Kiyota. I'm Chelsea Daniels and from the team behind the front page the New Zealand Herald's daily news podcast, This is Accused the Polkinghorn Trial. Over the next six weeks, in conjunction with our usual daily episodes, will be bringing you regular coverage as one of the most high profile trials of the year makes its way through the High Court at Auckland. A warning, this podcast contains disturbing content.
How did Pauline Hannah die? That's the question for the jury, who for weeks will consider evidence and ultimately decide was it murder or suicide. It's also a question put to two different pathologists tasked with exploring how the sixty three year old died in her Remuera home in April twenty twenty one. Philip Polkinghorn is accused of murdering his wife,
but maintains she took her own life. We also hear from a longtime friend of Pauline and about an incident that worried her and her husband, and we get the first glimpse into Philip's work life. What were the issues at Auckland I We've heard so much about. On day twelve, the Crown called forensic pathologist doctor Keelak Kesher of Auckland City Hospital. He conducted the autopsy of Pauline Hannah's body and he's done around four thousand of them over ten years.
He did Hannah's post mortem on April sixth, twenty twenty one, the day after she was reported dead.
There were particular which are small pinpoint hemorrhages on the face, the aural and the mouth, the contractarverrahs of the eyes. There was blood emerging from the right ear. There was an abrasion on her nose on the bridge of the nose, sorry, one on the left side of the nose, another abrasion on the left side of the back. There was a cluster of bruising on the back of the right arm.
These small pinpoint hemorrhages or contusions are commonly seen when there's an obstruction to the neck veins. On the injuries to her nose, he said, any number of things could have happened. She could have fallen or been struck. You can never know.
There was no evidence of any healing or like a scab formation on the injury, so it was quite recent.
Beyond quite recent. Can you be more particular on timing.
No, all I can say is at or around time and death.
Red discoloration on her back was different to a scrape and indicated lividity when the blood begins to pull in a part of the body after death.
So if you die and line your back, the blood will pull to the towards your back.
And so that's the reddening we can see here. Yes, how quickly will it occur or repair?
It'd say they If you read the textbook, they say about thirty minutes to three hours it starts to appear, and then there's maximum around about twelve hours ten ten hours, So.
Any time between that period, depending how you're placed post there, the levedity may present in that area or certain areas. Yes, associated with how you've been positioned, how their bodies positioned.
Yes.
On the back of a right arm, there were several round purple bruises in a.
Cluster vindicative of anything or are they say again mechanism injury is a blunt impact. We see them quite often if someone is held and those are the things marks on the back of the arm.
Right So you're not saying that are at your finglets, but that's they could.
Be absolutely correct.
You can't look at that and say, therefore summon's being held.
No, I can't say that for sure.
The bruises on the arms had no signs of yellow wing that would indicate that they were older bruises, he said. Onto the belt impression on her neck, Kesha said he had seen it himself at the scene, a criss cross pattern on the right side. An officer there alerted him to a belt found. He said that looked identical with these.
Taken at the post mortem.
Yes, this is taken out of the post mortem roughly twenty hours later, and as you can see, there is no markings left right.
So the markings have gone away to some greater or lesser extent. Yes, what does that suggest to you? Was there any bruising underneath the skin?
No, there was no bruising under the skin or the muscles of the neck.
And what does that sug you see?
You in the terms care thought that there was an object, most likely the belt on the neck.
After death.
The shape of the marks on her neck was also more consistent with a ligature applied from directly behind her, rather than one secured to a point above, like the balustrade where the orange rope was tied. That being said, his final finding was that she died via neck compression, a broad finding that encompasses manual or ligature strangulations, hangings, and auto erotic asphyxiation. Normally, though Kesha said, when people are strangled there'd be more injuries.
But normally with people that have that are strangled, they have a lot more injuries, not just to the neck and the face, but also the arms, hands, even the legs.
We do have some injuries to the arm in this case. Yes, so what are you saying they're not enough to provide.
You I would normally see a lot more than what I saw necessarily, so it's not necessary if she subdued some other way.
On cross examination, Ron Mansfield asked about the belt mark. He quickly had kesher can see the belt could have been used in her death then removed shortly after she died, and if it had.
Been removed one to two perhaps longer hours after her death, then that might also explain. Might it not why it was seen on the fifth but it wasn't seen on the six.
It's possible, but I'd say it's less than two hours.
Well, we can agree the time period might be one.
To two hours couldn't we It's possible yet.
Well, both possibilities.
Are equal, aren't they.
Yes, So the.
Absence of the belt impression by the time you do the autopsy on the sixth simply means one of two things. Perhaps it was placed on her neck after.
Her death, yes, Or.
She was discovered dead and.
It was removed one to two hours following her death. Yes, And you can't tell us, can you which one of those is more likely than the other.
That's correct, They can't.
Mansfield pointed out that the talk of the belt impression was not included in his report.
Why not include it, I've never included in the past.
Well on how many occasions have you undertaken an autopsy having seen it the scene, an impression or literature mark, and then.
The next day not seen it.
Never So, given that, and if you thought it was significant, why would you not report on it within your autopsy report?
I just didn't report it.
But nonetheless, doctor, even if you thought then that this might be significant, it doesn't appear to have had any bearing whatsoever on your ultimate conclusion in your report.
The reason I didn't report it is I thought it'd be there during the post mortem, So first time I've ever had one disappear.
Well, when it didn't, when it didn't appear on post mortem. And although you've told us that there are two explanations for this, it would not be difficult to report on it within your report, would it.
It's correct, but you chose not to. That's correct because it had no.
Significance if, in fact was noted, did it?
It's incorrect?
Well does it impact on your ultimate conclusion within your report?
No? Well, why does it today, doctor, I don't understand.
Well, why does it today impact on what you can tell us?
Why is it today?
For the first time, you're telling us that the position of the belt impression might have some significance.
I've told the police from day one, Well.
Where is it within your report?
I didn't put on my report?
Okay, As you conceded, the direction of the belt impression didn't have an impact on his overall conclusion of neck compression as the cause of death, which did not rule out the possibility of suicide by hanging. Mansfield brings up the lack of injuries one might see in someone who's been manually strangled.
So even if.
And there's an absence of any evidence on this, but even if a choker hold was applied, then there's just no injury that you observed on missus Polkinghorn, or any injury reported to you on doctor Polkinghorn. There might be consistent with any form of resistance by missus Polkinghorn.
Correct, that's correct.
He goes through her injuries. The pinpoint hemorrhages, for example, could be a result of suicide by hanging. Bruises on her right arm, which he earlier said were consistent with being grabbed, were difficult to age and could have been caused Kesher agreed by Hannah being steadied by a personal trainer at the gym. The trial heard earlier she'd been at a personal training session in the days before her death. Mansfield asked about the abrasion on her nose.
Are you able to tell us whether they occurred before her death or whether they could have occurred shortly.
After her death at or around time of death.
So, for example, if she was moved one to two hours after her death and her knees came into contact with a surface, either the floor, a wall, or a step, then that might explain such abrasions. No help me with that.
And then because there's a hemorrhage under the ambrasion on the nose, so she was alive when it occurred.
Mansfield asked the pathologist on the particulars of full suspension versus partial suspension hangings. Both the judge and lawyers have urged extreme caution in reporting these details, and we've chosen to leave out much of what was said about the particulars of the method. Essentially, what we know is that a full suspension is when someone's feet are off the floor. A partial one could be when someone's sitting or slumping.
He goes on to clarify there aren't any indications that Pauline was fighting back, but.
Also just in the fight.
While the assailant is applied the required pressure through their hands to their neck, not only might we see variable bruises with shape and intensity to their neck on the outside, we are also likely to see bruises to the rest of their body correct yes, reflecting the fact that they're held down or pinned down, yes, or that they're punched or kicked.
That's correct.
So we don't see bruises on her neck. No scratches and other injuries on her are minor. Kesha agreed. You can tell the difference. If an injury is caused due to being restrained, you'd see bruises around the rest if they're being held down. For instance, the finger type bruising on her arms was light, they'd be more intense. Kesha said they spoke more about lividity. This can happen as
soon as thirty minutes after death. Mansfield mentions the defense pathologists view that areas of Hannah's body suggest she was sitting when she died.
That that postward and lividity has moved when she's been taken off the chair and laid on the ground.
Yes, because that's what occurs. Correct. Yes, so whilst post.
Wartem lividity might be obvious if she had remained on the chair, given that she was moved and laid down on the ground, the post wartem lividity has moved consistent with lying flat on the ground.
Yes, so after about ten hours, it becomes fixed. Before ten hours, no matter if you move the body delibery, it can change.
Brian Dickey then had a chance to clarify a few things. When we say Hannah's injuries weren't indicative of a violent assault, what does that mean that.
None of them were path and your monarka of or Pathan monarka of an assault?
What does that mean that none of the.
Injuries that I found or saw are consistent with a assault?
Could they have been caused by the soul? Yes?
So, I think the words my learned friend use with you were in with the indicative of an assault, and I think you've indicated they're not indicative injuries.
That's correct.
Does that exclude them from having occurred in an assault?
No? They could have occurred during an assault.
What about a choke hold? Can only someone train to do one do it?
You've been asked about the chokehold variously and at different times referred to police officers and the sas officers for reasons.
I mean, a friend knows. Do you need to be expert to apply a choke hold?
I'm not an expert. I read a lot. I think I could apply it.
The abrasion on her back isn't the usual scrape marks you'd see if a body had been dragged, And.
If the body's carried rather than dragged, would you expect to see any marks from that?
No?
If the body was inside of something else, something soft, like a blanket or something, you expect to see marks to the body if it.
Was carried or dragged.
No, and then onto choke holds.
Gus about the likelihood of injuries in a violence attack causing a homicide attacker.
Have you considered it if it was by surprise, Yes?
What about if it was by surprise, there'd be less injuries if a choke hold was applied.
Next was doctor Martin Sage. He's a forensic pathologist as well. He started doing homicide cases in nineteen eighty nine. He's undertaken more than ten thousand autopsies. I stopped counting a couple of years ago. He said he couldn't determine one way or another whether the beltmark on her neck happened before or after death. He spoke of something called a corrotid hold, which is different to a choke hold.
And I've been listening here this morning, and I want to make very clear the distinction between a choker hold and a carotid hold. So when people talk about a choker hold, they mean you're using your hands on the neck like that, whereas.
A carotid hold is a very specific.
Martial arts move that you have the front of somebody's neck and the crock of your elbow, and as you move this towards your shoulder, you squeeze both sides of the neck and that cuts off both the venus and the arterial drainage and people go unconscious very quickly.
Indeed, I've seen this done.
Sage said, you can kill someone without causing injuries.
From a diagnostic point of view.
As a forensic pathologist, it's really nice if they're there, and it's terribly inconvenient if they're not, But they're absence doesn't prove that it didn't happen.
Essentially, net compressions are always a problem for pathologists because the extent of the injuries very considerably.
I think you will have heard questioning about injuries not present on her is does that really establish anything to your mind that she doesn't have certain.
Types of injuries.
We're not alone as a part of medicine in the fact that positive findings are very useful, but negative findings don't exclude things.
So to summarize, the jury spent Day twelve listening to evidence from those two New Zealand pathologists who both came upon the agreed conclusion Pauline Hannah died from a net compression. For coverage of other news events in New Zealand, from foreign interference on our shores to new sanctions for beneficiaries. Listen to the front page The Herald's daily news podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Day thirteen began with testimony
from Pauline Hannah's friend Alison Ring. She requested not to be filmed or recorded, but you'll remember we can report what she said. Ring met Hannah through Polkinghorn. Her husband's not phomologists too. That'd meet for dinner when on walking holidays. They had a canal barge holiday in France. She spoke to Hannah about her mother's death. She said she was coping. Ring said her friend's last words to her were, Polk has been trying his best over the last few weeks.
She remembered he was agitated about what was happening at auckland I, and Hannah was worried about his mental health. Hannah had told Ring that polking Horn was argumentative, condescending and putting her down. She also confided in her friend Polk's having an affair. Hannah had apparently broken into his computer saw obscene photography. She said, I don't care how many prostitutes he fucks in Sydney, but he's not going
to have anybody in my space. She remembers her friend saying Hannah said she was going to see a lawyer and sought out her will and finances. If he doesn't give her up, I'm leaving him, she said. Ring said polking Horn told her after Hannah's death, I've let her down. I wish I was dead and I wish I was with her. Ring supported him. After the death. She was asked by Dicky if that changed. She said, yes, it
did slightly, she said. After the news had broke that meth was found in the Remuera home, Polkinghorn claimed it was Pauline's. Ring also said she was devastated to learn he'd been in Mount Cook with escort Madison Ashton only weeks after his wife's death. The biggest upset, said Ring, was when Polkinghorn came around one evening with a little bit of paper and claimed she did leave a suicide note. Ring said it read dear p I Love you forever from p all words to that effect. Polkinghorn said it
was in the bedding. Ring remembers being very distressed about this. It didn't sit well with her. The note incident happened after he was charged with murder. In his cross examination, Ron Mansfield asked about the no note the conversation took place after he was charged. She maintained she told police of it well after she made her initial statement. Mansfield suggested she was mistaken about the purpose of why Polkinghorn showed her the note. She reiterates the conversation about Hannah's
suspicions of another woman. The topic wasn't raised again because she hadn't left him. She assumed that worked it out. She also knew of Polkinghorn's frustrations at Auckland Eye and that he was going to try and get onto the board. Victoria Pheasant Riordan took to the stand. She goes by Pheasant. Her and her husband John live in the Hawk's Bay. She met Hannah when she was seventeen years old. They ended up flooding together in Candala in about nineteen seventy
eight for six or seven months. They were doing a secretarial course at the Wellington Polytech. Pauline was a bridesmaid at her wedding in nineteen eighty four. Pheasant would be matron of honor at Pauline and Philip's wedding and Havelock North. Pauline was the Randan's son's godmother. Pheasant says Philip was very controlling from the get go. She'd always make excuses for him. She said. She told the court of a
time Pauline visited in twenty twenty. They had dinner, they got onto the subject of her marriage.
She became quite agitated, and she described to us that Philip had done this to her.
It were just kept that in our records.
So you've got your hands across one another up around.
Union yes, with the thuns on either side of the windpipe, and that he had done that to her and told her that he could do that anytime. So she took that as a threat, a real threat.
That he might do that to her.
Pheasant and her husband, John immediately said she needed to leave him. They knew there were emotional problems, financial issues, but this was the first time she told them of anything physical happening. She got emotional on the stand, remembering the conversation with her.
Friend that that it would be okay.
I think that's what she said. I'm sorry.
We were really quite stressed and wanted her to leave, but at that point.
She kind of.
Pheasant text Pauline the next day she said to her friend she wished she could help take her pain away. You are so strong, it read, and we are here for you if you run out of that strong.
See there's sentence where she says, it was such a treat to spend time with you and Connor. Yes, and underneath that, don't worry about me. I will be fine, as you say, I am strong.
Yes.
Is it the sort of thing you were referring to before, the sort of don't worry type yes suggestion.
Yes.
She saw Pauline on more occasions in twenty twenty when she went down to visit her ailing mother Fae. Pheasant saw her at Fay's funeral in February twenty twenty one and said her friend seemed in control, but sad. She stayed with the couple in Auckland once. She can't remember when it was.
Yeah, she's really animated and excited. And then Philip came home.
When Philip came home, and what what do you mean by that?
Well, the whole mood changed.
Crown Solicitor Alicia McClintock asked about whether she knew Pauline took antidepressants.
We've heard evidence in this trial that Pauline took antidepressants.
Is that something you were aware of? Oh yeah, I mean who doesn't.
Sorry, it was not something that was of concern. It was just a thing. It's like I'm taking my heart pills. I mean it was. Yes, Yes, we were aware that she was taking antidepressants.
Pauline had told her about Philip's insatiable desire to have sex, but that was about the extent of it. On cross examination, Ron Mansfield asked Pheasant about her and Pauline's early days.
I can see by the information that you provide the police that at that time you were both quite heavy drinkers.
By the looks of it, I.
Think we lived on potato soup and whiskey. But I mean, obviously we were studying, so it wasn't it wasn't a big It wasn't a big thing.
It wasn't a get drunk thing. It was just a bit of a joke, right.
She spoke about being concerned about Pauline's drinking at one stage and telling her so, but she thought she'd cut back. He asked whether Pauline had spoken to her about being stressed at work, Pheasant can't recall, but she said Pauline enjoyed what she was doing. They spoke about twenty nineteen being a terrible year. She agreed Polkinghorn's issues at auckland I and the financial trouble was it caused added to
it being a bad year. At the dinner where Pauline confided in her friends, Philip had taken to her neck with his hands. Pheasant admits she doesn't remember the exact words she used, but took it to mean he could do it at any time. Pheasant and Mansfield ran through a series of text messages between the pair, lots of exes, hearts and flower emojis, and a mention of a poem, one that would later be read out at Hannah's funeral.
Dean Corbett, an ophthalmologist, took to the stand. He's worked at Auckland Eyre since two thousand and worked with Polkinghorn he met him in nineteen ninety one. He gave the court a glimpse into the inner workings of the practice. All members are equal shareholders. There are now eighteen of them, and they buy shares into the practice that is led by a board of directors. Around two thousand and nine, it moved to being an appointed, smaller board with some
independent directors. Positions are voted on at the AGM and terms of about two or three years. People can be re elected for a maximum of three terms. This is important because the trials already heard on several occasions Polkinghorn was having troubles at auckland I and he was hoping to get onto the board. This is the first testimony, though, that focuses on those issues. Corbett said Polkinghorn had a short fuse and an intolerance to things going wrong in
the operating theater. He would get very upset if there would be something going wrong about the theater staff's performance, he said, but it was never vindictive and always in the patient's best interest, he said. Corbett said that when he was chairman about twenty eighteen twenty nineteen, there were some complaints from theater staff about Polkinghorn's aggressiveness to them personally.
Auckland I told Polkinghorn to improve his conduct and approach to theater staff while operating, and Corbett told police the surgeon had made an effort to change. In the year before Hannah's death, he was more emotional and seemed like a different person. A surprise exit of two doctors around twenty nineteen caused some stress. There was a rewriting of the shareholder agreement, which was interpreted in different ways by those leaving and those who remained, and a disagreement ensued.
Corbett said Polkinghorn was very concerned about getting the same exit value as those two other doctors. After Hannah died, there was a shareholder meeting that Polkinghorn wasn't at. It was raised he'd told another doctor he'd been using meth and they reported it to the Medical Council. On cross examination, Ron Mansfield asked about Polkinghorn's work as a vitrio retinal specialist, which focuses on the rear of the eye and as often the last chance saloon before someone goes blind. He
agreed Polkinghorn had an excellent reputation within this profession. He was internationally respected for his work. He'd invested a considerable amount of money into Auckland Eye and when he retired after Hannah's death, it was like an end of an era. Mansfield asked about Polkinghorn being stressed when the two other doctors left in difficult circumstances, in twenty nineteen because their two payouts meant the practice was not so well placed
to pay him out upon his proposed retirement. Corbett agreed their departure created huge issues and endangered the company, requiring legal advice. Corbett said the practice was one hundred percent behind Philip and trying to engineer the best possible retirement for him. Mansfield asked if Polkinghorn was ultimately offered four hundred and fifty thousand dollars upon retirement. Corbett isn't sure, but he agreed the other specialists received more like six
hundred and fifty thousand dollars. He agreed Polkinghorn might have found it hard to take on a personal and professional level. The trial continues tomorrow. You can listen to episodes of Accused the Polkinghorn Trial through the front Page podcast feed or find it on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts. This series is present and produced by me Chelsea Daniels,
with producer Ethan Siles and sound engineer Patty Fox. Additional reporting from the Heralds Craig Capatan and George Block and for more coverage of the Polkinghorn trial, head to Enzidhrold dot co, dot nz,