Philip Polkinghorne trial: Boss ‘shocked’ over meth revelations

Friday, 16 August 2024

The day before Pauline Hanna’s funeral her husband disclosed to a close colleague that he’d been taking methamphetamine and suggested she try some too.

Polkinghorne, a 71-year-old eye doctor, has denied murdering his wife, but at the start of his trial pleaded guilty to methamphetamine charges.

The Crown’s case is that Polkinghorne was living a double life, he had an obsession with sex and meth and was in a covert relationship with an escort in Sydney. It argues Polkinghorne murdered Hanna before staging their home to make it look like suicide.

Polkinghorne’s defence is that Hanna had a long history of mental health issues, was on medication, was exhausted by work and tragically took her own life.

Polkinghorne discloses meth use

On Friday, Dr Susan Ormonde the clinical director at Auckland Eye told the court she’d known Polkinghorne since about 2001. They were colleagues but also saw each other socially.

A day before Hanna’s funeral, Polkinghorne visited Ormonde and her husband at their home for lunch.

“It was really just for support and to see how he was doing,” Ormonde said.

Polkinghorne talked over the night Hanna died and what he found.

“He also made a couple of revelations to us that he was worried would come out to the public,” Ormonde said.

The first thing was regarding his and Hanna’s sex life and the second was about drugs.

“We were quite shocked and not expecting to hear him say meth,” Ormonde said.

Ormonde said Polkinghorne spoke about the drug as if both he and Pauline took it.

“He asked if we’d ever tried meth, which we said ‘no’ and he said ‘you should’,” Ormonde said.

Ormonde said she asked if they’d used it the night before Hanna died and recalled Polkinghorne said “we’ve not used meth for six months”.

Ormonde was pretty certain Polkinghorne mentioned cocaine, but was 100% certain about the meth.

The clinical director said it was a very difficult position to be in as a close friend and colleague as he’d told her in confidence about the drug use.

However she “absolutely” reported it to the company lawyer, the Medical Protection Society and later to her fellow colleagues after media reports.

“To find out one of the doctors had been using meth was a considerable concern.”

Ormonde said over the years, Polkinghorne had been an excellent colleague and the pair had shared a lot of patients.

“I found him a very good and supportive colleague,” Ormonde said.

Ormonde, under cross-examination by Mansfield, said she’d never witnessed Polkinghorne be abusive, manipulative or threaten violence towards Hanna.

Polkinghorne ‘agitated and out-right rude’ at board meeting

Auckland Eye’s independent director and chair of the board, Mark Conelly, told the court he joined the organisation in late 2019.

“I came to an organisation that was battered and bruised… a lot of trust issues among the shareholders.”

This was due to the sudden and unexpected departure of two shareholders and people felt betrayed, Conelly said.

Conelly recalled a board meeting a month before Hanna’s death where Polkinghorne joined the meeting late via Zoom.

“It was very clear he hadn’t read the papers and he was very agitated… outright rude to the staff,” Conelly said.

Conelly said it was an “odd exchange” and Polkinghorne went over issues that were irrelevant.

The director said he called Polkinghorne out and he was relatively subdued after that.

Conelly said he wasn’t close with Polkinghorne, who wasn’t supportive of him being made chair of the board, but generally they got on.

Conelly was also asked about an incident in October 2020, where a meth pipe was found inside Auckland Eye on a Monday morning. CCTV footage showed the chief executive, the chief financial officer, a cleaner and Polkinghorne were the only people who went into the clinic over the weekend.

An investigation as to who the meth pipe belonged to was inconclusive, Conelly said.

Pauline Hanna’s GP quizzed about prescriptions

Earlier on Friday, Hanna’s GP of over a decade was extensively quizzed about why there was no record she’d referred her patient to psychiatric or mental health care, despite consistently prescribing Hanna weight-loss medication and anti-depressants.

The GP, who has interim name suppression, had previously said Hanna called the GP on December 23, 2019 in tears saying her mother was in hospital and her husband had left her. Hanna said she had suicidal thoughts but had no plans.

Hanna was told by the GP to get in touch with the crisis team and follow up with her the next day.

Stuart questioned why, despite Hanna disclosing her suicidal thoughts, Stuart said the GP didn’t appear to have followed up with Hanna after the call on December 24.

Under re-examination, prosecutor Alysha McClintock took the GP through notes the crisis team took at the time which stated Hanna had strong protective factors in her children and grand-kids, but had thoughts of running into a truck.

The GP said she called Hanna the next day who reported she was feeling well, had spoken to the crisis team and would call her psycholgist.

“I told her she should get back to me if she needs me.”

Polkinghorne’s lawyer took the GP through Hanna’s medical records and noted between 2010 and 2021 the doctor prescribed duromine to her patient 46 times, but there was no record in the notes that Hanna had been weighed during that time.

There was also no record Hanna had been referred to a psychiatrist or counsellor for her prolonged use of anti-depressants.

But the GP said Hanna would have been weighed, it was not uncommon for people to take anti-depressants for decades and Hanna had seen a psychiatrist.

“She was adamant she continue receiving it and you never reviewed because she was unwilling to stop taking it?” Stuart said in relation to the weight-loss medication.

The GP said she never thought Hanna was dependent on the medication.

The GP said every menopausal woman is “obsessed with weight” and how they looked.

Stuart said the Medical Council said good prescribing practice was to only prescribe medication or treatment for a condition or if doctors are satisfied it’s in the patient's best interest.

“That’s exactly that’s what I’ve done,” the GP said.

Justice Lang asked Stuart if the defence were going to be suggest the prescription of duromine was connected to the death of Hanna.

'There’ll be evidence linking duromine in combination of use of other drugs and alcohol with suicide risk,' Stuart said.

The court has previously heard from a toxicologist who said a high level of the sleeping pill Zopiclone was found in Hanna’s system after her death.

The GP said she never prescribed Zopiclone to Hanna.

Stuart suggested at the time of Hanna’s death she was self-medicating with Zopiclone to which the doctor agreed.

Stuart also quizzed the GP on Hanna’s previous alcohol abuse. Hanna had previously sought help for her alcohol consumption and received medication aimed at reducing alcohol cravings after she reported frequent black outs.

During a meeting with a psychiatrist, Hanna’s ongoing use of a weight-loss drug was discussed. The psychiatrist recommended addressing this was a counsellor.

'That’s a red flag of another psychological problem going on?' Stuart asked.

'Many women go through, especially women in menopause, come aware of weight gain. I didn’t find it very unusual,' the GP said.

The trial, which is expected to last for at least 6 weeks, before Justice Graham Lang and a jury continues on Tuesday.