounts before her death. Willis said he wasn't aware
of payments made to a Polkinghorn controlled account in Australia,
or to a woman named Jody, or to Madison Ashton,
Polkinghorn's longtime sex worker companion who lived in Australia. The
(29:19):
next testimony was from Andrew McGregor, a mechanical engineer. He
was instructed by Polkinghorn's legal team to investigate the circumstances
of what was said to be a partial hanging at
the doctor's upland wrote Home Justice Graham Lang suppressed most
parts of his testimony and as such we won't be
able to cover the full testimony here, but we can
(29:42):
report what McGregor's broad conclusion was that it was physically
possible for Hannah to have died via hanging in the
manner described by Polkinghorn to police in the immediate aftermath
of his wife's death. The engineer conducted his tests at
the remiwaer A home on the third of June and
the ninth of July this year. Polkinghorn was home, but
(30:05):
not observing the simulation he said. During cross examination, Crown
Solicitor Alicia McClintock suggested to the jury that there were
so many unknown variables that the expert's calculation was basically meaningless.
His testimony also missed the point. McClintock suggested, do you
understand the theoretical possibility of this is not the issue,
(30:29):
she asked. At one point, McGregor said he didn't take
into consideration how loose the rope found tied to the
upstairs balustrade was when conducting his tests because there wasn't
enough information about how the rope had been tied. He
also agreed with McClintock that while understanding angles and weights,
(30:49):
due to his background as an engineer, he doesn't have
a pathology qualification. He also agreed that he needed to
do some medical research on the suicide method ahead of
the simulation. Were you aware if Pauline Hannah had any
engineering qualifications, McClintock asked, adding were you aware if Pauline
(31:10):
Hannah did any research like you did? No, I'm not
aware of that history, he responded, but McGregor said he
doubted an engineering degree or research was necessary. Day twenty
six was taken up solely by the defense's pathologist, Professor
(31:33):
Stephen Cordner, lives in Melbourne and is an emeritus professor
at the Department of Forensic Medicine at Monash University, Mansfield
spent around sixteen minutes traversing the witness's credentials to show
how Cordner might be able to help the case. Mansfield
started his questioning by asking Cordner to explain what he's
(31:55):
required to do as a forensic pathologist when he's required
to help courts or police.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
What I do as a forensic pathologist, I mentioned, you know,
sometimes you go to the scene, but you're fundamentally it's
an autopsy based medical specialty. So the central feature of
the medical investigation of the death is the undertaking of
(32:22):
the autopsy and external examination of the body and internal
examination of the body, the aim of which is to
help or try to help reconstruct what happened back at
the scene. So that's what it's all about.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
Cordner went on to outline what he was looking for
when examining Hannah's body. He said he looks for natural disease,
adding none was found in Hannah. When disease is excluded,
they're looking for evidence of injury.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
She's been killed, then that men's assault. So then are
there injuries that are commonly associated with assault broadly sort
of construed and have that been for me a central
(33:19):
central concern in this case. There is a general appreciation
and forensic pathology that people who are strangled, whether manually
or by ligature, also in a very significant number of
(33:40):
instances have injuries of a general assault have been beaten up.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
The next part of Mansfield's questioning highlighted the difference of
interpretation between the Crown and the defense concerning two important
factors of the case. Cordner said, manual strangulation or ligature
strauation our injuries with special characteristics. You'll remember part of
the Crown case was the belt mark found on Hannah's
(34:07):
neck by police on April fifth, that it all but
disappeared by the time of the autopsy conducted by doctor
keelak kesh At the following day. Mansfield moved on to
another pivotal part of the defense's argument, the scene visit.
During Mansfield's cross examination of pathologists and detectives who gave
evidence for the Crown, he repeatedly questioned why they didn't
(34:31):
photograph or measure the ligature mark on Hannah's neck at
the scene before it mostly disappeared. Part of the Crown
case is the direction of the mark more horizontal than vertical.
It showed the ligature was applied from directly behind and
not from a rope secured to the balustrade above. The
Crown said much of Cordner's evidence on injuries relating to
(34:55):
suicide and hanging by strangulation was suppressed by the JAR,
though we are allowed to report on the type of
injuries associated with different types of hangings. Cordner's testimony on
Wednesday was lengthy, covering many aspects around suicide, the types
of injuries to the body that are found after different
(35:16):
forms of strangulation, and the state of a Hannah's body.
You can get the full details at Ensit Herald dot
co dot nz, but here's a general summary of what
Cordner said. Suicide is ten times as common as homicide,
he said, and in twenty twenty two in New Zealand,
(35:37):
suspected suicides would double the row toll. They're more likely
to happen in domestic settings indoors. While people think suicide
and a suicide note go together, that's not the case
in more than half of cases, Cordner said. You'll remember
police did not find a note from Hannah during their investigation,
(35:57):
but Polkinghorn claimed to a friend after he was charged
that had found one. Asked about injuries sustained from homicidal
manual strangulations, Cordner said that there's a likelihood the assault
will be over an extended period because the victim will
probably resist and fight back. Seventy percent of all victims
(36:18):
of manual or ligature strangulation were the victim of a
much more sustained assault, probably including fractures to the skull.
Cordner testified that there was no sign of assault, of
injuries to Hannah or any of Polkinghorn's DNA under her
fingernails to suggest should fought him off onto injuries. Cordner
(36:40):
said Hannah was of the age when skin bruises become
easier to cause and the skin becomes thinner and easier
to break. We heard earlier in the trial Hannah had
bruise marks on her arm and the shape of fingers
like she'd been grabbed, but the defense contends this could
have been by someone stabilizing her, like a personal trainer
(37:01):
who she had an appointment with two days before she died.
As for her injury's post death, Cordner said that they're
all consistent with the death by hanging. He said a
lack of drag marks suggest a homicide did not take place,
and the beltmark that appeared on Hannah's neck does not
show she was murdered that Mark's disappearance is of no significance,
(37:25):
he said. Cordner said the lividity of the body is
also consistent with Polkinghorn's version of events. He also said
it would be difficult for Polkinghorn to have manipulated Hannah's
body to look like there'd been a hanging.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
I think people in the court would need to imagine
what it is like to manipulate an unconscious I use
that word because that's how a dead body would be
like to move around and to simulate a hanging by
(38:03):
perhaps sitting the individual and the dead individual in a
chair and setting it up to try and create this
sort of thing. And it really is quite mind boggling
to imagine that because the looseness and the floppiness is
(38:24):
extremely difficult to sort of imagine. I think fantic pathologists
talking about this sort of thing. The starting point is
that it takes two people to really successfully and easily
handle a dead body.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
Defense lawyer Ron Mansfield pulled out a surprise photo not
seen before the trial that showed no bruises on Hannah's
right arm when photographed at Upland Road. That's despite a
cluster of for contrusion or bruises like a grip being
visible on her body during her autopsy. After a lengthy
(39:06):
testimony that took up the whole day, Cordner's testimony can
perhaps best be summed up by Ron Mansfield's last question
to him in relation.
Speaker 3 (39:16):
To an incomplete hanging where we don't expect to see
any type of injury. Here we have, of course the
belt impression correct where we wouldn't expect to see an injury.
So every such case of incomplete hanging in that category,
(39:36):
it could be said it's theeatically possible that there was
either a manual or literature strangulation.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
And I think theoretical possibility is a good formulation.
Speaker 3 (39:53):
But there is just no indicative injury, either externally or
internally of the clients that we've discussed here to support
a finding that there was a homicidal manual or ligature strangulation.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
There's no evident of a forensic pathology kind to positively
support a conclusion that this deceased has been homicidally, manually
or legaturely killed.
Speaker 3 (40:23):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
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 production support by
(40:48):
Helen King. Additional reporting from The Herald's Craig Capitan and
George Block and for more coverage of the Polkinghorn trial
had to enst Herald dot co dot nz it
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