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Speaker 1: Kiota I Am, Chelsea Daniels and from the team behind

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Speaker 1: the front page The New Zealand Herald's daily news podcast

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Speaker 1: This Is Accused. The Polkinghorn trial. After a week's long

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Speaker 1: trial in the High Court at Auckland, Philip Polkinghorn has

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Speaker 1: been found not guilty of the murder of his wife,

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Speaker 1: Pauline Hannah. Pauline Hannah died on Easter Monday twenty twenty

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Speaker 1: one in the remuwaer, a home she shared with her husband,

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Speaker 1: Philip Polkinghorn for sixteen months. Her death was treated as

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Speaker 1: unexplained before Polkinghorn was charged in August twenty twenty two.

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Speaker 1: The Crown argued in court the Polkinghorn murdered her after

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Speaker 1: years of growing tensions over their finances, his need for sex,

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Speaker 1: and his growing reliance on meth. On the other hand,

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Speaker 1: the defence maintained Hannah killed herself after mounting stress from

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Speaker 1: her work in the COVID vaccine rollout, on top of

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Speaker 1: decades of depression and reliance on alcohol and weight loss medication.

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Speaker 1: The court heard from colleagues, family friends, experts, police paramedics,

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Speaker 1: all to come to one conclusion. Philip Pulkinghorn did not

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Speaker 1: murder his wife. After two days deliberation, the jury made

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Speaker 1: their decision earlier today. Members of the.

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Speaker 2: Jury, have you reached a unanos virdict best run on

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Speaker 2: which all eleven of you agree yes on charge run

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Speaker 2: for the charge of murder. Do you find the defenders

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Speaker 2: collop John Polkinhorn guilty or not guilty?

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Speaker 3: Not guilty, and you're the members of the juri.

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Speaker 2: You reach the unanimosperb extends one on which all eleven

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Speaker 2: of you agree on the same charge charge from the

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Speaker 2: charge of manslaughter fie of defenders collops John Polpenhorn guilty

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Speaker 2: or not guilty, not your prison and then all agreed

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Speaker 2: him to the jury.

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Speaker 1: Thank you for more reaction on the verdict. We're joined

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Speaker 1: now by ends at Herald Crime reporter Craig Captain.

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Speaker 3: The jury started deliberations on Thursday and they got about

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Speaker 3: six hours in before they had a little bit early

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Speaker 3: for the day. They had sent the judge a note

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Speaker 3: at the end of the day, but I wasn't really addressed,

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Speaker 3: and because one of the jury had a prior commitment,

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Speaker 3: they didn't come back Friday, so not until today did

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Speaker 3: they come back. After about ten hours of deliberations, they

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Speaker 3: returned the verdict, but right as they started the day,

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Speaker 3: they knocked on the door again and told the judge

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Speaker 3: had a note. The note noted that the majority of

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Speaker 3: them believed that Pauline Hannah had not committed suicide, but

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Speaker 3: they also said that some of the people in the

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Speaker 3: jury believed that the Crown had not proved the case

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Speaker 3: that doctor Polkinhorn had murdered. After receiving the note, the

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Speaker 3: judge basically told the jury that the burden of proof

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Speaker 3: is always on the crown and basically told them to

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Speaker 3: go back and continue deliberating. Well, the first thing I

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Speaker 3: noticed when the verdict was read was doctor Polkinhorm's sister Ruth,

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Speaker 3: who was the first person on the scene that day,

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Speaker 3: pumped her fist, obviously glad that her brother was acquitted.

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Speaker 3: The defendant himself was standing in the dock, which was

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Speaker 3: already kind of unusual because he'd spent the past eight

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Speaker 3: weeks sitting at a desk behind his lawyers. He just

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Speaker 3: looked down and closed his eyes and didn't look up

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Speaker 3: the entire time he was in the dock, didn't look

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Speaker 3: at the jurors, didn't look at the gallery. After a

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Speaker 3: few moments, the judge said you're free to leave. And

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Speaker 3: so he was escorted by one of his own lawyers

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Speaker 3: to the gallery, where he sat next to his sister

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Speaker 3: and just stared ahead, looking pretty emotionless. Not too far

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Speaker 3: down from where he and his sister were sitting in

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Speaker 3: the front row of the gallery was the family of

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Speaker 3: Pauline Hannah, her brother and her niece, who both testified

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Speaker 3: get some of the most emotional testimony during the trial,

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Speaker 3: and they just, I guess sholl shocked to be a

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Speaker 3: good way to describe it. They looked pretty tired, pretty shocked.

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Speaker 3: Outside the courthouse, the first person who came to speak

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Speaker 3: to the media was counselors Sir Alesha McClintock.

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Speaker 4: I transler, I say, when you speak that durus vidict.

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Speaker 4: They work hard on this stefficult case and we respect

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Speaker 4: the verdict that they've reached. Whether family what's to say,

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Speaker 4: whether the police was to say they can ultimately be

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Speaker 4: a meta for them. But I think what's important today

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Speaker 4: is there's been a great trade to do. Pauling Henna

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Speaker 4: died and we feel for the family, the loved ones

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Speaker 4: and ones who love to But I absolutely speak to

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Speaker 4: the during fludent and work hard to reach it.

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Speaker 3: After that we heard from Philip Pokinghon himself, who gave

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Speaker 3: a very brief statement.

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Speaker 5: Today that comes a huge turning point in our lives.

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Speaker 5: The process has taken a massive toll on on many

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Speaker 5: of us. But now we can grieve Pauling missed in

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Speaker 5: peace and that there's the best differ we can possibly

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Speaker 5: give her.

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Speaker 3: And eventually we heard from Bruce Hannah, Pauline Hannah's brother.

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Speaker 6: Oh yeah, look, it's not the decision we wanted. I

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Speaker 6: would like to think the place in the prosecution for

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Speaker 6: the deep detection and hard work. I thought the core

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Speaker 6: price proceedings was fear and we need to accept the

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Speaker 6: decision and move on at this point that we are

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Speaker 6: so it's thanks very much being approverally long ain't no way.

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Speaker 3: The judge ordered doctor Polkingholm to return to court on

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Speaker 3: November first, at which point he will be sentenced for

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Speaker 3: the drug charges that he pleaded guilty to at the

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Speaker 3: start of the trial. Compared to murder, these are ravery

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Speaker 3: minor charges. One carries a maximum sentence of one year

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Speaker 3: in jail and the other one carries a maximum sentence

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Speaker 3: of six years. One of the questions that was asked

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Speaker 3: of the Crown when they give a statement outside the

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Speaker 3: courthouse was whether they would appeal, and Alisa McClintock pointed

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Speaker 3: out that they can't appeal at jury's verdict. So this

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Speaker 3: is all said and done now there is no retrial.

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Speaker 3: So after sixteen months of investigation and another three years

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Speaker 3: till this point, this is the end of the case

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Speaker 3: for Pauline Hannah. The jury spoken Happen.

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Speaker 1: You can listen to episodes of Accused the Polkinghorn Trial

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Speaker 1: through the front Page podcast feed or find it on

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Speaker 1: iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts. This series is

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Speaker 1: presented and produced by me Chelsea Daniels, with producer Ethan

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Speaker 1: Sills and sound engineer Patty Fox. Additional reporting from The

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Speaker 1: Heralds Craig Capatan, George Block, and Katie Harris. And for

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Speaker 1: more coverage of the Polkinghorn trial, head to ends at

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Speaker 1: herold dot co dot enz