George Block: NZ Herald reporter on Philip Polkinghorne's defence team labelling accusations against him 'insulting'

Philip Polkinghorne's defence team says the Crown's accusations against him have been an insult.

The Auckland eye surgeon is accused of killing his wife, Pauline Hanna, in 2021.

In his closing remarks Ron Mansfield KC says a lack of injuries on Hanna's body must mean she took her own life.

Herald reporter George Block says Mansfield also gave an explanation for Polkinghorne deleting his messages with sex worker Madison Ashton.

"Mansfield says that was just because he didn't want that to become public - if it was going to be this big investigation, he didn't want his extramarital liaisons to become public fodder."

Ron Mansfield will continue his remarks in the morning before the judge sums up the case, then the jury's expected to start deliberating tomorrow afternoon.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Philip Polkinghorn's defense lawyer has started wrapping up his defense
in the High Court in Auckland. Today. Ron Mansfeld called
the Crown's allegation that Polkinghorn had murdered his wife insulting.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
This has been a trial prosecuted by emotion, and where
the victim is logic. Logic is evidence based, it's reliable,
it is sound. A trial run by emotion allows our
murder mystery fantasies to run wild.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
He reminded the jury that this is not a court
of morals and cautioned them to judge Polkinghorn based on
the not based on his use of sex work as
a myth. Now, George Block has been at the trial
for the last two months and is with us. He George, Hi, Heather,
what was insulting about that?

Speaker 3 (00:47):
Well? Mansfield there really picked up where Crown's luster Alisha
McLintock left off. She said Polkinghorn blamed his wife for
a lot in her life and we're belittlert and it
was the final insult to her for him to blame
her for her own death. Mansfield came back and said
it was actually Polkinghorn who had had a lot of
insults starting with police not having an open mind when

(01:09):
they visited his home and Upland Road in twenty twenty one.
Those insults continued when they interviewed him for four hours,
not telling him he was a suspect that afternoon and
not telling him they had launched a massive investigation at
his home and they continued Ron Mansfield case. He says
when it went public in the media that the death
was unexplained, he's suspicious and he sort of, in Mansfield's words,

(01:31):
became a pariah because of that fact. And he became
isolated over those sixteen months before he was charged, which
was another insult. That's sort of where he was going
with that.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Now he has said that that Polkehorn deleting is WhatsApp
messages was entirely understandable.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
How so that was interesting. Yeah, So Polkinghorn deleted his
messages with Sidney Escort Madison Ashton right after the interview
on April five, and Mansfield said that was just because
he didn't want that to become public, you know, if
it was going to be this big investigation, didn't want
its extramarital liaisons to become public fodder. There was also

(02:06):
the search for leg edema after strangulation, which McClintock said
basically revealed the murderer. And Mansfield explained this by saying,
that was the day of the autopsy and he still
wasn't getting any information, and his client was simply wondering
why he was still a suspect. Whether this could have
been a reason, like how her legs look, whether that

(02:26):
could have meant that he was being treated as a suspect.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
Now, Ron Mansfeld's made the point it seems to be
something that he's relying on that Hannah's body showed no
signs of struggle or injuries that were consistent with murder.

Speaker 3 (02:37):
Right, that's really the core of his closing. He says
he's got the pathology on his side. He says she
had a few non specific injuries, but all the pathologists
just said she died by a net compression, leaving the
door open to either hanging or strangulation, but definitely the
door wide open to the hanging, he says. He says
that the bruise on her temple could have been her

(03:00):
sort of fumbling around trying to hang herself. The bruise
on the right arm, while it looks like four fingers,
if it's someone gripping her. Wise, they're no thumb mark,
and he says it could have been made by a
pathologists transporting her body after death, or by someone steadying
her at a personal training session for example. So he
says the injuries are not nearly enough for the amount

(03:20):
required if they were the sort of defensive wounds that
you'd expect in a violent strangulation like getting DNA under
the fingernails, for example. All her acrylic nails, he says,
were in place when they did the autopsy, and that
shows he says that there was no struggle consistent with
the violent assault.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
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