Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: No surprises in the Polkinghorne verdict

So after eight weeks in court, and more than three years of living under suspicion - Philip Polkinghorne is not guilty.

This verdict today will come as absolutely no surprise to anyone who's been following this trial closely.

The Crown simply did not have a good case, at no point, really, was it actually convincing. But when it came to closing arguments last week, it became really obvious how weak the case against him was.

The best piece of evidence they had, according to them, was that Pauline Hanna had told someone one time that he tried to strangle her about a year before she died. That was the best they did - that's not much, is it?

So, no surprise it took the jury only 10 hours to decide to find him not guilty.

I don't know where this leaves Philip Polkinghorne, because the jury made it clear today with that questions to the judge that most of them don't think Pauline Hanna killed herself. 

But some didn’t think there was enough evidence against Philip Polkinghorne.

And after 8 weeks of his intimate details being aired to the country, he must be humiliated. We know how extensive his drug use was, that he was seeing hookers, how much he regularly spent on those hookers and drugs, and his intimate messages to women.

I often wonder how other people who’ve been accused of very high profile murders manage to keep living here in such a small country afterwards. I feel like with him it’s even more pronounced.

Because not only was this case extremely high profile and often the most read story on news websites every day - but then there was everything else.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So after eight weeks in court and more than three
years of living under suspicion, Philip Pulkinghorn is not guilty today. Now,
the verdict today will come as absolutely no surprise to
anyone who's been following this trial closely. The Crown just
actually did not have a good case. At no point
in time over the last eight weeks was that case
actually convincing. But when it came to the closing arguments

(00:21):
last week became really obvious just how weak the case
against him was. I mean, the best piece of evidence
that they had, and this is according to them in
the Crown, was that Pauline Hannah had told someone one
time that he tried to strangle her about a year
before she died. That was the best that they had.
That's not much as it, so it's really no surprise.

(00:41):
It took the jury only ten hours, which is a
very short amount of time, only ten hours to decide
that he was not guilty. I don't know where this
leaves Philip Polkinghorn though, because the jury made it clear
today with that question to the judge that most of
them do not think that Pauline Hannah killed herself. Some
didn't think that there was enough evidence against him, Philip

(01:03):
Pulkinghorn and frankly, after eight weeks of his intimate details
being aired to the country, he must be completely humiliated.
We know about his extensive drug use, that he was
seeing hookers regularly, and how much he was spending on
those hookers and drugs intimate messages to women, you know.
I often wonder how other people who've been accused of

(01:24):
very high profile murders managed to keep living here in
such a small country afterwards. I feel like with him,
it's even more pronounced because not only was this case
extremely high profile, it was often the most read story
on news websites every day, but then there was everything
else as well. For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive,
listen live to news talks the'd be from four pm weekdays,

(01:47):
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio