Chelsea Daniels: Front Page Host on Philip Polkinghorne's community service sentence for meth charges

A community service sentence ends the saga of Philip Polkinghorne. 

The former Auckland eye surgeon has returned to the High Court in Auckland today – more than a month after he was acquitted of murdering his wife Pauline Hanna. 

He's been sentenced to 150 hours community work after admitting to a meth charge.  

The Front Page's Chelsea Daniels spoke to Kerre Woodham from the High Court at Auckland and says the possibility of a fine was discussed. 

She says Justice Graham Lang didn't believe a fine would be enough to hold Polkinghorne to account, given his “healthy” financial position. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Kerry Wooden Mornings podcast from News Talk,
said B.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
We Cross. Now to Chelsea Daniel's front page host and
news Talk, said B. Reporter, who's at the Polkinghorn Myth
sentencing at the Auckland High Court today. Very good morning
to you, Chelsea.

Speaker 3 (00:23):
Good morning Kerry.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
So they said he would be sentenced at nine was
it bang on?

Speaker 1 (00:28):
It was bang on.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
It lasted only about twenty minutes. So he's been sentenced
to one hundred and fifty hours of community work after admitting,
of course, myth charges after police found thirty seven point
seven grams dotted around his house when they were searching
it when he was accused of murdering his wife. Now
we know that he's been acquitted of that and in

(00:50):
the first day of the trial, which lasted nine weeks
by the way, the first day he admitted the myth
charges and also the possession of a pipe which was
found under his bed. Today, like I said, only about
twenty minutes we ran through the normal comings and goings
of a sentence. I'll go through those with you if
you don't know, well, if our listeners don't know. Basically,

(01:13):
the council goes through what they think the starting point
should be. There was a lot of talk about the
fine situation, whether the fine would be a suitable deterrent
for him. The judge, Justice Graham Lang basically said he
didn't think that a fine of up to one thousand
dollars would be any kind of deterrent for him because
of his healthy financial situation. So that's why he fact

(01:38):
it in two initially two hundred hours of community service,
but that was reduced by twenty five percent or fifty
hours because of his community work and his early plea,
even though he said it was a bit late that
guilty plea. But yeah, so one hundred and fifty hours
community service ends the saga of Polkinghorn. I thought it

(01:58):
was interesting as well. Ron Mansfield, Polkinghorn's lawyer mentioned that
he once had an inter national and national recognition for
his work as being the top of his field, and
of course, over the nine week trial has become he said,
a household name for all of nefarious reasons. Basically all

(02:20):
of his personal life and dirty laundry aird out to
the public. So I thought that was an interesting kid
bit from Ron Mansfield.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
So what's he going to do for his community? Service
free eye operations for those who can't afford them.

Speaker 3 (02:32):
I mean, I'm not sure they did if they did,
mention in the pre sentencing report, and of course we
heard this in the trial as well. He was known
to if patients couldn't afford surgery, he would pay for them.
That was brought up again today. I don't know what
the future holds for his actual community service. But yeah,

(02:55):
so about two convictions, so he wasn't discharged without convictions.
The judge actually had to come back to court once
we'd all stood up and started unplugging things, he had
to come back and say and clarified that, you know,
there are still two convictions to his name.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
Yeah, so thirty second grams of myths myth seems. I
don't know how much a lot of myth is, but
the lot so a point.

Speaker 3 (03:21):
This is something I learned during the trial as well, Carey,
So you're not alone. So basically, apparently a one use
of myth is a point. It's called point bag, right.
We may have heard that in the movies or on
TV or something. So thirty seven point seven grams is
essentially three hundred and seventy individual doses. They've also all

(03:42):
dotted around the house and that's worth thirteen thousand dollars
on the market now. During the trial and in the
sentencing today, they were kind of trying to say that
Polkinghorn had the means to buy in bulk and that's
why there was so much dotted around the house, and
that's no indication of his usage. He told the pre

(04:02):
trial you know, they do pre trial report, and they
told that order that apparently he told them he'd only
used math five to ten times in his life. But
Justice Lang said that he doesn't believe that patiently given
the amount around his house. It was also interesting Ron Mansfield,
when during sentence things like this they need to give

(04:24):
examples of cases past, he actually brought up a case
that Justice Lang did himself of sentencing a man of
a similar standing with forty something grams of cocaine, and
he said he was discharged with a thousand dollar fine. Well,
Justice Graham Lang said, although the similar similar cases, again,

(04:46):
he just didn't think that the thousand dollar fine would
be any kind of terror for paulsing Horn slaty.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
Hell, I tell you if Farmer ever charged with anything,
Ron Mansfield's my go to man. I want him on Skydial.

Speaker 3 (04:58):
Yeah, I think my parents would have to mortgage their house. Yeah,
re mortgage, but.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
We'd do a little go fund me maybe.

Speaker 3 (05:08):
The full ticket. We'd have a gold coin donation around
the office.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
But yeah, the bloody hell. I just wonder if he's
going to be O. J. Simpsons now where you know,
he might have got off and he might have been
found not guilty, but what on earth is to become
of him?

Speaker 3 (05:23):
Well, the allure of the case, isn't it. I mean,
as a part of the front Page podcast we did
the podcast Accused the polkinghun trial and Kerry. It was
so popular that I've had a friend in New York
tell them that somebody walked up to them in New
York and said, you have to listen to this trial.
It's a New Zealand trial. And she messaged me immediately saying,

(05:44):
a random just came up to me in New York
and told me to listen to your podcast. That's the
reach of this trial. It's one of those trials that
happens once every a couple of times a decade.

Speaker 2 (05:55):
Right.

Speaker 3 (05:55):
We've been in the news business for a while and
it's just one of those that had that a lure.
But of course he was acquitted, So who knows what's
what's next. I know what's next, one hundred and fifty
hours of communities. It farther than that, who knows.

Speaker 2 (06:08):
Wouldn't mind getting my eyes lifted. I wouldn't mind. He's
probably off the myth at the moment. See if here
we go anyway, I'm not sure i'd qualify as a
charity case, Chelsea, Thank you so much, Chelsea Daniels, front
page host in Newstalk ZB reporter so Polkinghorn sentenced to
one hundred and fifty hours of community service for having
quite a lot of myth. I mean buying in bulk.

(06:30):
Sure I do that with chickpeas, but certainly wouldn't have
thought about doing it with meth. But there you go.
We're all different.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
For more from Kerry Wood and Mornings, listen live to
news talks. It'd be from nine am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.