Speaker 1: Kiota. I'm Chelsea Daniels and from the team behind the
Speaker 1: front page. The New Zealand Herald's daily news podcast, This
Speaker 1: is Accused the Polkinghorn Trial. Over a series of weeks,
Speaker 1: in conjunction with our usual daily episodes, will be bringing
Speaker 1: you regular coverage as one of the most high profile
Speaker 1: trials of the year makes its way through the High
Speaker 1: Court at auckland A warning, this podcast contains disturbing content.
Speaker 1: After nearly five weeks of witnesses, the Crown has closed
Speaker 1: its case in the trial of Philip Polkinghorn. The former
Speaker 1: auckland Ie surgeon, is accused of murdering his wife, Pauline Hannah,
Speaker 1: who was found dead on April fifth, twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1: He maintains she took her own life. The Crown closed
Speaker 1: its case with more on Polkinghorn's arrest, police searches, and
Speaker 1: a last minute witness on cell phones. The rest of
Speaker 1: the trial is now in the hands of the defense,
Speaker 1: and for their first witness, they called up Pauline Hannah's
Speaker 1: own sister. Day twenty two started with former detective John
Speaker 1: Cleveland Kennedy. He was with police in August twenty twenty two,
Speaker 1: but since retired. Philip Polkinghorn's arrest happened at seven point
Speaker 1: fifty five am on August sixteenth, twenty twenty two. It
Speaker 1: was by appointment at the police station in the presence
Speaker 1: of his lawyer. Detective John Cleveland Kennedy arrested Polkinghorn and
Speaker 1: charged him with the murder of his wife and possession
Speaker 1: of meth and a meth pipe. He cautioned Polkinghorn and
Speaker 1: read his riots. Polkinghorn made no comment, Kennedy says. The
Speaker 1: Crown then called detectives. Being your Sergeant Chris Allen, he's
Speaker 1: one of the officers in charge of the investigation. He
Speaker 1: entered the court carrying a box. After clarifying the investigation
Speaker 1: name Operation Cayenne was generated by a computer, Crown Solicitor
Speaker 1: Alsia McClintock asked Sergeant Allen to go through a series
Speaker 1: of photographs from evidence. Copies of the photos were handed
Speaker 1: to the jury. McClintock asks Allan if he's seen the
Speaker 1: CCTV footage from Auckland I already discussed as evidence during
Speaker 1: the trial. He confirmed he had seen the videos. The
Speaker 1: footage was filmed in October twenty twenty, the weekend before
Speaker 1: a meth pipe was found in the medical practice. The
Speaker 1: selection of clips played to the court shows Polkinghorn walking
Speaker 1: down a corridor to the laser room where the meth
Speaker 1: pipe was found. So to take a senior sergeant, whereabouts
Speaker 1: do you take the figure? As it's a very long
Speaker 1: way away?
Speaker 2: Let me seek for the jury hard to see and
Speaker 2: where do you see the figure? In this excerpt stwet Sorry,
Speaker 2: where does he move?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 2: Whereabouts? The movement is as you see a light wash
Speaker 2: at the top of the sphere at the corridor, and
Speaker 2: it's I suppose the figure object is emerging in and
Speaker 2: around that sort of area left to right or right
Speaker 2: to left.
Speaker 1: McClintock moves her. Questioning to the price of math.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's arrange nationally between. It can range from a
Speaker 2: couple of one hundred dollars up to one thousand dollars
Speaker 2: program depending on a number of factors Auckland, because there
Speaker 2: is a lot more probably supply basic economics. It's a
Speaker 2: little bit cheaper. At that point in time, the intelligence
Speaker 2: was suggesting it was about three hundred and fifty dollars
Speaker 2: a gram. If you buy a number of grams, is
Speaker 2: it potential to get it at a bit of price. Yeah,
Speaker 2: this again a little bit of a wholesale expect if
Speaker 2: you buy in bulk.
Speaker 1: Allan has then questioned about travel documents police sourced from
Speaker 1: Customs regarding Polkinghorn. Customs records show he departed from Auckland
Speaker 1: on December twenty third, twenty nineteen, at eight am, traveling
Speaker 1: to Sydney. You'll remember from earlier on in the trial,
Speaker 1: Polkinghorn had gone missing around this time, not showing up
Speaker 1: to a family Christmas at their Rings Beach batch in
Speaker 1: the Corimandel, Hannah had to lie to friends and family
Speaker 1: about his absence. According to the customs records, he returned
Speaker 1: from Sydney on December twenty seventh, twenty nineteen. Earlier in
Speaker 1: the trial, evidence from a letter from Polkinghorn to Hannah
Speaker 1: in late twenty nineteen claimed he was attending to enroll
Speaker 1: in a retreat in Auckland called Moving On and Up.
Speaker 1: Defense lawyer Ron Mansfield started his cross examination of Allen
Speaker 1: by showing a series of videos from CCTV footage. Rather
Speaker 1: than videos from the night like the ones the Crown played,
Speaker 1: these videos would show the same scene inside the clinic
Speaker 1: from the morning. The clips show people including cleaners and
Speaker 1: a patient with a support person arriving and leaving Auckland.
Speaker 2: I do you see that?
Speaker 3: Now on the end there appears to be one off
Speaker 3: the mow that go down the corridor off to one
Speaker 3: side and then joining the other as they come and
Speaker 3: walk out.
Speaker 2: Did you see that they emerge from that lightwashed sort
Speaker 2: of area at the end, came to emerge from different sides.
Speaker 3: Did you see that?
Speaker 2: But I'm not sure if I.
Speaker 1: Could tell that. Mansfield is challenging the Crown's argument that
Speaker 1: Polkinghorn left the pipe in his clinic after visiting with
Speaker 1: friends over the weekend. Mansfield's questions move on to the
Speaker 1: discovery of panic buttons in the polking Horn's Remuera home.
Speaker 1: They were found by Sharon Jenkins, a staff member from Auckland.
Speaker 1: I Allan says his memory was hazy whether he interviewed her.
Speaker 3: Can you remember her evidence about that or not her evidence,
Speaker 3: but his statement to the police about that, if I
Speaker 3: refresh your memory. She confirmed that she had been and
Speaker 3: stayed at the address to look after the cats, the
Speaker 3: pits of and missus Polkinghorn. Can you remember that?
Speaker 2: And by themous?
Speaker 1: In a statement, Sharon Jenkins said she stayed at the
Speaker 1: polking Horn home and looked after their cats. Police had
Speaker 1: not discovered the panic buttons during their search of the home.
Speaker 3: There we see a photograph of the upstairs spare bedroom
Speaker 3: or the bedroom where it was believed that missus Polkinghorn
Speaker 3: had been that night.
Speaker 2: Correct.
Speaker 3: Yes, see the giraffe on the little side table soft toys.
Speaker 2: Yeh.
Speaker 3: See underneath that we see another white panel with a
Speaker 3: red circle or buzzon. Yes. Are you having to help
Speaker 3: me as to whether, in fact they are the two
Speaker 3: panic buttons in the house at night in the bedroom.
Speaker 2: I would have thought there'd be a Christian bes directed
Speaker 2: at the OC scene.
Speaker 3: He made no note of that, so we'll come back
Speaker 3: to that, thank you.
Speaker 1: Mansfield questioned the taking of a hair sample from Hannah
Speaker 1: during her autopsy, referring to evidence heard earlier about the
Speaker 1: testing of that sample in Australia. Mansfield asked Alan questions
Speaker 1: about rope samples, and Alan confirmed the rope was initially
Speaker 1: only sampled for DNA. It took a year for ESR
Speaker 1: to test the rope for both male and female DNA, so.
Speaker 3: It was it identify that it could be problematic that
Speaker 3: the instruction to ESR was the only test for male
Speaker 3: DNA rather than use the I called it general, but
Speaker 3: I think the actual precise word is standard DNA testing,
Speaker 3: which would identify both male and female.
Speaker 2: Sorry, I'm not sure there was a specific construction to
Speaker 2: ESR to only test for male DNA.
Speaker 1: Mansfield refers to ESR scientist Fiona Matheson, who worked on
Speaker 1: the examination of the Polkinghorn home. Matheson was called to
Speaker 1: the Remuer home on April fifth, and again for a
Speaker 1: briefing on April six, the day after Hannah was reported dead.
Speaker 1: Alan rejected the defense's theory that homicide was predetermined, stating
Speaker 1: the homicide focus referred more to the method of evidence collection.
Speaker 1: The Crown called their final witness before the defense started
Speaker 1: presenting its case. June Lee is a digital forend analyst
Speaker 1: with the police. He isn't a sworn officer, but is
Speaker 1: qualified in computer and mobile phone forensics. Lee was a
Speaker 1: last minute witness. Dickie asked him overnight to comment on
Speaker 1: certain logs presented at court the previous day. You'll remember
Speaker 1: from Day twenty one that during cross examination of Detective
Speaker 1: Andrew Reeves, who was responsible for examining mobile phones, Mansfield
Speaker 1: asked about two bits of phone activity he alleged showed
Speaker 1: Hannah had drafted two messages at about four am the
Speaker 1: morning of her death. Dickie refers to Hannah's iPhone eight
Speaker 1: plus and whether it's log entries suggest user activity. Lee
Speaker 1: stated they are sourced from the Identity look up service. However,
Speaker 1: the date or time log entries aren't immediately clear. Lee
Speaker 1: says the logs show background services that don't relate to
Speaker 1: a user interacting with the device. This doesn't mean anyone
Speaker 1: is actually using the phone. Lee further stated the phone
Speaker 1: wasn't used again after it was plugged in at ten
Speaker 1: forty seven on April fourth. Mansfield's cross examination focused on
Speaker 1: whether the phone would pick up on the user drafting messages.
Speaker 1: Dicky objected to his line of questioning, stating he was
Speaker 1: asking the same question over and over. Mansfield asked if
Speaker 1: there was always a record of the phone turning on
Speaker 1: and the screen coming on. Lee confirmed this was the case.
Speaker 1: Mansfield further probed if the log would create an entry
Speaker 1: if a person goes into messages and selects a number. Again,
Speaker 1: Lee confirmed this was the case. Lee was the final
Speaker 1: Crown witness. The Crown has now closed its case or
Speaker 1: their argument about what happened on April fifth, twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1: The defense will now be able to argue its version
Speaker 1: of events, specifically why why Pauline Hannah may have took
Speaker 1: her own life while the crown case is over. Notably,
Speaker 1: there is one major absence from the roster of sixty
Speaker 1: two potential Crown witnesses read aloud at the start of
Speaker 1: the trial. Sydney based escort Madison Ashton, the seventy one
Speaker 1: year old surgeon, is accused of having formed a double
Speaker 1: life prior to wife Pauline Hannah's death. The wider jury
Speaker 1: poul has commonly read aloud a list of potential witnesses
Speaker 1: at the start of a trial, so that anybody who
Speaker 1: has a conflict of interest can be dismissed before the
Speaker 1: final group of twelve is selected. No reason has been
Speaker 1: given as to why she's not been called for Coverage
Speaker 1: of other news events in New Zealand, including the legacy
Speaker 1: of Prime Minister Norman Kirk and what's causing the country's
Speaker 1: energy crisis. Listen to the front page The Herald's daily
Speaker 1: news podcast wherever you get your podcasts. After the court
Speaker 1: took the day off on Thursday, day twenty three started
Speaker 1: on Friday. No explicit reason was given for why the
Speaker 1: court didn't sit. Then Philip Polkinghorn walked into court flanked
Speaker 1: by three of his sons, the first appearance from two
Speaker 1: of them. In a packed court room with the public
Speaker 1: gallery largely full, defense lawyer Ron Mansfield began his opening address.
Speaker 3: You don't need a motif if a crime hasn't been committed,
Speaker 3: and you don't need a motif if there has been
Speaker 3: no murder. This trial is really as focused as that.
Speaker 3: Your issue for you to determine is whether there has
Speaker 3: been a culpable homicide, and that's really murder one oh one.
Speaker 1: During the course of the trial, Mansfield says, we've spent
Speaker 1: a lot of time looking at evidence that does not
Speaker 1: focus on that fundamental issue, but instead looked at potential
Speaker 1: motives for a crime that has not actually been established.
Speaker 3: He said, And you might have thought that when the
Speaker 3: police conducted the search and they found evidence of methamphetamine use,
Speaker 3: and when they made further inquiries and found evidence of
Speaker 3: sexual relationships outside of the marriage of mister and Missus Pulkinghorn,
Speaker 3: that they became intoxicated by the thought of establishing a
Speaker 3: murder even though when they stood back, as they should
Speaker 3: have objectively, there was no evidence at all of a
Speaker 3: culpable homicide. And the more and more time they invested
Speaker 3: in the scene at one two one Upland Road, and
Speaker 3: the more and more money they spent over that sixteen
Speaker 3: months we're told of investigation, the focus became not of
Speaker 3: learning of what actually happened, but instead seeking to prove
Speaker 3: a crime that hadn't happened.
Speaker 1: Mansfield urges the jury to give some thought to what
Speaker 1: they know of Polkinghorn when they hear he is accused
Speaker 1: of killing his wife, rather than be intoxicated as the
Speaker 1: police were with the evidence of drug use and other relationships.
Speaker 1: Mansfield said that police jumped to a conclusion that Hannah's
Speaker 1: death was suspicious because of the rope check at the scene.
Speaker 1: This was discussed early on during the Crown's testimony.
Speaker 3: Now the police are believing they are investigating a homicide,
Speaker 3: or at least the potential for one, and everything now
Speaker 3: moves in that direction without stopping and without thinking.
Speaker 4: The pathologist arrives on request, the photographers arrive on request.
Speaker 3: We even get two ESR staff.
Speaker 4: Coming to the premises and being therefore an extended period
Speaker 4: or because it's now being investigated as a potential homicide.
Speaker 3: And it doesn't stop. It's like a junket that just
Speaker 3: gets bigger and bigger, and the more time and the
Speaker 3: more money spent on it, the more there was a need,
Speaker 3: you might think to get a result.
Speaker 1: Mansfield said there's no evidence in the house of a
Speaker 1: fatal assault or a struggle, no blood, bodily fluids or damage,
Speaker 1: no signs that Hannah's body had been assaulted or was moved.
Speaker 1: He said that the two pathologists for the Crown concluded
Speaker 1: that Hannah died by way of neck compression. The argument
Speaker 1: is that Hannah took her own life.
Speaker 3: However, it's the crown case that it's possible to die
Speaker 3: by net compression and leave no evidence of that. I suppose, folks,
Speaker 3: that's the perfect murder. No evidence that the scene, no
Speaker 3: evidence on the body. There would have to be the
Speaker 3: perfect murder, or if it was real, can I suggest
Speaker 3: it's not it's a phantom.
Speaker 1: Mansfield said that the defense case won't focus on Polkinghorn's
Speaker 1: meth use all the relationships the couple had outside of
Speaker 1: their own. Instead, they will call a number of witnesses
Speaker 1: to break down the myths of suicide. Two overseas pathologists
Speaker 1: will weigh in on how Hannah died. An electrical expert
Speaker 1: will testify on when appliances were turned on in the
Speaker 1: couple's Upland Road home. An engineer would give evidence relating
Speaker 1: to how the mechanism described by Polkinghorn could result in
Speaker 1: death by hanging by applying sufficient pressure. Psychologist and psychiatrist
Speaker 1: would give evidence for the defense on suicide factors. Mansfield
Speaker 1: said they then call a suicide expert from the mental
Speaker 1: health sector to put to bed what he says are
Speaker 1: the myths the Crown rely on regarding who commits suicide.
Speaker 3: And if at the end of the day you remain
Speaker 3: concerned about the drug use, or you remain concerned about
Speaker 3: the relationships outside of their marriage, then you might think
Speaker 3: that might just have added further to the burden that
Speaker 3: Pauline was living with at the time, rather than provide
Speaker 3: some motive as a suited by the Crown for a
Speaker 3: murder that never took place.
Speaker 1: Field confirmed that Polkinghorn will not be taking the stand
Speaker 1: as a witness. He said that Polkinghorn has already said
Speaker 1: all he had to. On the afternoon of April fifth,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, when he sat down with police for
Speaker 1: that lengthy interview you heard earlier in the trial. You
Speaker 1: could not get a better glimpse than the interview into
Speaker 1: what he saw and experienced that morning, Mansfield said, and
Speaker 1: that Polkinghorn was more open and honest in that chat.
Speaker 1: Any testimony now would be more of a rehearsed version
Speaker 1: of events. Then Mansfield called his first witness, Pauline Hannah's sister, Tracy.
Speaker 1: Tracy is eleven years younger than Pauline. She's lived in
Speaker 1: the UK full time since nineteen ninety two and is
Speaker 1: still based there with her husband and children. She, alongside
Speaker 1: other defense witnesses, today, declined to be filmed or recorded,
Speaker 1: but we can still report their words. She told the
Speaker 1: court that the Hannahs were brought up near Havelock North
Speaker 1: in the Hawk's Bay, on a small farm. Pauline first
Speaker 1: left home when Tracy was about six. She went to
Speaker 1: Victoria University initially, then she withdrew from university and went
Speaker 1: to a secretarial course in Wellington before moving home. When
Speaker 1: Tracy was about eleven, Pauline went traveling overseas. Tracy recalls
Speaker 1: her sister being a kind of motherly figure, if a
Speaker 1: bit controlling, but she speaks highly of her late sister.
Speaker 1: She was an inspiration to me, says Tracy. Tracy says
Speaker 1: that when she left the Hawk's Bay to move to Auckland,
Speaker 1: Pauline was there too. She helped me get my flat.
Speaker 1: Pauline and Tracy were in Auckland at the same time
Speaker 1: for two years before Tracy moved home to the Hawk's
Speaker 1: Bay to care for their sick farm when he died.
Speaker 1: Tracy eventually moved to Australia then the UK, and that's
Speaker 1: where she stayed. Did you remain in contact with Pauline,
Speaker 1: asks Mansfield. Yes, Tracy replied. After Pauline met Philip in
Speaker 1: the mid nineteen nineties. They would frequently visit the UK.
Speaker 1: They'd see each other every other year or two, and
Speaker 1: there were phone calls on Christmas in Easter. We weren't
Speaker 1: in daily contact, but we were a fairly close family
Speaker 1: at that time, Tracy said. Mansfield asks about an incident
Speaker 1: in the family. There was an argument between Pauline and
Speaker 1: their mother Fay in the kitchen around nineteen ninety two.
Speaker 1: This isn't the wake of the death of their father.
Speaker 1: It escalated Pauline was having an emotional crisis. She was
Speaker 1: shouting and crying, and her mother, unusually was also crying.
Speaker 1: Tracy says she went into the kitchen and intervened, asking
Speaker 1: why she was upsetting their mother. Then she turned her
Speaker 1: anger onto me, and I can't remember. There was toing
Speaker 1: and frowing, and all of a sudden, she said that
Speaker 1: she'd tried to kill herself. She flashed her arms up
Speaker 1: at us, as if to say she'd tried to harm herself,
Speaker 1: says Tracy. Did she say she'd try to harm herself
Speaker 1: in that way? Asks Mansfield. No, says Tracy. She just
Speaker 1: signaled it. Tracy said, the world stopped, and she can't
Speaker 1: remember what she said. Next, she said she should have
Speaker 1: followed up, but she was only twenty one and suicide
Speaker 1: wasn't something spoken of in New Zealand at the time.
Speaker 1: Did you ever follow up, asks Mansfield. I didn't, and
Speaker 1: I deeply regret it, says Tracy. It was never mentioned again.
Speaker 1: Tracy details the falling out she had with her siblings
Speaker 1: in recent years. It stems from the transfer of ownership
Speaker 1: of the family farm, long Lands to Bruce, Pauline and
Speaker 1: Tracy brother who testified for the Crown earlier in the trial.
Speaker 1: Their mother, Fay, wanted to stay on the property and
Speaker 1: did for many years until her descent into dementia became
Speaker 1: too difficult to handle. Bruce proposed a retirement home, which
Speaker 1: Tracy disagreed with. Pauline did too initially, but eventually sided
Speaker 1: with Bruce. When Faye did move into care, Pauline called
Speaker 1: Tracy the day after to say her and Bruce had
Speaker 1: had a big argument. When Tracy last saw Pauline in
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, at Ring's Beach in the Corimandel, where the
Speaker 1: Polkinghorns had a batch, she said she was not coping
Speaker 1: at all with mum's dementia development. Pauline worried how frequently
Speaker 1: she would be able to visit her mother. Tracy recalled
Speaker 1: meeting Polkinghorn for the first time in the nineteen nineties
Speaker 1: at a restaurant in Soho before he married Hannah. Polkinghorn
Speaker 1: was charming, generous, friendly and great company. I was really
Speaker 1: happy for my sister, Tracy said. She served as a
Speaker 1: bridesmaid for their wedding. Asked how the couple seemed when
Speaker 1: they did meet, Tracy said, very typical couple behavior. Happy
Speaker 1: couple behavior. Tracy and her husband would holiday with Pauline
Speaker 1: and Philip. They took holidays together, including a canal holiday
Speaker 1: in Wales and one in the Greek island of Santorini.
Speaker 1: Pauline did a reading at Tracy's London wedding in two
Speaker 1: thousand and five. Tracy would come to New Zealand too.
Speaker 1: It always just seemed like a normal husband and wife
Speaker 1: relationship to me, she said. Under questioning from Mansfield, Tracy
Speaker 1: said repeatedly that she did not see any signs of
Speaker 1: anything unusual between Pauline and Philip on the times she
Speaker 1: stayed with them. She did learn from her brother Bruce
Speaker 1: in April twenty nineteen about Philip having an affair with
Speaker 1: a woman in Australia. Tracy had testified that she never
Speaker 1: discussed this with Pauline. Tracy said that she was concerned
Speaker 1: by an email Pauline sent in May twenty twenty, which
Speaker 1: we've heard about earlier in the trial, where Pauline had
Speaker 1: said she hadn't had a day off in eight weeks.
Speaker 1: In the midst of the COVID response. Like other witnesses,
Speaker 1: Tracy testified that Pauline was a hard worker and she
Speaker 1: took Pride in her appearance. She wasn't sure how much
Speaker 1: Pauline drank, though thinks Philip drank less than her. Tracy
Speaker 1: was aware that Pauline took antidepressants. The Crowns Brian Dickie
Speaker 1: then started his cross examination. He pushed Tracy to be
Speaker 1: more specific on timings of when the alleged suicide attempt happened.
Speaker 1: She couldn't provide details other than it took place between
Speaker 1: May nineteen ninety and February nineteen ninety two. Tracy asked
Speaker 1: Dickie if he was accusing her of lying and that
Speaker 1: she took offense to that. Well, take all the offense
Speaker 1: you like, but just try and answer the questions, he said.
Speaker 1: Tracy said that she did not have any details on
Speaker 1: the specifics of Pauline's alleged attempt, saying her sister was
Speaker 1: having an emotional meltdown and she wasn't going to sit
Speaker 1: there questioning her. She said she didn't remember it until
Speaker 1: after she was told police had died in May twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one, but before she made her statement to police.
Speaker 1: Tracy admitted that she was critical of the police investigation
Speaker 1: and the focus on Philip. Asked by Dickie if she
Speaker 1: had already taken a point of view about what happened.
Speaker 1: Tracy said, so had the police. Dickie read a text
Speaker 1: exchange between Philip and Tracy after Pauline's death. I'm so
Speaker 1: toxic about the enz police, Polkinghorn wrote, saying he wasn't
Speaker 1: sure he could treat another police officer as a patient.
Speaker 1: They've treated you appallingly whatever happened to innoc until proven guilty,
Speaker 1: Tracy replied. In a further question by Mansfield, Tracy said
Speaker 1: that she had not been contacted by Pauline. Around Christmas
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen to say she had contacted a mental health
Speaker 1: crisis team. The next defense witness was Polkinghorn's first wife
Speaker 1: and the mother of his three sons, who has been
Speaker 1: granted interim name suppression. She and Polkinghorn were at the
Speaker 1: University of Otago in the nineteen seventies, but didn't meet
Speaker 1: until a mutual friend later invited them to a party,
Speaker 1: telling her Polkinghorn wanted to meet her. They started dating
Speaker 1: and later married. They spent some time in Nelson, where
Speaker 1: he was a house surgeon, traveled abroad, moved to Dunedin
Speaker 1: for four years for training, then went to London for
Speaker 1: Polkinghorn's postgraduate training at an eye hospital. They separated in
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety one. She said that their marriage broke up
Speaker 1: due to Philip having an affair. She said that Polkinghorn
Speaker 1: has never threatened or used violence during the marriage. The
Speaker 1: last two witnesses of the day were neighbors from Rings Beach, Corrimandel.
Speaker 1: Earlier in the trial, witnesses for the Crown testified of
Speaker 1: Polkinghorn's demeanor changing over the years. In twenty nineteen, Polkinghorn
Speaker 1: didn't come down for Christmas, which was noticed by his neighbors.
Speaker 1: As we've heard several times in this trial. Anglican priest
Speaker 1: Gillian Reid was called first. She'd known the couple for
Speaker 1: more than thirty years. Her batch was only about five
Speaker 1: hundred meters from the polking Horns. They'd see each other
Speaker 1: two or three times a year. Reid saw more of
Speaker 1: them when she moved to the community permanently ten years ago.
Speaker 1: Hannah would sometimes make an effort to see her, Reid said.
Speaker 1: She said that Hannah felt she wasn't achieving the standards
Speaker 1: she set for herself, and testified that in January twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one, Hannah seemed to have lost some weight, Reid said.
Speaker 1: Hannah expressed that she was struggling. Under cross examination by
Speaker 1: Brian Dickie. Reid said that's the only time Hannah ever
Speaker 1: spoke of her concerns. The final witness of the week
Speaker 1: was mechanic David Martin Daniels. His wife and her sisters
Speaker 1: also had a rings beach batch. He said they got
Speaker 1: to know the polking Horns, would see them four, five,
Speaker 1: six times a year. He counted himself amongst Polkinghorn's fishing buddies.
Speaker 1: Daniels said he never saw polking Horn under the influence
Speaker 1: of drug or lose his temper. He said he didn't
Speaker 1: think Polkinghorn's absence in Christmas twenty nineteen was notable, Just
Speaker 1: as Graham Lang briefly addressed the jury and said that
Speaker 1: it seemed likely that the trial would enter a seventh
Speaker 1: week the week of September ninth. The trial continues on Monday.
Speaker 1: You can listen to episodes of Accused the Polkinghorn Trial
Speaker 1: through the Front Page podcast feed or find it on
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts. This series is
Speaker 1: presented and produced by me Chelsea Daniels with producer Ethan
Speaker 1: Sills and sound engineer Patty Fox, additional production support by
Speaker 1: Helen King, additional reporting from The Heralds Craig Captan and
Speaker 1: George Block. And for more coverage of the Polkinghorn Trial,
Speaker 1: head to enzid herold dot co dot nz