Michael Morrah: NZ Herald reporter on the jury in Polkinghorne's murder trial being sent home after they couldn't reach a verdict

Philip Polkinghorne must wait at least three more days before a jury rules him innocent or guilty of killing Pauline Hanna.

The jury has gone home after telling the judge they couldn't reach a decision today - having deliberated since 11am.

They won't sit tomorrow because of a juror's prior commitment and will recommence 11am on Monday.

The Herald's Michael Morrah has been in court.

He says Polkinghorne reacted emotionally this morning as the 111 call after Hanna died was replayed for the jury.

"He was so upset that the judge has to call for the proceedings to be put on hold, essentially."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The jury has just finished the first day of deliberations
in the murder trial against Philip Polkinghorn. They asked to
hear two pieces of audio. The first was his one
one one call he sobbed loudly when it was replayed
in court, and the second was the secret recording of
Pauline Hannah's conversation with her immediate family. Be honest, I've
considered just chucking myselve over. I don't want to do that. No, no,

(00:23):
I don't know either.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
But actually I love my husband, but he is somebody
who is very angry with the world when the world
doesn't go his way.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Harold. Journalist Michael Morraw is with us from the High
Court in Auckland. Hay, Michael, get a head the here
go and well thank you. How upset was Philip Polkinghorn
when I was listening to that one one one call?

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Well, he was so upset that the judge had to
call for the proceedings to be put on hold. Essentially,
it was near the ending of that recording, the triple
one call, and Pulkinghorn, who's not in the dock but
position behind his lawyer Ron Mansfield, started crying pretty loudly.
He hunched over with his head in his hands, tissue

(01:07):
over his face, and yeah. The judge called for a
break in proceedings and a security guard lead Polkinghorn out
into a room out the back of the court, and
his lawyer, Ron Mansfield followed. After he'd composed himself. We
heard that second recording which had just played, in which
Pauline described her husband as a sex fiend and who

(01:29):
was seeing escorts. And she described this in the recording
as his malfunction and said, as you heard, that Polkinghorn
was an angry man, but that she still loved him.
And during this recording again Polkinghorn sat at the back
of the court with his head buried in his hands.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
Any indication as to why they wanted to hear that
audio the jury.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
There was no explanation given in court, but it was
signaled from early on that they wanted to hit these
two pieces of audio again. I guess it's because A,
it's Pauline speaking about her husband and doctor Polkinghorn speaking
as soon as he says he found her body.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
Is this a complex case? A We're expecting them to
take quite a while with the deliberations or not.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
Well, it's a it's a relatively complex case and that
the Crown's case is circumstantial. So the jury has to
has to look at this case because the onus is
on the crown right and so they have to be sure.
They can't be they can't think it's likely or even
highly likely, that he's murdered his wife. They need to

(02:44):
be sure about this. And because it's a circumstantial case,
the crown case is built on multiple pieces of evidence
that put together like a puzzle. You know, the Crown says,
would confirm that he is indeed guilty of murder. But
you know, they have to go through all those different parts.
You know, some juries act pretty swiftly, others, you know,

(03:09):
take a very long time. But as we know, the
judge said, this will take as long as it takes. Now,
deliberations will not continue tomorrow. A juror had a long
standing commitment that he had made the judge aware of previously,
and so they will have a long weekend and return
on Monday at eleven am to continue deliberationstuff.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
Michael, thank you appreciate your time. That's Michael Morrow, the
Herald journalist who is at the High Court in Auckland
at the Moment thirteen past five. For more from Heather Duplessy,
Allen Drive, listen live to news

Speaker 2 (03:41):
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