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, we'll 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. Questions swirl around a certain dinner at a Havelock North restaurant, more on what prescription drugs Pauline Hannah was taking and the unraveling of the issues at Auckland. Eye friends and colleagues have weighed in at the end of the third week of Philip Pulkinghorn's trial. He's accused of murdering his wife in a Pril twenty twenty one. He maintains she
took her own life. Pheasant's husband, John reared and took to the stand on day thirteen, but continued his evidence on day fourteen. He spoke about the dinner in twenty twenty when Pauline confided in them that Philip had put his hands around her neck. She started talking about the difficulties in her relationship, the arguments, and how she had to be very very careful around her husband otherwise he would blow out.
You did it just so we capture that you were gesturing with yours one hand above the other right and above your left, and you've got your fingers open around your throat.
I captured that.
Right, Yes, So she gestured that she did, and then she said nothing for maybe five seconds, and we just sort of looked at him and thought, what are you doing? What are you saying? And then she said, he tried to strangle me.
So, as best you can recall, how accurate are those words he tried to strangle me?
Oh, very acurate?
And who was he?
Well, because all of the conversation that we'd had to date was about Philip and Pauline and their.
Marriage, So how certain are you about the words? He tried to strangle me? And when she'd done that, she'd done that gesture and she'd said that.
What happened next?
I just said to her, pack up your bags, you come home with us.
Why were you saying that?
Well, multitude was that he'd done it once, he'll do it again.
Did you say that?
That's why? I said to you.
Yes, he remembers her telling them she didn't have any money, she'd have nowhere to live. John continued to strongly encourage her to come home, and what.
Was her reaction if you need to suggestion that she should come home?
I felt that she was very nervous about the idea of leaving the flood.
Why did you Why do you say you felt that? What did she say or do that that made you feel that?
Well?
When she started telling us about the fact that he'd shown great remorse, and I'm going, yeah, he might have, but if he's do it to you once, he will do it to you again. No, see this time and time again?
Was was?
What was Pheasant doing when you're having this conversation about it? If it's seven once, it will happen again.
What was Pheasant's reaction to this? Or do you not now recall.
I don't specifically recall her reaction, but it would have been the same as mine. What were you focusing on her safety? Like get her out of where she was and get her home?
Who's safety or Leans?
Yep.
He also remembered staying at the couple's Remuerra home and Philip coming home and the mood dropping.
Philip came in that night. You thought Pauline's demeanor.
Change, oh straight away?
Did you?
How had she been prior to that, to Philip coming home very bubly and when he came home?
What was the change?
It was almost like she was careful about the words that she said, profere that she made something say something wrong. It so appeared to me.
Did you speak to her about that on that occasion?
No? Not dead.
When he continued his evidence on day fourteen, John remembered the last conversation he had with Pauline at her mother's funeral in February twenty twenty one.
She was talking about the grandkids. So Philip's eldis child and Bruce's daughter had a child, both of them which she called you know she was she was their grandmother, and she was so excited about that whole process and being part of their lives growing up. And yeah, I mean she had a lot to look for.
You speak often about family, Oh.
Yes, yeah, and the grandchildren like they were front and center all the time.
He spoke about how they found out Pauline died. They returned home and there was a voicemail message from Bruce and Rose Hannah, which was unusual. Pheasant went up to the bedroom and rang the Hannah's back. Then he heard his wife cry out. He then recalled Philip, telling them.
Phone no speaker or the sign was on speaker, and just explain for us what Philip sid when he called Pheasant in those days after Pauline's death.
So when we answered the phone, he was already and he said, my darling wife, she's gone. I couldn't tell you what other words he said, but that's what stuck with me. And he was crying and yeah, it's not an unusual emotion to have if your wife has died, So it's okay. And then he carries on talking for a few minutes about the loss. Yes, and it's all at the same level of emotion. And then he talks about the police. And the second that he starts talking
about the police, the crime has stopped. Like there is no emotion in his voice whatsoever.
What when you say he was talking about the police, can you recall what sort of things he was conveying about the police.
Well, he said, the police are going to charge me for murder. I didn't kill my wife. Well those are the words I do know. Definitely, happened.
Which one?
Sorry, the police are going to charge me with murder.
On cross examination, Ron Mansfield asked whether John knew anyone who'd committed suicide he has.
Do they have a lot to live for? There were a lot of people that loved him.
Yes, so we all have a lot to live for, don't we, Sue.
I don't think all people have a lot to live for, but both think Paulne did have a lot to live for.
Ys Mansfield suggested John wanted to put the boot in with his comments about Hannah having to be careful around Polkinghorn. They spoke about the dinner in twenty twenty.
Do you think that.
Both you and Fearsant just talk this claim by Pauline to be the alcohol.
Talking on that night? Definitely No.
Whilst she had been talking about twenty nineteen being a terrible year for her and Philip, you didn't put too much weight on what she had claimed, given that she had been drinking.
I disagree.
If you took Pauline seriously, then you would have had further discussions with her, and you didn't, Mansfield claimed. John said they did. It's just not reflected in the texts. Crown Prosecutor a Lesia McClintock comes back to clarify a few things.
It's been suggested to both the context you've given to the conversation.
At Marlow and your evidence yesterday was both. Mister Mansfield said, putting the boot in and gilding the lily. I think was the other one. You remember him suggesting, this.
Is anything that you've told the court about what happened at the Marlow restaurant, Things that you've said in order to put the boot.
No, that you've said in order to gild the lily.
No took coverage of other news events in New Zealand, including the state of our economy post O cr Katz. Listen to the front page The Herald's daily news podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Pauline Hannah's doctor took to the stand. They have named suppressions, so we can't name them, their practice or any other identifying details. They were heard
gp for many years. They brought her medical records to court and we've heard a bit about it from day nine when Ron Mansfield revealed a previous suicide attempt and her long history of taking antidepressants. You'll remember he mentioned Hannah being given medication for alcohol use disorder. In two thousand and four and thirteen. The witness said Hannah had seen a specialist she wanted to control her drinking. Her records say she was drinking a bottle of wine a
night in twenty thirteen. In twenty nineteen, Hannah said her intake was two or more glasses of wine a night. She would have been at the recommended limit of fourteen units a week. She was prescribed weight loss medication in twenty ten, something she took most of the time from that point. While Zoppo clone, a sleeping pill, was found in her blood, she was never prescribed it. Earlier in the trial, we heard the Zoppa clone in her system when she died was at a high level, suggesting a tolerance.
The witness recalled Hannah having suicidal thoughts in December twenty nineteen. She'd never discussed them before or discussed any previous suicide attempts. Cross examinations saw the GP asked more about psychiatrist visits. In twenty thirteen. A note in her records said the psychiatrist noted Na wanted to detox from alcohol and take ant abuse, a medication used in the treatment of alcohol
use disorders. In twenty seventeen, Hannah was again prescribed now treksone by another doctor after raising concerns about her drinking. It's used to manage cravings. Defense lawyer Hannah Stewart questioned the doctor about why Pauline was taking the weight loss drug duramine, given it's meant to be short term. No, but it's not uncommon, they said, so, just because others do it, that makes it okay, asked Stuart. They're asked about why Hannah was kept on the medication for eleven
years without being weighed. The witness reiterates Hannah didn't have any side effects and appeared to be maintaining her weight. Stewart is intending to call evidence suggesting a link between the use of duramine and other drugs with an elevated suicide risk. In December twenty nineteen, Hannah had reported her mother was an hospital, her husband had left her. She was crying, and the GP referred her to the crisis team. She's expressed suicidal thoughts. The GP called her the following morning,
and Hannah said she was feeling better. When the trial resumed on day fifteen, Susan Ormond was called to the stand. She's an ophthalmologist at Auckland Eye and the clinical director. She met Philip Polkinghorn in two thousand and one when they both worked at Auckland DHB. They had a good relationship and friendship and socialized outside of work. She'd met
Pauline many times. Crown Prosecutor Pitt McNabb asked about whether there'd been concerns about Polkinghorn at work in the one to two year period before Hannah's death as a clinical director. Ormond said there'd been people who expressed concerns about certain aspects of patient care and him being irritable with staff in the theater.
There were some concerns that he was generally more irritable, just generally, not just in theater. I mean, I certainly found him more irritable than usual, but you know, there were sort of we're having problems at Auckland.
I Philip gone to her and her husband's home for lunch the day before Pauline's funeral. There he made a couple of revelations. He was worried about them coming out.
So he said, well, what were those things? And the first thing he actually mentioned was regarding his and Pauline's sex life. And then when we asked what the other thing was he was worried about, he said drugs, to which I said what sort of drugs, to which he replied, meth.
Did he offer any further explanation of what exactly he was worried about in terms.
Of myth coming out, well, the conversation at that point we were quite shocked. We weren't expecting, you know, we weren't expecting to hear him say meth. And the conversation really.
Was around, you know, sort of what do you mean meth?
You taking meth kind of thing, and he he wasn't specific about whether it was he or appauling, but he talked about it as if it was both of them, you know, we use meth or whatever. He asked if we'd ever tried meth, to which we said no, and he said, well you should.
Almond then told the company lawyer and phone the Medical Protection Society.
It was a very difficult position.
On the one hand, you know, this was a close friend and colleague who was with us for support and was telling us things in confidence, and obviously we want to keep those things confidential.
But at the same time, as clinical director.
You know, one of my obligations is very much to make sure that all the patients we see are safe and receive the highest quality treatment. And to find out that one of the doctors had been using math was a considerable concern.
On cross examination, Ron Mansfield, as he did with another witness, had Ormond show how Polkinghorn worked long hours in both the public and private systems and at Auckland Medical School, where he helped with training and research. Ormond told police Hannah and Polkinghorn were a perfectly normal couple and she never saw him put down, control, manipulate or abuse his wife.
Onto his delayed retirement due to two doctors leaving unexpectedly that set up another practice and the cost of solicitors was larger than the amount due to be paid out, it caused considerable disruption to Auckland. Die could this have contributed to him being agitated?
And I think you saw that frustration yourself by way of him being slightly more agitated, as you put it, than he might ordinarily be in certain circumstances.
Now I said, irritable, but yes, irritable, Thank you.
Ormond would last sea Hannah alive at a crowded house concert at Spark Arena on March twenty first, twenty twenty one. Mark Connolly is the chair of the board at Auckland Eye, an independent director who joined in twenty nineteen and became chair in twenty twenty. He's not a clinician or shareholder. Like other witnesses, he chose not to be recorded. While much of the tensions at auckland I over the sudden departure of two shareholders was before his time, he said
the circumstances were controversial, sudden, and unexpected. On Polkinghorn's retirement issues, he was initially planning on leaving sometime in twenty twenty. A doctor was arriving from overseas and Polkinghorn was keen to have him take over some of his patients, Connolly remembers, so they settled on June thirty, twenty twenty two, as a final date. Polkinghorn was concerned about his payout, which we heard earlier in the trial was lower than what
was offered to those two doctors who abruptly left. Connolly said he wasn't happy about that and wanted, at a minimum, the same amount the others got. They got six hundred and fifty thousand dollars, while he was offered about three hundred and sixty thousand. We heard the other day it'd eventually be four hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Connolly agrees Polkinghorn wanted more, and he confirmed. He replied saying he couldn't because otherwise other specialists set to retire would be
knocking on my door asking for the same package. She said. The first week Connolly was made chair in twenty twenty, the chief executive rang him and said, we've discovered a meth pipe in the practice that pulled CCTV for the previous weekend. Four or five people had come into the practice, Polkinghorn, a cleaner, the CEO and CFO. The pipe was found
in a preparation room, a room used by ophthalmologists. Fast forward to a meeting in May twenty twenty one after Hannah's death, and his colleague Susan Ormond would reveal Polkinghorn had told her he was a meth user. Ron Mansfield asked Connolly about the pipe discovery. It happened on a Monday morning. There was a young patient in the prep room on the Thursday or Friday before Connolly confirmed the meth pipe was handed over to police. He isn't sure
if it was fingerprinted or DNA tested. The trial continues next week. 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 presented and produced by me Chelsea Annuals, with producer Ethan Sills and sound engineer Paddy Fox. Additional reporting from the Heralds Craig Captan and George Block and for more coverage of the Polkinghorn Trial head to enzedhrold dot co dot nz