George Block: NZ Herald Court reporter discusses Crown's closing address in Polkinghorne case

The Crown has painted Philip Polkinghorne as a tinderbox ready to catch fire at any point - in its closing remarks. 

The Auckland eye surgeon's accused of killing his wife, Pauline Hanna, but his defence says she committed suicide. 

The prosecution says Polkinghorne's meth use, infidelity and rising anger created a perfect storm. 

Herald Court reporter George Block told Heather du Plessis-Allan the prosecution emphasised an earlier alleged strangulation attack on his wife. 

He says prosecutor Alysha McClintock said it was the most important piece of evidence.

LISTEN ABOVE

 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm going to talk about David Cymore in just a minute.
Right now, it's seventeen past five. Now we are on
the very last bit of the trial against Philip Polkinghorn.
Today Crown prosecuted. The Crown prosecutor summed up her case
against Polkinghorn.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
There is an arrogance and doctor Polkinghorn, I suggest that
you should not underestimate. The crown case is that he
has taken his wife's life and he has blamed her
for it. As he blamed her in life, he blames

(00:37):
her in death.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
Now Polkinghorn's case is actually that Pauline Hannah committed suicide.
She wasn't murdered. The Crown told the jury they have
to decide what's true.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
This case is binary. If it's not suicide, it's murder.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
The Herald's court reporter George Block has been sitting through
the trials with us.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
Now, how George evening here? How are you?

Speaker 1 (00:58):
I'm very well, thank you. What were the main points
of the prosecution impressed on the jury today?

Speaker 3 (01:03):
Essentially an Alisia mclintock's closing address today, which is almost finished,
she said that Polkinghorn in Hannah's lives were sort of
on a collision course before her death. She said Hannah
was doing quite well or really well at work. She
was by all accounts holding it together despite some in
the minute struggles. But on the other hand, polking Horn
was using an increasing amount of myth, the prosecution said,

(01:26):
and in her words, being an older white man didn't
make him immune from the effects of methamphetamine. There was
a thirty seven point seven grams found in his house
indicating what the Crown said was regular use. And we've
heard from Crown experts, cited by the prosecutor and closing
address saying that that increases your aggression. And in the

(01:48):
midst of all this, he was setting up a life,
the prosecution said, with or planning set up a life
worth medicination. This Ozzie Escort he was seeing. So the
prosecution would say, all those factors sort of to come
to a sort of crescendo on April five, twenty twenty one,
leading to what they said was the was the strangulation
of pauling Hannah George.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Throughout the trial they talked about the fact that Paul
and Hannah died by strangulation, but there was nothing more
than that, right, nothing exact about it. What did the
crowns say about that today?

Speaker 3 (02:17):
That's right. They said that if you had to solely
rely on pathologists, then every case would be tried only
by a pathologists. Right. What Elisia McClintock's point was that
the pathology is open. It leaves it says that she
died via net compression. But all four pathologists said that
you couldn't really determine if it was definitively strangulation or

(02:44):
suicide by hanging. Now, the defense pathologist said that he
would have concluded suicide by hanging because the lack of
defensive wounds, but the prosecutor said, no, that that just
leaves the door open to any cause of net compression.
And you had to look at the circumstantial evidence like
Polkinhorn's Google searches right after his wife's death, for example.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
And according to the crown, the most important piece of
evidence they have is the fact that she had, thirteen
months earlier said that he tried to strangle her before.

Speaker 3 (03:13):
Yeah, that's right. Yeah, they seized on that as a
real sign of likelihood of future domestic violence. We know
they brought him that law right for strangulation attacks because
someone strangling the intimate partner is such a predictor of
future violence. And Alisha McLintock said that that was the

(03:34):
most important piece of single piece of evidence, that he
had put his hands on her neck previously and said
I could do this anytime, and that, she said, was
a predictor of future violence. And that's what it came
to fruition on that night.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
She said, George, thank you very much for running us
through and I appreciate your time very much. That's George Block.
The Herald's Court report of five twenty one. For more
from Heather Duplassy Allen Drive, listen live to news Talk
said Be from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on I Heard Radio