Chelsea Daniels: ZB reporter on Pauline Hanna's niece delivering testimony in Polkinghorne murder trial

Week three of Phillip Polkinghorne's murder trial has kicked off with testimony from Pauline Hanna's niece.

The Auckland eye doctor's accused of murdering his wife in 2021, but his defence claims she killed herself.

The court's today heard from Hanna's niece, Rose, who made a covert recording played last week - in which Pauline discussed issues within her marriage.

ZB's Chelsea Daniels says they've now heard claims Pauline was considering getting a divorce lawyer.

"She said her aunt was terrified and worried she couldn't afford to leave her husband because she suspected she didn't have any money to her name."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
God hither due to see Ellen.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Philip Polkingham's murder trial has entered its third week.

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Now.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
He's accused of killing his wife, Pauline Hannah. He says
she took her own life. Now, this morning the court
heard from her niece Rose. You will remember Rose was
the one who made a secret recording of a family
dinner where Pauline detailed her husband's in fidelity and their
relationship problems. Chelsea Daniels has been following the trial. She's
with us. Now, Hey, Chelsea, I why did Pauline's niece
secretly record that family dinner that we heard about last week?

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Right?

Speaker 3 (00:26):
So, on the day of the recording in November twenty nineteen,
Pauline had gone to Hawk's Bay to catalog her mother's
items and artworks. Rose was helping her, writing down all
of those items on her laptop. Later in the day,
she says, the family began talking about the items again,
but she didn't have her laptop handy, so she hit
record on her phone. The jury didn't hear all of

(00:47):
the talk about the items, only that snippet of about
twenty minutes, only from when the conversation turned.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
All right, that explains it. Okay, so what else did
Rose say this morning?

Speaker 3 (00:55):
You'll remember the conversation last week had turned to Christmas plans.
Pauline had invited Rose to the Polkinghorn Christmas in Auckland
and invited her to stay at their remiware a home.
Rose didn't end up going, though, and she explains an
email she got from her aunt.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
It's Pauline basically saying that she doesn't want me to
stay in the house and she wants me to instead
be in a hotel, and that Philip had become irate
that she'd made Christmas dinner into an event by inviting me.
So I didn't attend Auckland. I was only coming up

(01:32):
for her and I didn't want to make trouble by
being here.

Speaker 3 (01:36):
Rose had dinner with Pauline in August twenty twenty, where
the idea of contacting a divorce attorney came up. They
also discussed Pauline looking into hiring a private investigator. She
said her aunt was terrified and worried she couldn't afford
to leave her husband because she suspected she didn't have
any money to her name.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
She said that during the early stages of the pandemic,
she was signing documents all day every day, and Philip
had passed her things to sign, and she was crying,
saying that she had been incredibly naive and trusting and
was worried that she had no money in her name anymore.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
Why was she worried about that, she explained.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
Because he had explained to her, Philip being he that
it was easier to invest the money with a single
signature required, so he'd signed it over over the assets
into his name so that he could then invest it easier,
and she had trusted him.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
Okay, Chelsea, Who else have we heard from today?

Speaker 3 (02:34):
So the Crown called Paul Adrianes, a hairdresser who knew
Polkinghorn via a mutual friend, a woman named Lee Pedson.
He said that they were both clients of Lee, a
sex worker, and told the court Polkinghorn would pay her
to have sex with him. We also heard from Sarah Prentice,
who worked with Pauline on and off for about ten
years in the health sector. She's just the latest dinner

(02:57):
string of co workers we've heard from. They all say
pretty much the same thing. Pauline was hardworking and always
immaculately turned out. She worked incredibly long hours and was
proud of her work in the COVID vaccination rollout.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
Chelsea, thank you very much for running us through that.
That's Chelsea Daniels, a reporter who's been in court. You
can hear more from Chelsea about this on The Herald's
podcast Accused the Polkinghorn Trial.

Speaker 3 (03:20):
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Speaker 2 (03:23):
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