Philip Polkinghorne trial: What we learnt from week 3

Saturday, 17 August 2024

Warning: The details of this case may be distressing for some readers.

The third week of the trial of Philip Polkinghorne has had another wave of evidence, with the jury hearing from pathologists, Pauline Hanna’s close friends and the eye surgeon’s colleagues.

Polkinghorne, a 71-year-old eye doctor, has denied murdering his wife Pauline Hanna. She was found dead in the entranceway of their Remuera home on April 5, Easter Monday, in 2021. The trial is under way at the High Court in Auckland.

The Crown’s case is that Polkinghorne fatally strangled Hanna before reporting her death to police as a suicide. It argues he was living a double life, obsessed with meth and in a covert relationship with an escort in Sydney.

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

Pauline Hanna told her friends her husband had strangled her

It was while at a dinner with friends, a year before her death, that Hanna described how her husband had put his hands around her neck and said “I can do this any time,” Pheasant Riordan, Hanna’s friend, told the court.

“She took that as a real threat that he might do that to her,” Pheasant said.

“She said: ‘He tried to strangle me’,” John Riordan, Pheasant’s husband, echoed.

The couple were extremely concerned about Hanna and told her to pack her bags and return to Hawke’s Bay.

Homicide or suicide? Inconclusive pathology

On Tuesday, the court heard from two pathologists, who between them have conducted thousands of autopsies.

Neither Dr Kilak Kesha, who carried out Hanna’s post mortem, nor Dr Martin Sage, who reviewed the findings, could conclude whether Hanna died by hanging or as a result of being strangled - either manually or by the use of a ligature.

Both said they couldn’t say whether a belt was applied to Hanna’s neck after her death, or whether an impression found on her skin was the result of it being removed after she’d been found.

The cause of Hanna’s death was neck compression.

“At first pass this looks like a suicide… but the bit that bothers me most is that the assembly which she’s suspended herself doesn’t look like it's capable of doing that,” Dr Sage said.

He had to look at other alternatives.

“Perhaps the ligature has been tightened some other way, or something else has happened that’s incidental to her death,” Dr Sage said.

But ultimately, he couldn’t tell whether it was a case of homicide or suicide.

Late night emails

A number of Hanna’s colleagues were questioned about Hanna’s late night and early morning emails. A number of them said it was just what everyone was doing at the time given the Covid-19 vaccination response.

Former Auckland District Health Board chief executive Ailsa Claire said she raised concerns with Hanna in March 2021.

Claire met with Hanna, as she did with all the leaders, to check out how she was going with her workload.

“Pauline had been doing emails late at night and I checked out why she was doing that and indicated to her I felt like it wasn’t appropriate as she seemed to be doing long hours,” Claire said.

But Hanna said she wished to continue doing it and told Claire “work was her happy place”.

“Everyone had a great deal of confidence in the work she was doing.”

Dickey asked Claire if she had any concerns about Hanna’s welfare.

“No, quite the opposite, I felt like she was thriving in the environment.”

Pauline Hanna’s mental health and medication

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 her 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 to act on them.

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

The GP said, according to the crisis team notes, Hanna had strong protective factors in her children and grand-kids.

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 psychologist.

“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 (a weight-loss drug) 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.

Justice Lang asked the defence if there was going to be evidence to suggest the prescription of duromine was connected to Hanna’s death.

“There’ll be evidence linking duromine in combination of use of other drugs and alcohol with suicide risk,” defence lawyer Hannah 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.

Polkinghorne discloses meth use

Dr Susan Ormonde the clinical director at Auckland Eye told the court she’d known Polkinghorne since about 2001 and had considered him an excellent and supportive colleague.

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

“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”.

The trial before Justice Graham Lang and a jury continues on Tuesday.