Speaker 1: Kiota I Am, Chelsea Daniels and from the team behind
Speaker 1: the front page The New Zealand Herald's daily news podcast
Speaker 1: This Is Accused. The Polkinghorn trial. After a week's long
Speaker 1: trial in the High Court at Auckland, Philip Polkinghorn has
Speaker 1: been found not guilty of the murder of his wife,
Speaker 1: Pauline Hannah. Pauline Hannah died on Easter Monday twenty twenty
Speaker 1: one in the remuwaer, a home she shared with her husband,
Speaker 1: Philip Polkinghorn for sixteen months. Her death was treated as
Speaker 1: unexplained before Polkinghorn was charged in August twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1: The Crown argued in court the Polkinghorn murdered her after
Speaker 1: years of growing tensions over their finances, his need for sex,
Speaker 1: and his growing reliance on meth. On the other hand,
Speaker 1: the defence maintained Hannah killed herself after mounting stress from
Speaker 1: her work in the COVID vaccine rollout, on top of
Speaker 1: decades of depression and reliance on alcohol and weight loss medication.
Speaker 1: The court heard from colleagues, family friends, experts, police paramedics,
Speaker 1: all to come to one conclusion. Philip Pulkinghorn did not
Speaker 1: murder his wife. After two days deliberation, the jury made
Speaker 1: their decision earlier today. Members of the.
Speaker 2: Jury, have you reached a unanos virdict best run on
Speaker 2: which all eleven of you agree yes on charge run
Speaker 2: for the charge of murder. Do you find the defenders
Speaker 2: collop John Polkinhorn guilty or not guilty?
Speaker 3: Not guilty, and you're the members of the juri.
Speaker 2: You reach the unanimosperb extends one on which all eleven
Speaker 2: of you agree on the same charge charge from the
Speaker 2: charge of manslaughter fie of defenders collops John Polpenhorn guilty
Speaker 2: or not guilty, not your prison and then all agreed
Speaker 2: him to the jury.
Speaker 1: Thank you for more reaction on the verdict. We're joined
Speaker 1: now by ends at Herald Crime reporter Craig Captain.
Speaker 3: The jury started deliberations on Thursday and they got about
Speaker 3: six hours in before they had a little bit early
Speaker 3: for the day. They had sent the judge a note
Speaker 3: at the end of the day, but I wasn't really addressed,
Speaker 3: and because one of the jury had a prior commitment,
Speaker 3: they didn't come back Friday, so not until today did
Speaker 3: they come back. After about ten hours of deliberations, they
Speaker 3: returned the verdict, but right as they started the day,
Speaker 3: they knocked on the door again and told the judge
Speaker 3: had a note. The note noted that the majority of
Speaker 3: them believed that Pauline Hannah had not committed suicide, but
Speaker 3: they also said that some of the people in the
Speaker 3: jury believed that the Crown had not proved the case
Speaker 3: that doctor Polkinhorn had murdered. After receiving the note, the
Speaker 3: judge basically told the jury that the burden of proof
Speaker 3: is always on the crown and basically told them to
Speaker 3: go back and continue deliberating. Well, the first thing I
Speaker 3: noticed when the verdict was read was doctor Polkinhorm's sister Ruth,
Speaker 3: who was the first person on the scene that day,
Speaker 3: pumped her fist, obviously glad that her brother was acquitted.
Speaker 3: The defendant himself was standing in the dock, which was
Speaker 3: already kind of unusual because he'd spent the past eight
Speaker 3: weeks sitting at a desk behind his lawyers. He just
Speaker 3: looked down and closed his eyes and didn't look up
Speaker 3: the entire time he was in the dock, didn't look
Speaker 3: at the jurors, didn't look at the gallery. After a
Speaker 3: few moments, the judge said you're free to leave. And
Speaker 3: so he was escorted by one of his own lawyers
Speaker 3: to the gallery, where he sat next to his sister
Speaker 3: and just stared ahead, looking pretty emotionless. Not too far
Speaker 3: down from where he and his sister were sitting in
Speaker 3: the front row of the gallery was the family of
Speaker 3: Pauline Hannah, her brother and her niece, who both testified
Speaker 3: get some of the most emotional testimony during the trial,
Speaker 3: and they just, I guess sholl shocked to be a
Speaker 3: good way to describe it. They looked pretty tired, pretty shocked.
Speaker 3: Outside the courthouse, the first person who came to speak
Speaker 3: to the media was counselors Sir Alesha McClintock.
Speaker 4: I transler, I say, when you speak that durus vidict.
Speaker 4: They work hard on this stefficult case and we respect
Speaker 4: the verdict that they've reached. Whether family what's to say,
Speaker 4: whether the police was to say they can ultimately be
Speaker 4: a meta for them. But I think what's important today
Speaker 4: is there's been a great trade to do. Pauling Henna
Speaker 4: died and we feel for the family, the loved ones
Speaker 4: and ones who love to But I absolutely speak to
Speaker 4: the during fludent and work hard to reach it.
Speaker 3: After that we heard from Philip Pokinghon himself, who gave
Speaker 3: a very brief statement.
Speaker 5: Today that comes a huge turning point in our lives.
Speaker 5: The process has taken a massive toll on on many
Speaker 5: of us. But now we can grieve Pauling missed in
Speaker 5: peace and that there's the best differ we can possibly
Speaker 5: give her.
Speaker 3: And eventually we heard from Bruce Hannah, Pauline Hannah's brother.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, look, it's not the decision we wanted. I
Speaker 6: would like to think the place in the prosecution for
Speaker 6: the deep detection and hard work. I thought the core
Speaker 6: price proceedings was fear and we need to accept the
Speaker 6: decision and move on at this point that we are
Speaker 6: so it's thanks very much being approverally long ain't no way.
Speaker 3: The judge ordered doctor Polkingholm to return to court on
Speaker 3: November first, at which point he will be sentenced for
Speaker 3: the drug charges that he pleaded guilty to at the
Speaker 3: start of the trial. Compared to murder, these are ravery
Speaker 3: minor charges. One carries a maximum sentence of one year
Speaker 3: in jail and the other one carries a maximum sentence
Speaker 3: of six years. One of the questions that was asked
Speaker 3: of the Crown when they give a statement outside the
Speaker 3: courthouse was whether they would appeal, and Alisa McClintock pointed
Speaker 3: out that they can't appeal at jury's verdict. So this
Speaker 3: is all said and done now there is no retrial.
Speaker 3: So after sixteen months of investigation and another three years
Speaker 3: till this point, this is the end of the case
Speaker 3: for Pauline Hannah. The jury spoken Happen.
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 reporting from The
Speaker 1: Heralds Craig Capatan, George Block, and Katie Harris. And for
Speaker 1: more coverage of the Polkinghorn trial, head to ends at
Speaker 1: herold dot co dot enz