Speaker 1: Kiyota.
Speaker 2: I'm Chelsea Daniels and from the team behind the front
Speaker 2: page the New Zealand Herald's daily news podcast, This is
Speaker 2: Accused the Polkinghorn Trial. Over the next six weeks, in
Speaker 2: conjunction with our usual daily episodes, will be bringing you
Speaker 2: regular coverage as one of the most high profile trials
Speaker 2: of the year makes its way through the High Court
Speaker 2: at Auckland. A warning, this podcast contains disturbing content. The
Speaker 2: first week of the trial of Philip Polkinghorn has come
Speaker 2: to an end. He's accused of murdering his wife, Pauline
Speaker 2: Hannah on April fifth, twenty twenty one. While we're in
Speaker 2: the early stages of evidence, the topics that will be
Speaker 2: covered in the case have been made clear in fidelity, threesomes,
Speaker 2: sex workers, a financial concerns, depression, stress, and a COVID
Speaker 2: vaccine rollout. All this will be traversed over the next
Speaker 2: six weeks to answer the ultimate question, was it murder
Speaker 2: or suicide? That question was under the microscope on day
Speaker 2: four to recap Polkinghorn is accused of murdering Hannah by
Speaker 2: strangling her either with his hands, forearm or something soft
Speaker 2: and smooth while angry. High or low or strung out
Speaker 2: on meth. The Crown says aspects of his double life
Speaker 2: were getting harder and harder to keep under wraps. Evidence
Speaker 2: suggests Hannah had discovered his drug habit and had told
Speaker 2: her friends and family she was worried about how he
Speaker 2: was spending their money, as well as his sexual demands
Speaker 2: of her. The Crown says she was considering leaving him,
Speaker 2: but admitted she still loved her husband despite his behavior.
Speaker 2: This behavior of the Crown of Led includes aggression, emotional control,
Speaker 2: and a prior incident in which her husband wrapped his
Speaker 2: hands around her neck. It's alleged he staged the scene,
Speaker 2: making it look like she'd hung herself with a rope
Speaker 2: too long with not enough tension, as we heard about
Speaker 2: on day three. On the other hand, Polkinghorn's defense maintains
Speaker 2: she took her own life, having been overstressed working seven
Speaker 2: am till ten pm, seven days a week in her
Speaker 2: role overseeing the COVID vaccination rollout with County's Monaco digheb.
Speaker 2: She was taking antidepressants, and it's claimed the combination of
Speaker 2: drugs and alcohol left her prone to taking her life.
Speaker 2: To explore further, if it was possible or not for
Speaker 2: Hannah to have committed suicide. Day four of evidence began
Speaker 2: with a Canadian forensic rope and not an analyst who
Speaker 2: appeared via audio visual link, his face dotted around the
Speaker 2: room thanks to five large TVs in the courtroom. Robert
Speaker 2: Chisnell was contacted by ESR scientist Fiona Matheson about a
Speaker 2: week after Pauline Hannah's body was found. He was sent
Speaker 2: and asked to look at seventy six photographs of the knotted,
Speaker 2: bright orange rope hanging from the balustrade. His evidence that
Speaker 2: morning was highly technical. He spoke of knots, not memory s,
Speaker 2: half hitches, residual twists.
Speaker 3: Okay, so fifteen figures fifteen and sixteen, that's the cut
Speaker 3: dang ligan of fear item one And if you notice
Speaker 3: it's spirals up to the up and to the right.
Speaker 3: It spirals up and to the right, and that's very
Speaker 3: similar to spiraling on what's called Hassle laid rule. That's
Speaker 3: zed lay and it suggests that it might have been
Speaker 3: previously tied with zed half.
Speaker 2: Hitches complicated right, especially without photos to aid you. The
Speaker 2: jury was given a specific booklet of photos that included
Speaker 2: color coded line drawings of these intricate knots and drapes.
Speaker 2: Here's the conclusion Chesnel wrote in his report after he
Speaker 2: had analyzed the photos he was given.
Speaker 4: So sorry you may have misunderstood me. I need you
Speaker 4: to report to us please as you have from your
Speaker 4: summary at b.
Speaker 3: Okay, as observed in the photographs provided, Item three eight
Speaker 3: zero zero one or figure one was knotted to or
Speaker 3: draped over the railing of the balustrades. It was two
Speaker 3: long and too insecure to spend any weight. The insecure
Speaker 3: tangles collapsed, allowing the unknotted in to slide to the floor.
Speaker 3: After this slippy, additional slack was still available at both ends. Further,
Speaker 3: the loop knotted around the advistrads slipped down at some
Speaker 3: point when the tangles collapsed.
Speaker 2: Chisnel is based in Ontario, Canada, and use the back
Speaker 2: deck balustrade at his home for a rope test. Defense
Speaker 2: lawyer Mansfield took aim at the rope experts credentials.
Speaker 4: So you don't have an engineering qualification? No, I do not,
Speaker 4: And I see from your qualifications that you have a
Speaker 4: BSc is at a batchelor of science.
Speaker 3: Yes it is.
Speaker 4: And what was your primary subject and that qualification.
Speaker 3: Yes, biology with a minor in math.
Speaker 4: So nothing in relation to ropes or the study of
Speaker 4: knots or even anything forensic by way of science.
Speaker 3: That's great.
Speaker 2: Later on, Chisnell would mention articles published in an array
Speaker 2: of countries about not and rope analysis. He's also written
Speaker 2: a book about the subject. Mansfield asked Chisnel why he
Speaker 2: didn't ask to examine the rope and balustrade, which by
Speaker 2: that time had been completely removed from the home. He
Speaker 2: just set up a replica in his backyard. Chisnell wasn't
Speaker 2: offered the opportunity to examine the actual balustrade. Mansfield also
Speaker 2: questioned the rope the expert used in his testing. ESR
Speaker 2: had bought the same rope found in the home at
Speaker 2: Super Cheap Auto.
Speaker 3: Could you say that again, please?
Speaker 4: You can get the same rope on eBay? Were you
Speaker 4: aware of that?
Speaker 3: There was not?
Speaker 4: But I think if you don't have access to that
Speaker 4: retail out there called super Cheap Auto, you would have
Speaker 4: access to eBay, wouldn't you?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 4: And despite the balustrade, it's your view, isn't it that
Speaker 4: the rope would most likely slide down the balustrade? Correct?
Speaker 4: If pressure was applied in a downward fashion.
Speaker 3: Coract.
Speaker 2: The Crown Prosecutor Brian Dicky would later clarify any rope
Speaker 2: would behave in the way Chisnel had described. Mansfield read
Speaker 2: out part of Polkinghorn's videoed police interview done the afternoon
Speaker 2: of his wife's death. In an attempt to demonstrate his
Speaker 2: client's handling of the rope, he said he undid the
Speaker 2: granny knots upstairs after getting his wife down and undoing
Speaker 2: the belt and rope from around her neck. Brian Dickie
Speaker 2: asked Chisnel if it was possible to determine if the
Speaker 2: orange rope tied in four half hitch knots to the
Speaker 2: top of the balustrade appeared to have been loosened. It
Speaker 2: doesn't appear to have been, Chisnel said, because the half
Speaker 2: hitches a snug. After Chisnel departed, Sergeant Christian Ioga was
Speaker 2: called back to the stand. You'll remember he was in
Speaker 2: charge of the scene examination. By April fifteenth, the scene
Speaker 2: examination had been complete, and on this day then Auckland
Speaker 2: Crown Solicitor Brian Dickie and a staffer visited the Upland
Speaker 2: Road home. Mansfield questioned this, Why would they be there?
Speaker 2: And was this when the police was contemplating charging him
Speaker 2: with murder?
Speaker 4: But certainly the Oakland Crown Solicitor, if he does a
Speaker 4: tend a homicide scene, wouldn't attend a scene where mithmphetamine
Speaker 4: for someone's own use was found, would they? If it
Speaker 4: was just in relation to myth and possession, then it's
Speaker 4: not common. No, we're talking about another sixteen months, aren't
Speaker 4: we before Dr Polkinhorn is actually charged with the current
Speaker 4: charge he faces. That's about right, isn't it.
Speaker 2: That's what happened. Yes, this goes back to Mansfield's first address,
Speaker 2: describing a one eyed investigation based on an erroneous suspicion
Speaker 2: and a desperate need to find everdence of a nature
Speaker 2: that frankly never existed, he said. He asked Ioga about
Speaker 2: the guest bedroom where Hannah had slept the night before,
Speaker 2: while the room looked and disheveled, with an ottoman turned
Speaker 2: to its side, pillows strewn around the room, He asked
Speaker 2: whether there was any indication a body had been removed
Speaker 2: from that room. There were no indications of blood in there,
Speaker 2: other than the brown smudge on the fitted sheet at
Speaker 2: the foot of the bed. There were no drag marks
Speaker 2: on the carpet. Either partial or complete cases had been
Speaker 2: taken off the pillows. Many found underneath the bedding that
Speaker 2: was grouped up at the end of the bed.
Speaker 4: Pillowcases, I should mean this number of pillowcases are unlikely
Speaker 4: to come off in a struggle or a fight, are
Speaker 4: they unless it's a pillow fight. That's correct. So someone
Speaker 4: has actually removed the pillow cases or pillow slips, and
Speaker 4: it looks like there were some on the bed before
Speaker 4: the bedding was put back that could have gone back
Speaker 4: on them. Correct.
Speaker 2: Correct? So was the room disheveled or was someone just
Speaker 2: stripping the bedding? Mansfield questioned Ioga about the items found
Speaker 2: in the laundry. A white top sheet was found damp
Speaker 2: in the dryer.
Speaker 4: It appeared though that it was that it had been
Speaker 4: in the dryer and that the drying cyval had left
Speaker 4: it still damp. Correct. I can't confirm if it went
Speaker 4: through a cycle, but it was damp, but it had
Speaker 4: clearly been in the dryer and the dryer had been used.
Speaker 2: It was dry than the ones from the washing machine. News.
Speaker 4: I don't know if you know this. Let's see if
Speaker 4: you do. Some people don't like clothes and or bedding
Speaker 4: to be dried, so it's crispy dry because it makes
Speaker 4: it difficult to be ironed. Is that you or not?
Speaker 2: I like my petchhoots? Try okay?
Speaker 4: Do you own them?
Speaker 2: H Probably why there were women's clothes in the washing machine,
Speaker 2: a pair of leggings, shoe in soles, tea towels and
Speaker 2: Nike top and women's underwear. When the trial resumed on
Speaker 2: day five, some of the last images of Pauline Hannah
Speaker 2: alive were shown to the cord. It came in the
Speaker 2: form of security footage from Enviro Ornihunger the tap or
Speaker 2: dump should visit it. The day before, she was traveling
Speaker 2: in the couple's red Sanyong yute with items secured on
Speaker 2: the back with a bright orange rope.
Speaker 4: So it's clear, isn't it that on four eight pl one,
Speaker 4: between the hours at two fifteen pm and three h
Speaker 4: nine PM at Enviro nd Only hanger, we know that
Speaker 4: missus Polkinhorn was in possession of the orange rope, was
Speaker 4: secured load on her vehicle with the orong rope, and
Speaker 4: then she has handled that orong rope then leaving with
Speaker 4: it the tip.
Speaker 2: That afternoon, correct ESR forensic scientist Fiona Matheson went to
Speaker 2: the scene and her role is to make assessments about
Speaker 2: different scenarios that may have happened, and she's there to
Speaker 2: take samples. In a trial, it's important for forensic evidence
Speaker 2: to be very detailed. Much of it is clarifying processes
Speaker 2: to the jury. How does luminol testing work, what is
Speaker 2: a false positive, what does it mean when there is
Speaker 2: a probable or possible chance of blood. It's all very
Speaker 2: technical but necessary. From the Crown's opening, here's what Alicia
Speaker 2: McClintock said.
Speaker 1: Scientists from the Institute of Environmental Science and Research, they'll
Speaker 1: come along and give the evidence about sing that they
Speaker 1: carried out in the house, samples they took and things
Speaker 1: they tested it for, testing for blood and things like
Speaker 1: that within the house. And look, much of that evidence
Speaker 1: didn't necessarily reveal anything the Crown relies on, but it
Speaker 1: is important for you to know what testing was done,
Speaker 1: and you need to know what wasn't found just as
Speaker 1: much as you need to know what was found. It's
Speaker 1: part of the assessment.
Speaker 2: That ends the first week of the trial of Philip Polkinghorn.
Speaker 2: The trial continues on Monday, August fifth. You can listen
Speaker 2: to episodes of Accused the Polkinghorn Trial through the front
Speaker 2: Page podcast feed or find it on iHeartRadio or wherever
Speaker 2: you get your podcasts. This series is presented and produced
Speaker 2: by me Chelsea Daniels, with producer Ethan Sells and sound
Speaker 2: engineer Paddy fox And. For more coverage of the Polkinghorn
Speaker 2: trial had two ends at Herald dot co dot Enzy