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Speaker 1: Kiyota.

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Speaker 2: I'm Chelsea Daniels and from the team behind the front

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Speaker 2: page the New Zealand Herald's daily news podcast, This is

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Speaker 2: Accused the Polkinghorn Trial. Over the next six weeks, in

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Speaker 2: conjunction with our usual daily episodes, will be bringing you

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Speaker 2: regular coverage as one of the most high profile trials

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Speaker 2: of the year makes its way through the High Court

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Speaker 2: at Auckland. A warning, this podcast contains disturbing content. The

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Speaker 2: first week of the trial of Philip Polkinghorn has come

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Speaker 2: to an end. He's accused of murdering his wife, Pauline

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Speaker 2: Hannah on April fifth, twenty twenty one. While we're in

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Speaker 2: the early stages of evidence, the topics that will be

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Speaker 2: covered in the case have been made clear in fidelity, threesomes,

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Speaker 2: sex workers, a financial concerns, depression, stress, and a COVID

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Speaker 2: vaccine rollout. All this will be traversed over the next

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Speaker 2: six weeks to answer the ultimate question, was it murder

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Speaker 2: or suicide? That question was under the microscope on day

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Speaker 2: four to recap Polkinghorn is accused of murdering Hannah by

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Speaker 2: strangling her either with his hands, forearm or something soft

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Speaker 2: and smooth while angry. High or low or strung out

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Speaker 2: on meth. The Crown says aspects of his double life

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Speaker 2: were getting harder and harder to keep under wraps. Evidence

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Speaker 2: suggests Hannah had discovered his drug habit and had told

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Speaker 2: her friends and family she was worried about how he

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Speaker 2: was spending their money, as well as his sexual demands

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Speaker 2: of her. The Crown says she was considering leaving him,

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Speaker 2: but admitted she still loved her husband despite his behavior.

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Speaker 2: This behavior of the Crown of Led includes aggression, emotional control,

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Speaker 2: and a prior incident in which her husband wrapped his

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Speaker 2: hands around her neck. It's alleged he staged the scene,

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Speaker 2: making it look like she'd hung herself with a rope

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Speaker 2: too long with not enough tension, as we heard about

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Speaker 2: on day three. On the other hand, Polkinghorn's defense maintains

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Speaker 2: she took her own life, having been overstressed working seven

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Speaker 2: am till ten pm, seven days a week in her

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Speaker 2: role overseeing the COVID vaccination rollout with County's Monaco digheb.

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Speaker 2: She was taking antidepressants, and it's claimed the combination of

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Speaker 2: drugs and alcohol left her prone to taking her life.

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Speaker 2: To explore further, if it was possible or not for

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Speaker 2: Hannah to have committed suicide. Day four of evidence began

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Speaker 2: with a Canadian forensic rope and not an analyst who

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Speaker 2: appeared via audio visual link, his face dotted around the

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Speaker 2: room thanks to five large TVs in the courtroom. Robert

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Speaker 2: Chisnell was contacted by ESR scientist Fiona Matheson about a

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Speaker 2: week after Pauline Hannah's body was found. He was sent

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Speaker 2: and asked to look at seventy six photographs of the knotted,

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Speaker 2: bright orange rope hanging from the balustrade. His evidence that

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Speaker 2: morning was highly technical. He spoke of knots, not memory s,

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Speaker 2: half hitches, residual twists.

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Speaker 3: Okay, so fifteen figures fifteen and sixteen, that's the cut

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Speaker 3: dang ligan of fear item one And if you notice

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Speaker 3: it's spirals up to the up and to the right.

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Speaker 3: It spirals up and to the right, and that's very

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Speaker 3: similar to spiraling on what's called Hassle laid rule. That's

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Speaker 3: zed lay and it suggests that it might have been

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Speaker 3: previously tied with zed half.

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Speaker 2: Hitches complicated right, especially without photos to aid you. The

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Speaker 2: jury was given a specific booklet of photos that included

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Speaker 2: color coded line drawings of these intricate knots and drapes.

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Speaker 2: Here's the conclusion Chesnel wrote in his report after he

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Speaker 2: had analyzed the photos he was given.

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Speaker 4: So sorry you may have misunderstood me. I need you

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Speaker 4: to report to us please as you have from your

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Speaker 4: summary at b.

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Speaker 3: Okay, as observed in the photographs provided, Item three eight

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Speaker 3: zero zero one or figure one was knotted to or

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Speaker 3: draped over the railing of the balustrades. It was two

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Speaker 3: long and too insecure to spend any weight. The insecure

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Speaker 3: tangles collapsed, allowing the unknotted in to slide to the floor.

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Speaker 3: After this slippy, additional slack was still available at both ends. Further,

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Speaker 3: the loop knotted around the advistrads slipped down at some

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Speaker 3: point when the tangles collapsed.

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Speaker 2: Chisnel is based in Ontario, Canada, and use the back

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Speaker 2: deck balustrade at his home for a rope test. Defense

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Speaker 2: lawyer Mansfield took aim at the rope experts credentials.

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Speaker 4: So you don't have an engineering qualification? No, I do not,

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Speaker 4: And I see from your qualifications that you have a

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Speaker 4: BSc is at a batchelor of science.

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Speaker 3: Yes it is.

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Speaker 4: And what was your primary subject and that qualification.

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Speaker 3: Yes, biology with a minor in math.

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Speaker 4: So nothing in relation to ropes or the study of

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Speaker 4: knots or even anything forensic by way of science.

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Speaker 3: That's great.

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Speaker 2: Later on, Chisnell would mention articles published in an array

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Speaker 2: of countries about not and rope analysis. He's also written

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Speaker 2: a book about the subject. Mansfield asked Chisnel why he

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Speaker 2: didn't ask to examine the rope and balustrade, which by

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Speaker 2: that time had been completely removed from the home. He

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Speaker 2: just set up a replica in his backyard. Chisnell wasn't

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Speaker 2: offered the opportunity to examine the actual balustrade. Mansfield also

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Speaker 2: questioned the rope the expert used in his testing. ESR

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Speaker 2: had bought the same rope found in the home at

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Speaker 2: Super Cheap Auto.

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Speaker 3: Could you say that again, please?

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Speaker 4: You can get the same rope on eBay? Were you

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Speaker 4: aware of that?

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Speaker 3: There was not?

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Speaker 4: But I think if you don't have access to that

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Speaker 4: retail out there called super Cheap Auto, you would have

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Speaker 4: access to eBay, wouldn't you?

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Speaker 3: Yes?

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Speaker 4: And despite the balustrade, it's your view, isn't it that

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Speaker 4: the rope would most likely slide down the balustrade? Correct?

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Speaker 4: If pressure was applied in a downward fashion.

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Speaker 3: Coract.

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Speaker 2: The Crown Prosecutor Brian Dicky would later clarify any rope

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Speaker 2: would behave in the way Chisnel had described. Mansfield read

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Speaker 2: out part of Polkinghorn's videoed police interview done the afternoon

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Speaker 2: of his wife's death. In an attempt to demonstrate his

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Speaker 2: client's handling of the rope, he said he undid the

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Speaker 2: granny knots upstairs after getting his wife down and undoing

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Speaker 2: the belt and rope from around her neck. Brian Dickie

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Speaker 2: asked Chisnel if it was possible to determine if the

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Speaker 2: orange rope tied in four half hitch knots to the

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Speaker 2: top of the balustrade appeared to have been loosened. It

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Speaker 2: doesn't appear to have been, Chisnel said, because the half

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Speaker 2: hitches a snug. After Chisnel departed, Sergeant Christian Ioga was

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Speaker 2: called back to the stand. You'll remember he was in

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Speaker 2: charge of the scene examination. By April fifteenth, the scene

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Speaker 2: examination had been complete, and on this day then Auckland

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Speaker 2: Crown Solicitor Brian Dickie and a staffer visited the Upland

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Speaker 2: Road home. Mansfield questioned this, Why would they be there?

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Speaker 2: And was this when the police was contemplating charging him

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Speaker 2: with murder?

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Speaker 4: But certainly the Oakland Crown Solicitor, if he does a

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Speaker 4: tend a homicide scene, wouldn't attend a scene where mithmphetamine

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Speaker 4: for someone's own use was found, would they? If it

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Speaker 4: was just in relation to myth and possession, then it's

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Speaker 4: not common. No, we're talking about another sixteen months, aren't

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Speaker 4: we before Dr Polkinhorn is actually charged with the current

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Speaker 4: charge he faces. That's about right, isn't it.

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Speaker 2: That's what happened. Yes, this goes back to Mansfield's first address,

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Speaker 2: describing a one eyed investigation based on an erroneous suspicion

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Speaker 2: and a desperate need to find everdence of a nature

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Speaker 2: that frankly never existed, he said. He asked Ioga about

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Speaker 2: the guest bedroom where Hannah had slept the night before,

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Speaker 2: while the room looked and disheveled, with an ottoman turned

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Speaker 2: to its side, pillows strewn around the room, He asked

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Speaker 2: whether there was any indication a body had been removed

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Speaker 2: from that room. There were no indications of blood in there,

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Speaker 2: other than the brown smudge on the fitted sheet at

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Speaker 2: the foot of the bed. There were no drag marks

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Speaker 2: on the carpet. Either partial or complete cases had been

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Speaker 2: taken off the pillows. Many found underneath the bedding that

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Speaker 2: was grouped up at the end of the bed.

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Speaker 4: Pillowcases, I should mean this number of pillowcases are unlikely

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Speaker 4: to come off in a struggle or a fight, are

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Speaker 4: they unless it's a pillow fight. That's correct. So someone

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Speaker 4: has actually removed the pillow cases or pillow slips, and

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Speaker 4: it looks like there were some on the bed before

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Speaker 4: the bedding was put back that could have gone back

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Speaker 4: on them. Correct.

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Speaker 2: Correct? So was the room disheveled or was someone just

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Speaker 2: stripping the bedding? Mansfield questioned Ioga about the items found

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Speaker 2: in the laundry. A white top sheet was found damp

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Speaker 2: in the dryer.

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Speaker 4: It appeared though that it was that it had been

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Speaker 4: in the dryer and that the drying cyval had left

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Speaker 4: it still damp. Correct. I can't confirm if it went

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Speaker 4: through a cycle, but it was damp, but it had

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Speaker 4: clearly been in the dryer and the dryer had been used.

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Speaker 2: It was dry than the ones from the washing machine. News.

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Speaker 4: I don't know if you know this. Let's see if

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Speaker 4: you do. Some people don't like clothes and or bedding

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Speaker 4: to be dried, so it's crispy dry because it makes

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Speaker 4: it difficult to be ironed. Is that you or not?

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Speaker 2: I like my petchhoots? Try okay?

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Speaker 4: Do you own them?

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Speaker 2: H Probably why there were women's clothes in the washing machine,

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Speaker 2: a pair of leggings, shoe in soles, tea towels and

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Speaker 2: Nike top and women's underwear. When the trial resumed on

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Speaker 2: day five, some of the last images of Pauline Hannah

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Speaker 2: alive were shown to the cord. It came in the

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Speaker 2: form of security footage from Enviro Ornihunger the tap or

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Speaker 2: dump should visit it. The day before, she was traveling

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Speaker 2: in the couple's red Sanyong yute with items secured on

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Speaker 2: the back with a bright orange rope.

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Speaker 4: So it's clear, isn't it that on four eight pl one,

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Speaker 4: between the hours at two fifteen pm and three h

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Speaker 4: nine PM at Enviro nd Only hanger, we know that

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Speaker 4: missus Polkinhorn was in possession of the orange rope, was

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Speaker 4: secured load on her vehicle with the orong rope, and

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Speaker 4: then she has handled that orong rope then leaving with

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Speaker 4: it the tip.

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Speaker 2: That afternoon, correct ESR forensic scientist Fiona Matheson went to

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Speaker 2: the scene and her role is to make assessments about

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Speaker 2: different scenarios that may have happened, and she's there to

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Speaker 2: take samples. In a trial, it's important for forensic evidence

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Speaker 2: to be very detailed. Much of it is clarifying processes

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Speaker 2: to the jury. How does luminol testing work, what is

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Speaker 2: a false positive, what does it mean when there is

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Speaker 2: a probable or possible chance of blood. It's all very

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Speaker 2: technical but necessary. From the Crown's opening, here's what Alicia

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Speaker 2: McClintock said.

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Speaker 1: Scientists from the Institute of Environmental Science and Research, they'll

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Speaker 1: come along and give the evidence about sing that they

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Speaker 1: carried out in the house, samples they took and things

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Speaker 1: they tested it for, testing for blood and things like

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Speaker 1: that within the house. And look, much of that evidence

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Speaker 1: didn't necessarily reveal anything the Crown relies on, but it

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Speaker 1: is important for you to know what testing was done,

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Speaker 1: and you need to know what wasn't found just as

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Speaker 1: much as you need to know what was found. It's

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Speaker 1: part of the assessment.

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Speaker 2: That ends the first week of the trial of Philip Polkinghorn.

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Speaker 2: The trial continues on Monday, August fifth. You can listen

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Speaker 2: to episodes of Accused the Polkinghorn Trial through the front

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Speaker 2: Page podcast feed or find it on iHeartRadio or wherever

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Speaker 2: you get your podcasts. This series is presented and produced

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Speaker 2: by me Chelsea Daniels, with producer Ethan Sells and sound

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Speaker 2: engineer Paddy fox And. For more coverage of the Polkinghorn

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Speaker 2: trial had two ends at Herald dot co dot Enzy