Chelsea Daniels: ZB reporter on the final messages between Phillip Polkinghorne and Pauline Hanna

Messages between Phillip Polkinghorne and his wife Pauline Hanna have come to light today in court.

The Auckland eye surgeon is accused of killing Hanna in their home in 2021, although he claims it was suicide.

The court's heard messages between the two - described by an officer working the case as 'loving'.

NewstalkZB's Chelsea Daniels says jurors were also told about Hanna's activity on her phone the morning she died.

"It appears Hanna's phone was logged drafting a message to Phillip Polkinghorne. Minutes later, another draft message to a friend's daughter - neither of them sent."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Togither dupless Ellen. I'm going to get to your text
on Chris Hepkins shortly. Right now, it's nineteen past five.
Got to go to the murder trial of Philip Pulkinghorn.
He is accused of murdering her. He says, this is
his wife, Pauline Hannah. He says she took her own life.
Chelsea Daniels covering the trial and is with us now,
h Chelse, I am a lot of messaging between Hannah
and poulking Horn. What have we learned from that?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yeah? So, defense lawyer Ron Mansfield question Detective Reeves. He
was in charge of looking at their phones and other tech.
He said, does seven plus formal written statements to assist
the jury that traversus Polkinghorn's relationship with Ashton? That's how
many he wrote. But did he review her work related
email history or the messaging between the husband and wife.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
I did review the messages. I looked at them. I
didn't create a detailed report on it.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Bye. Was that because the messages didn't support the police narrative? Well?
As I said, the messages were not on day to
day messages?

Speaker 1 (01:06):
Or did those messages reveal a working, loving relationship between
the two of them.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
So Mansfield produces a booklet of messages beginning twenty first
of February twenty twenty. He runs through the messages sent
back and forth between the couple, lots of ex'es, darlings,
and heart emojis, other emojis. A further messaging show the
pair checking in on each other, asking how they are.
Did these messages suggest a working, loving relationship, asks Manfield
and Mansfield and Reeves said they did, and he didn't

(01:37):
see any evidence of a conflict between the pair.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
And we had a little bit of a bombshell this
afternoon from the defense, right, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
So Mansfield produces another exhibit, a timeline for Hannah's phone
usage for the early morning of April fifth, twenty twenty one,
the morning of her death. Mansfield goes through what apparently
happens when someone uses I message. When you start typing,
the app connects and log's activity even if you didn't
send the message. There's a log entry for around four am.

(02:06):
It appears Hannah's phone was logged drafting a message on
the morning of her death to Philip Polkinghorn. Minutes later,
another draft message to a friend's daughter. Neither of them
sent The trial continues tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
Interesting. Hey Chelsea, thank you very much, really appreciate it.
If you want to hear more, listen to Chelsea Daniel's
podcast it's called Accused the polking Horn Trial. For more
from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, Listen live to news talks.
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