Speaker 1: Kyota. 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 the next six weeks,
Speaker 1: in conjunction with our usual daily episodes, we'll 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: The court has gotten its first glimpse of evidence from
Speaker 1: those closest to Philip Polkinghorn and Pauline Hannah, and some
Speaker 1: insight into his infidelity, and we have heard directly from Polkinghorn,
Speaker 1: with the court hearing his interview with police for the
Speaker 1: first time. The former Auckland ice surgeon is accused of
Speaker 1: murdering his his DHB boss wife in April twenty twenty one,
Speaker 1: but he says she took her own life. Day seven
Speaker 1: of the seventy one year old's trial saw Stephen McIntyre
Speaker 1: take the stand. He and his wife were family friends
Speaker 1: of Polkinghorn and Hannah. Both couples had batches at Rings
Speaker 1: Beach on the Corimandel, about fifteen minutes north of Fitty
Speaker 1: younger and became close over about twenty five years. Let's
Speaker 1: see each other over public holidays, long weekends, and over
Speaker 1: the Christmas period. Those usual times people would escape the
Speaker 1: city and head to their holiday homes. That'd spend time together,
Speaker 1: coffee in the morning, a bit of diving, fishing, dinners
Speaker 1: and barbecues.
Speaker 2: She was a very vivacious woman. She was a very
Speaker 2: proud woman and a woman that was always to put
Speaker 2: her best foot forward. Obviously a professional woman. We used
Speaker 2: to talk about her career and life in general.
Speaker 3: And when you say she was a proud woman, what
Speaker 3: do you mean by that?
Speaker 2: She was always meticulously turned out. She didn't really like
Speaker 2: you seeing her in the morning until until she was
Speaker 2: made up.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she was a well presented woman.
Speaker 1: In the twelve to eighteen months before Hannah's death, McIntyre
Speaker 1: says Polkinghorn had changed.
Speaker 2: He was a very intelligent, funny, witty, generous man and
Speaker 2: we always had a lot of laughs together. And I
Speaker 2: felt that in that period leading up to Pauline's death,
Speaker 2: I felt that he was quite changed. He told me
Speaker 2: some things that turned out well, I doubted the truth
Speaker 2: of them. His nature changed her in his physical presence
Speaker 2: changed he became.
Speaker 4: Slimmer and.
Speaker 2: Sort of more muscly, a different physique from what he'd had.
Speaker 2: He became a bit more manic, a little bit irrational,
Speaker 2: I felt at times, and as I said, I didn't
Speaker 2: think he was behaving normally or truthfully to me at
Speaker 2: all times.
Speaker 3: Okay, can we just talk about that a little bit?
Speaker 5: He said, he became he changed and became a little
Speaker 5: bit more I think manic and irrational were the words
Speaker 5: you used.
Speaker 3: Can you just explain why you use those words.
Speaker 4: I felt he was using drugs.
Speaker 1: McIntyre said. Polkinghorn, or Polky to which the community came
Speaker 1: to know him, was becoming slimmer, more mustly. He says,
Speaker 1: he became jumpy, slightly irrational. He would talk fast at times,
Speaker 1: would change the subject. He was being a weirdo, he said.
Speaker 1: McIntire spoke of a time when Polkinghorn had told him
Speaker 1: of a car accident. He'd swerved to miss a dog
Speaker 1: on the road, rolled his ute into a field and
Speaker 1: drove off without anyone seeing. A couple of weeks later,
Speaker 1: he would say he had fallen asleep at the wheel
Speaker 1: and asked him not to tell his wife. McIntire thought
Speaker 1: his friend was lying. How did Polkinghorn get a bill
Speaker 1: for a fence when he said no one had seen it?
Speaker 1: On cross examination, defense lawyer Ron Mansfield clarified some details
Speaker 1: about this car accident. Did McIntyre know the accident was
Speaker 1: captured on security footage? He didn't. Did he know his
Speaker 1: friend had paid to fix the fence and then some
Speaker 1: repairs had cost four hundred dollars but Polkinghorn had given
Speaker 1: two thousand dollars.
Speaker 6: Now we know that because the owner of the fence
Speaker 6: has been spoken to him affirmed those details, DAMI that
Speaker 6: was called on the security footage, the damage to the
Speaker 6: fence being just under four hundred, and that he paid
Speaker 6: them two thousand.
Speaker 3: So you would accept that. Yep.
Speaker 6: So some of what he has told you, as far
Speaker 6: as what you can recall.
Speaker 3: In fact, he is correct, doesn't it? Yes?
Speaker 6: And what you thought was an unusual story from him
Speaker 6: perhaps appears less unusual in.
Speaker 3: Light of those details. Correct, it's a little more plausable.
Speaker 6: I mean, these things can happen, Right, You have a conversation,
Speaker 6: you think that doesn't seem quite right, You learn some
Speaker 6: more information and you go, okay, well it's not as
Speaker 6: odd as I thought.
Speaker 3: Correct.
Speaker 1: Correct, Polky told his friend about his frustration over the
Speaker 1: issues he was having at auckland I relating to his retirement.
Speaker 1: Polkinghorn watched his longtime friend intently as he gave evidence,
Speaker 1: leaning forward and rubbing his chin. The Crown next called
Speaker 1: former Consumer and Z product test manager Paul Smith, who
Speaker 1: gave evidence on the power usage at the Upland Road home.
Speaker 1: Power data reports in thirty minute intervals and shows how
Speaker 1: much power was used in a half hour period, but
Speaker 1: there's no way to be precise and look at it
Speaker 1: minute by minute. Every house has a baseline amount of energy,
Speaker 1: for instance, overnight used by a fridge or a freezer,
Speaker 1: clocks or other things that are always plugged in and
Speaker 1: always on. Looking at Smith's graph, there are four heightened periods.
Speaker 1: From nine am April fourth to nine am April fifth,
Speaker 1: the morning Hannah was found dead. Six thirty pm to
Speaker 1: ten thirty pm on April fourth, was the highest usage.
Speaker 1: There's no way to assign any particular appliance to these spikes,
Speaker 1: but you can look at what's in the house and
Speaker 1: make an estimate based on their usual energy use. Smith
Speaker 1: was asked to establish whether a toaster or jug could
Speaker 1: have been used For example, we know Polkinghorn told police
Speaker 1: had gone downstairs about seven forty five am to make
Speaker 1: tea and toast. These appliances could be used at any
Speaker 1: time during those skyscraper periods, those four I mentioned before,
Speaker 1: But there's an early morning period with a little jump
Speaker 1: in energy use.
Speaker 7: The early morning period has a very small jump in energy,
Speaker 7: not as great in each period or on average as
Speaker 7: the amount of energy that the toaster or the kettle
Speaker 7: would need to use. So I reasonably ruled out the
Speaker 7: use of either of those appliances during that period.
Speaker 5: Just be clear and reading from your graph for us
Speaker 5: what that period is that you rule out the use
Speaker 5: of the toaster and kettle.
Speaker 7: So that period the early morning starts at four am
Speaker 7: and runs up until the end of the seven thirty
Speaker 7: am period, so right up before eight.
Speaker 4: Am on the fifth.
Speaker 5: So does that mean seven fifty nine and fifty nine
Speaker 5: second and.
Speaker 3: Fifty nine seconds, so we could almost call that eight o'clock.
Speaker 4: It could almost call that eight o'clock.
Speaker 1: So that energy increase over that baseline during that early
Speaker 1: morning period isn't sufficient for both the use of the
Speaker 1: toaster and the kettle. From eight am, there's a slightly
Speaker 1: larger increase in energy, which is sufficient to support the
Speaker 1: use of either the toaster or the kettle, not both.
Speaker 1: He was also asked about the washing machine. The model
Speaker 1: in the remuware a home uses very little energy.
Speaker 7: A washing machine tends to use most of its energy
Speaker 7: to heat water for a hot or warm wash cycle.
Speaker 7: The model in question had a hot water connection, so
Speaker 7: it didn't use a lot of energy in its cycle,
Speaker 7: actually less than the toaster or the kettle.
Speaker 3: Really yeah. It also.
Speaker 7: Also it also used that energy over a longer period.
Speaker 7: So a typical wash cycle for that model is about
Speaker 7: forty five minutes. So we're looking at a period where
Speaker 7: we're using less energy than the kettle over a much
Speaker 7: longer period and a period that spans multiple.
Speaker 3: Half hours intervals.
Speaker 7: So it was very difficult to rule out the use
Speaker 7: of the washing machine outside of the overnight baseline period.
Speaker 1: In the period from ten thirty to eleven thirty, there's
Speaker 1: a small increase in energy. He can't roll out the
Speaker 1: use of the washing machine during that period. The dryer,
Speaker 1: on the other hand, uses a significantly larger amount, and
Speaker 1: given it does use so much and over a longer period.
Speaker 1: There was only one skyscraper period where it could have
Speaker 1: been on April fourth, between six thirty pm and ten
Speaker 1: thirty pm, the night before Hannah's death. On cross examination,
Speaker 1: Mansfield eluded He'll be calling his own power expert. Later
Speaker 1: in the trial, he referenced a report from a man
Speaker 1: named Beattie who concluded the jug could have been used
Speaker 1: prior to eight am on the morning of April fifth.
Speaker 1: He also alerted Smith to the fact the toaster had
Speaker 1: been on level one Consumer and Z testing is done
Speaker 1: on the assumption a piece of bread is toasted brown
Speaker 1: and not by individual settings. He got Smith to clarify,
Speaker 1: you can't know exactly what appliance has used, only make
Speaker 1: assumptions on what could be. The Crown called Helen Poulson,
Speaker 1: an e SR forensic scientist who gave evidence on toxicology.
Speaker 1: She examined hannah blood, urine, and the liquid from inside
Speaker 1: the eye. Twenty seven milligrams per one hundred millilters of
Speaker 1: alcohol was found in the blood. The legal limit is
Speaker 1: fifty milligrams. Legal drugs were also found in Hannah's blood.
Speaker 1: They were fluoxetine, an antidepressant, phenamine, an appetite suppressant, and zopoclone,
Speaker 1: a sedative or hypnotic. The levels of fluoxetine and phenamine
Speaker 1: were normal. The amount of zopoclone was twice the normal
Speaker 1: therapeutic dose. Poulson said it's also not recommended to mix
Speaker 1: it with alcohol. Methamphetamine and amphetamine were detected in the
Speaker 1: liquid found in the unflushed on sweet toilet in the
Speaker 1: guest room. Hannah had been sleeping in. Meth metabolizes to
Speaker 1: amphetamine in the body, so it's normal to find it
Speaker 1: in the fluids of a meth user. Hannah's thirty four
Speaker 1: centimeter long hair sample was sent to Melbourne for testing
Speaker 1: and they were asked to analyze about six months of growth.
Speaker 8: Zobiklone was the only drug detected in the hair sample,
Speaker 8: no others.
Speaker 4: No other drugs were detected A.
Speaker 5: Right, So what does it suggest then in terms of
Speaker 5: myth amphetamine usage of the deceison There.
Speaker 4: Is no evidence that she induced methmphetamine.
Speaker 3: And a cross low period of time.
Speaker 8: Six months certainly was in the six months prior to
Speaker 8: her death.
Speaker 1: On cross examination, Ron Mansfield asked Paulson about whether when
Speaker 1: has regularly dyed, could it reduce the ability for drugs
Speaker 1: to be found in it. He made her read out
Speaker 1: a list of chemicals found in the dye used in
Speaker 1: Hannah's hair, to which he asked whether they could strip
Speaker 1: math or other drugs from the sample. She said she
Speaker 1: couldn't exactly say. The phentamene, or weight loss drug, which
Speaker 1: Hannah was prescribed forty scripts over ten years, didn't show
Speaker 1: up in the hair sample, although Paulson said it would have.
Speaker 1: Pulson agreed the die could explain why a drug she
Speaker 1: took frequently, like the diet drug, might not be found
Speaker 1: in her hair. Another arsal forensic scientist, Timothy Power, was
Speaker 1: called to the stand late on day seven. After going
Speaker 1: through the intricacies of the DNA tests used around the home,
Speaker 1: Power agreed with Mansfield that the fact Polkinghorn and his
Speaker 1: wife lived in the home meant their DNA would be
Speaker 1: all over it. On day eight, the Crown first called
Speaker 1: Barry Payne, the couple's personal trainer. He trained them at
Speaker 1: City Fitness, Newmarket about twice a week, a Monday and
Speaker 1: a Saturday, sometimes a Wednesday. He's trained polking Horn for
Speaker 1: about fifteen years and Hannah about eight. Pip McNabb, a
Speaker 1: prosecutor assisting Crown Solicitor Alsia McClintock questioned him about the
Speaker 1: couple's relationship. He said, generally they got on pretty well.
Speaker 1: It was pretty normal.
Speaker 4: Did she talk at all about her relationship with doctor Polkinghorn.
Speaker 9: Ah, they seemed okay at times, but she once meted
Speaker 9: and mentioned that she thought Philip Haetta had a girlfriend,
Speaker 9: and I ignored it, really hope the next year answer,
Speaker 9: it was not the sort of conversation I wanted to
Speaker 9: get in with, so I didn't really follow that up.
Speaker 9: And I'm like, I wouldn't with any couple really yet,
Speaker 9: I don't want to know their business and never.
Speaker 1: Sense Hannah didn't really talk about her personal life to him.
Speaker 1: The chat about movies, her work, other tidbits. She was
Speaker 1: in good shape, took pride in how she presented herself,
Speaker 1: and Polkinghorn trained well and strictly for a man his
Speaker 1: age too. Payne saw the couple on the Saturday that
Speaker 1: long weekend and had organized to see them on the
Speaker 1: Easter Monday, the morning of Hannah's death. He was all dressed,
Speaker 1: having a coffee sitting on his couch at home ahead
Speaker 1: of the nine am appointment with Hannah when Polkinghorn called, and.
Speaker 9: When I answered, I said I thought, he said she's gone.
Speaker 9: You know, she's dead, She's gone.
Speaker 4: I thought. I didn't take it seriously. I thought, which
Speaker 4: is sleeping?
Speaker 9: I said something stupid like that, you know, And and
Speaker 9: Philip was pretty distraught at that time and said, no, no,
Speaker 9: she's dead and gone.
Speaker 4: And I've stunn mollot I was.
Speaker 9: I didn't know how to respond particularly, and I said
Speaker 9: what happened? And he didn't say, she's just she's gone.
Speaker 9: And I thought it was a car act. I didn't
Speaker 9: know what had happened, so it was a bit grimmer,
Speaker 9: and and I said, oh, we'll see you well he
Speaker 9: said I can't which way her And it was I'll
Speaker 9: see you later in the week and have a copy
Speaker 9: and we'll go over it. And I hung up.
Speaker 1: They didn't meet for coffee that week. Defense lawyer Ron
Speaker 1: Mansfield asked Pain about Polkinghorn's behavior before his wife's death.
Speaker 3: Didn't seem menic, No, No, not at all. Didn't seem distracted.
Speaker 9: Not that I noticed. No, Philip was always very focused.
Speaker 9: I thought, was.
Speaker 3: It jumping around from tobok to tobock?
Speaker 9: No, No, I can't remember that. No, wasn't a retic, no,
Speaker 9: no way, no, And.
Speaker 3: Didn't turn into a weirdow in the.
Speaker 9: Last No, no, not at all.
Speaker 1: No, No, I never thought that this contradicts evidence given
Speaker 1: on day seven from the couple's long term friend, Stephen McIntyre.
Speaker 1: The court briefly heard from a nurse at County's Monaco
Speaker 1: DHB who knew Hannah from her role in the vaccination program.
Speaker 1: She administered the vaccine to Hannah on April fourth, the
Speaker 1: day before her death. She spent less than three minutes
Speaker 1: with her that day, but said there were no injuries
Speaker 1: or marks on her body by late morning. To take
Speaker 1: Senior Sergeant Lisa Jane Anderson was called to the stand.
Speaker 1: She went to Mount Cook in the South Island, where
Speaker 1: Polkinghorn and his girlfriend Madison Ashton was staying after Hannah's death.
Speaker 1: You'll remember Ashton mentioned in the Crown's opening. She's a
Speaker 1: Sydney based sex worker. Anderson arrived at Mount Cook Lakeside
Speaker 1: Retreat about seven o six pm on April thirty. A
Speaker 1: white Toyota Polkinghorn had hired was parked out the front
Speaker 1: of a standalone unit called the Matsariki Room. Anderson was
Speaker 1: there with two christ Church detectives to seize Madison Ashton's phones,
Speaker 1: which were then handed over to a digital forensic unit
Speaker 1: in christ Church.
Speaker 4: She declined to provide the pin numbers.
Speaker 3: Mister Polkinghorn prison at that point, as he was.
Speaker 10: What happened after she refused to supply the pin numbers
Speaker 10: as she was asked again he refused.
Speaker 1: To King The Crown then called Rob Masters, who was
Speaker 1: living in a unit in Northcote Point, a block of
Speaker 1: twelve apartments in the North Shore known as Melrose Court.
Speaker 1: Masters noticed a white Mercedes with the number plate Rattina.
Speaker 1: He first saw the car about twenty nineteen, and it
Speaker 1: visited the complex on a weekly basis, sometimes more frequently.
Speaker 1: Over time, he came to recognize the man who drove
Speaker 1: that car. He met him a couple of times on
Speaker 1: the driveway where he'd trained clients. He was a personal trainer.
Speaker 3: Did you learn of the individual's name? Yes? I did.
Speaker 11: What was that Philip Pulkinghorn And how did you come
Speaker 11: to learn of his name? He was introduced at one
Speaker 11: of our agms as Philip John something along those lines.
Speaker 11: I can't remember where there is surname. And then obviously
Speaker 11: during the media attention right once his wife at being
Speaker 11: passed away.
Speaker 1: The woman who lived at the complex was rachel Or
Speaker 1: A Laria. She used both names. She was in her
Speaker 1: early to mid fifties with long blondish grayish hair. Polkinhorn
Speaker 1: would visit a bag, usually in tow. Masters saw bottles
Speaker 1: of champagne, women's clothing. Perhaps it would never be a
Speaker 1: farmer's bag or something like that. He said they were
Speaker 1: fancy bags. He described him as being well dressed. He
Speaker 1: had seen him once wearing scrubs like the ones a
Speaker 1: doctor would wear. Rachel Or A Laria would have a
Speaker 1: couple of other regular visitors as well, but none as
Speaker 1: frequent as the white Mercedes with the number plate Retina.
Speaker 1: He disappeared during the COVID lockdowns.
Speaker 11: I don't recall seeing him during level four lockdown, but
Speaker 11: the day after week, the day we went to level three.
Speaker 3: He appeared on that day a couple of lockdowns, as
Speaker 3: I recall.
Speaker 5: Yeah, if you recall if it was the first or
Speaker 5: the second longer lockdown, looklan that.
Speaker 3: No, I couldn't say for certain. It was definitely the
Speaker 3: day after because it was like, oh yeah, that didn't.
Speaker 4: Take long sort of thing.
Speaker 3: Rember. Yeah, thank you man.
Speaker 1: Yes, Brian Dickie asked Masters what his neighbor, Rachel did
Speaker 1: for work.
Speaker 3: My understanding is that Rachel was a sex worker.
Speaker 1: After Hannah's death, the neighbor noticed the car with the
Speaker 1: number plate RETNA vanished. Marah Riddington also lived at that
Speaker 1: block of apartments, and she knew Rachel, who'd asked one
Speaker 1: day to be referred to as Alaria. She also saw
Speaker 1: polking Horn at the address.
Speaker 3: Did you make a.
Speaker 5: Link to the writtena number plate after you saw media
Speaker 5: around the death of miss Pulling Hannah?
Speaker 8: I know I saw him the first times he came
Speaker 8: because he was a terrible driver, terrible at parking and
Speaker 8: nearly ran into me. So the first thing you do
Speaker 8: is look at the number plate.
Speaker 1: She'd see him while she was in her garden and
Speaker 1: say hello, nothing more. She too noticed his gift bags
Speaker 1: along with the champagne he'd visited in his white Mercedes
Speaker 1: and a red ute.
Speaker 3: He was noticeable because.
Speaker 8: He's a man who likes to stand out. You know,
Speaker 8: he'd come with champagne and gifts for her, and one
Speaker 8: time wearing his hospital scrubs, you know, complete with hat
Speaker 8: and COVID. I mean that stands out.
Speaker 1: In the afternoon, Jacob Pollock was called to the stand.
Speaker 1: He's a private investigator. He told the court about Pauline
Speaker 1: Hannah making an inquiry through his firm's website. She wanted
Speaker 1: to arrange a meeting to conduct an infidelity investigation on
Speaker 1: her husband. She didn't give away too much detail other
Speaker 1: than that, but wanted to speak by phone. She said
Speaker 1: she'd call, but Pollock never heard from her again. This
Speaker 1: contact was made. On July twenty, twenty twenty, Detective Sergeant
Speaker 1: I Lona Walton was recalled to the stand. You'll remember
Speaker 1: her from earlier on in the trial. She conducted the
Speaker 1: videoed police interview with Polkinghorn, which is nearly three hours long.
Speaker 1: The video was then played for the jury. Because the
Speaker 1: content of the lengthy interview jumped around a lot, we're
Speaker 1: not going to go through every detail of it, but
Speaker 1: it's fair to say the interview was jumpy and erratic.
Speaker 1: You can read transcripts of this interview on the ends
Speaker 1: at Herald website. There'll be a link in our show notes,
Speaker 1: but we'll be playing you a few snippets. Polkinghorn's interview
Speaker 1: canvass is a range of topics before he even gets
Speaker 1: to the morning of his wife's death. In it, Polkinghorn
Speaker 1: explains the layout of the house and draws it on
Speaker 1: a piece of paper for Walton. There's talk of the
Speaker 1: visit to the Highbury Vaccination Center that weekend, details about
Speaker 1: a tent and a phylaxus cases, and Hannah's work in general.
Speaker 1: He spoke of him being away and funk at eight
Speaker 1: in the days prior, and an incident about ten years
Speaker 1: before where someone had tried to break into the home
Speaker 1: while he was away.
Speaker 3: Double wooden.
Speaker 10: Seat in the garden and thought she when I was
Speaker 10: away once someone up turned it on the side, so
Speaker 10: he used it as a letter to climb up into
Speaker 10: the deck into the library and tried to break him
Speaker 10: and she was petrified. Oh wow, okay, so were there's
Speaker 10: a result that she's put security lighting around the thing,
Speaker 10: so the only blink outside the lights come on, And.
Speaker 4: Was that reported to the police?
Speaker 10: I don't like Why don't you camp It was a
Speaker 10: long as ten years ago probably?
Speaker 1: He jumps around the events of days beforehand. He goes
Speaker 1: into detail about the ute Hannah had taken to the
Speaker 1: tip the day before and her inability to put it
Speaker 1: into reverse. The pair wanted to clear the garage of junk.
Speaker 1: He talks about the orange rope.
Speaker 4: The orange rope is a nylon rope.
Speaker 10: It's it's free coarse, but it was fry frying at
Speaker 10: one end. We both ended on and I boomed it
Speaker 10: to see the thing that stopped fraying.
Speaker 4: And but she took a lot by company and what dad.
Speaker 1: Did it a couple of days ago, He mentions an
Speaker 1: argument or discussion as he calls it, about staining their
Speaker 1: beach house, the one in the Corimandel. He details an
Speaker 1: episode of New Amsterdam that watched the night before on Netflix,
Speaker 1: and he mentions she had called a range of people
Speaker 1: the day before, which he deemed unusual. Polkinghorn told Walton
Speaker 1: about Hannah's mother dying about six weeks prior. He tells
Speaker 1: a story about Hannah going to call her mother about
Speaker 1: a cricket game but realizing she was gone. So the
Speaker 1: night before they had a couple of drinks in the library,
Speaker 1: talked about the day and watched the medical drama on Netflix,
Speaker 1: New Amsterdam. She was helping him draft a letter. He
Speaker 1: gives a blow by blow about troubles converting the document
Speaker 1: on his computer from Hannah's and the difficulty in printing it.
Speaker 1: He was drinking chiraz. She preferred Pino noir. He thinks
Speaker 1: she drank about a bottle and a half of wine.
Speaker 1: He probably had about two glasses.
Speaker 4: Like an intoxication. It was on things last night. Never
Speaker 4: seen a drunker, have never seen a drunk never, So
Speaker 4: she wasn't drunk last night. No, No, I wouldn't say
Speaker 4: she was drunk before. She probably wasn't toxicate. But she
Speaker 4: wasn't mad.
Speaker 10: She had a drunken driving offense once, so she's never
Speaker 10: done that again, and.
Speaker 4: I was not very happy with that.
Speaker 12: Yeah, how long ago was that?
Speaker 10: It probably ten years or something. Maybe, yeah, a long time,
Speaker 10: quite a long time. It doesn't it's an excuson.
Speaker 4: In my opinion. But she wasn't presenting. She wouldn't fall
Speaker 4: over and stuff like that.
Speaker 12: Nothing like that, you know, or No, sometimes people get
Speaker 12: a little bit bigly or silly or.
Speaker 10: Well she I know, I don't think so at all.
Speaker 8: She was.
Speaker 4: She was a bit emotional about some of the TVs.
Speaker 10: I don't think if she watched it in the afternoon,
Speaker 10: she would have been crying about some of the things.
Speaker 4: If you know what I mean.
Speaker 10: But the God of the float cat, you know, I mean,
Speaker 10: it's tragic for the story, and they I think I've
Speaker 10: over make a comment because the lady did a tracheost
Speaker 10: to me his wife. He's not medically qualified to do
Speaker 10: it with a pen knife, and they.
Speaker 4: Put a straw into his trachea, so you breathe now.
Speaker 4: The unfortunate thing about that bit of.
Speaker 10: Is that if you think how big your mouth is now,
Speaker 10: and the tricky goes basically downline that to put a
Speaker 10: thing a little straw and to think that ain't gonna
Speaker 10: make much difference.
Speaker 4: But she recklessly saved its life and they had a
Speaker 4: cops and back. But she thought he might have died.
Speaker 4: I see he won't die.
Speaker 10: It won't die in it for the next week.
Speaker 4: The max good television. It does makes good television. And
Speaker 4: then she she might have said it was too harsh
Speaker 4: or something.
Speaker 1: He goes into their daily routines. He'd usually be up
Speaker 1: before her and makes her breakfast in.
Speaker 10: Bed, so I make put in breakfast and being in Warner,
Speaker 10: she has yeah, they always have, but she's opus.
Speaker 4: I know I can drink a cup of tuo lying
Speaker 4: on her back. Good skill. And then sometimes she saves me.
Speaker 4: We have my breakfast eating it. She doesn't even know
Speaker 4: she's eating it. Do you make a good breakfast?
Speaker 10: She has the same thing every day she has she
Speaker 10: has one piece of toast and it has to be
Speaker 10: mckimsy bread and she has on a veno margarine or something.
Speaker 10: And then she likes lime marmalade, roses lime marmalade, and
Speaker 10: then she has we have because we discovered this tea
Speaker 10: its cinder burtle wing, but it's technically maybe by a
Speaker 10: company called the Tea Company Tea Letter not me T
Speaker 10: two actually, And we discovered this thing called French Earl graystious.
Speaker 4: Wow, isn't it fantastic?
Speaker 10: Yeah, once I made a mistake buy it online, showing
Speaker 10: how clever I was, and I came back with the
Speaker 10: Earl Gray.
Speaker 4: And it was we came away.
Speaker 1: I think she usually gets home after him, so he
Speaker 1: cooks a dinner. She usually lets him know when she's
Speaker 1: on her way home.
Speaker 4: And she and I said to her, look, then will
Speaker 4: be really later? Just tell me. I didn't care what
Speaker 4: time it does.
Speaker 10: And then so when she comes in the door, I
Speaker 10: usually the garage door open with her now cleaned if
Speaker 10: you come open the leaves and but yeah, so she
Speaker 10: has ever gaged door and sometimes if she's very lucky.
Speaker 10: I'm standing at at the top of the stairs that
Speaker 10: she comes up the garage holding a glass of wine
Speaker 10: for it.
Speaker 1: He eventually gets to the events of that morning the downstairs.
Speaker 10: Intended on the jugger and put three bits of toast
Speaker 10: and the toaster okay, and then got the butter and
Speaker 10: stuff out ready for that now, great tea. I find
Speaker 10: that you've got to before attended the toaster because kensy.
Speaker 4: Bout a quite big. I think what you're doing now
Speaker 4: a good.
Speaker 10: Old He put the toast in and I have it
Speaker 10: on the low setting, but it only will do the
Speaker 10: leaves the top cup of things. So what happens that
Speaker 10: once the tea's made? So while the keeople poured the
Speaker 10: tea in, then I turned the toast over to the
Speaker 10: remaining a couple of centimeters plus it browns it off
Speaker 10: of it into the dish washer too, I can't remember.
Speaker 10: So that's what I was sort of fiddling around with.
Speaker 1: He didn't think he'd gotten far into the process. He
Speaker 1: doesn't think he turned on the kettle before he found
Speaker 1: Hannah and the entrance way. He panicked, he said, and
Speaker 1: dialed one one, one four before realizing and correctly calling
Speaker 1: one one one.
Speaker 4: I didn't. I just didn't know.
Speaker 8: And what.
Speaker 10: To put me through the ambulance people and they said,
Speaker 10: stayed with her.
Speaker 4: She breathing horse says no, I said, and she's cold.
Speaker 4: And then I and then I I.
Speaker 10: Was trying to get her out and put it down flat.
Speaker 4: I think they told me to do that. I can't remember.
Speaker 4: And as I did, side dropped the phone.
Speaker 10: Yeah, and that crashed all over the copy of the tiles,
Speaker 10: and I couldn't. There's almost I just something uncontrollably. Really,
Speaker 10: I mean, it's society having an arm pulled off you.
Speaker 4: It was just it was just horrible. And I lay
Speaker 4: it down and then and and but Tom Ruth came over.
Speaker 10: She we gave her a pillo and we're trying to
Speaker 10: make it comfortable, which is sounds stupid, and we're not.
Speaker 4: We don't got off the chair. Her legs buckled.
Speaker 1: Hawkinghorn walked Walton through what he thought he did with
Speaker 1: the belt and rope around Hannah's neck. The belt wasn't
Speaker 1: that tight. He thought he could put his hand under it.
Speaker 1: He spoke of undoing granny knots in the rope and
Speaker 1: how he laid her on the floor. Her rings were
Speaker 1: all in the inside, he said. He turned them around.
Speaker 1: She loved those bloody rings, he said. The rope was
Speaker 1: attached to the balustrade above. He mentions they were granny
Speaker 1: knots too. From memory, was.
Speaker 10: It the rope attached to or the rope was attached
Speaker 10: to the bellustrade above?
Speaker 8: Okay?
Speaker 10: Yes, yes, the attached the bellustrade above. Now, and that
Speaker 10: was granny knots too. From memory, I might have been
Speaker 10: district be grandy knots, but along those lines at the
Speaker 10: bottom of the balustrade, okay, because I said to someone afterwards,
Speaker 10: I was surprised that the balustrade would take a weight,
Speaker 10: shall we say, adweight of seventy kgs. So whether the knots,
Speaker 10: I don't know, whether they're not slipped or why don't
Speaker 10: I'm just trying to think, why was she sitting there
Speaker 10: in a chair, if you like, Maybe maybe she stood
Speaker 10: on the chair and.
Speaker 4: Went off.
Speaker 10: But and the knots, I don't know. I don't know
Speaker 10: whether they're not held and slipped or what. I just
Speaker 10: don't know. I just I still think that seventy kg's
Speaker 10: on that balustrade.
Speaker 4: There's a hell of a weight.
Speaker 1: He was in a hurry to undo the rope, and
Speaker 1: he said it looked horrible just hanging there.
Speaker 4: It looked too hideous to me, the the rope.
Speaker 10: And I undered the rope upstairs and did Grannie nots upstairs?
Speaker 4: You under the grannieknots upstairs? Yes, and got rid of
Speaker 4: the rope.
Speaker 10: Well, when I say it got everyone, but it just didn't,
Speaker 10: you know, it looked awful just hanging there.
Speaker 4: It just was horrible the rope. And then she's down
Speaker 4: there on the floor. Yeah, I can't remember she's coming on.
Speaker 10: I think we were, but it was a quite ah,
Speaker 10: I'll say, but afterwards it made me it's still there
Speaker 10: when the ambulance people are right, but it just looked
Speaker 10: it was offensive to me the rope.
Speaker 4: So wouldn't either arrived. It was at the rope and
Speaker 4: there when you were right, yeah, but so I wasn't
Speaker 4: first time saying so.
Speaker 12: The ambulance were right, yeah, and the uniform police staff arrived,
Speaker 12: and then after that I'm not sure which order. I
Speaker 12: think there were a couple of remember, and then we
Speaker 12: arrived after that right, and there were us. So I'm
Speaker 12: just confused. There was rope.
Speaker 10: Straight and then not taken off by at the time
Speaker 10: you got I thought, I do, not straight away but
Speaker 10: near enough straight away. But why do I leave for
Speaker 10: the ambulance drive with an uniform policeman the un and
Speaker 10: then take it.
Speaker 3: Off the.
Speaker 4: Well? It was still there when I left.
Speaker 10: Oh no, it wasn't because it was unscrewed it and
Speaker 10: I hadn't It wasn't hanging by, but it was a
Speaker 10: hanging when you were still there.
Speaker 4: So where have you put it?
Speaker 3: Have you you were? No?
Speaker 4: I put it. All I did was I thought, I thought.
Speaker 10: I it's either up at the top or it's on
Speaker 10: the stairway going out.
Speaker 4: Of the garage.
Speaker 1: After a while, he asks if he could see his
Speaker 1: wife anyway.
Speaker 4: That's that.
Speaker 10: And I talked to one of the officers about the
Speaker 10: clothes because he said I might.
Speaker 4: Be able to go and visit or the mortuary. Yeah,
Speaker 4: say goodbye to her.
Speaker 13: So that there's something bad to today an.
Speaker 4: The gossip of hard You need to get clearance from
Speaker 4: the bosses. But we can see what we can do.
Speaker 4: And I also like it to be in some clothes.
Speaker 10: She's got some bignity, not them, just a body bag or.
Speaker 4: Something horrible.
Speaker 10: Unfortunately, if possible, Okay, I'm it's something that is it's
Speaker 10: beyond your break, beyond your breath.
Speaker 4: When she gets to the funeral home and okay, I
Speaker 4: don't really like accepting oak. No no, no, no, no, no, okay,
Speaker 4: that's fine.
Speaker 12: I've got one which.
Speaker 4: She got cause yeah, because the funeral actually has a funeral,
Speaker 4: I can say goodbye to a their you can. That's
Speaker 4: probably there's probably been way I would say. I didn't
Speaker 4: even think about all that stuff. You know, I haven't
Speaker 4: got my head around all that. So of course I
Speaker 4: can say goodbye to with it. I don't need to
Speaker 4: say goodbye to her in a bloody could mortuary.
Speaker 10: Guy, I would situ asult lots of times in mortuary,
Speaker 10: so I know what don't like.
Speaker 4: We used to take eyes for donors, so I know
Speaker 4: what they like.
Speaker 10: So there's a family room and a family viewing room
Speaker 10: and no, no, no, no no, no, you're quite well
Speaker 10: both do it at the the funeral funeral home.
Speaker 4: Yes, yeah, it's her mother was in a funeral home
Speaker 4: and Headlock North and we did it extraordinary tastefully.
Speaker 10: They had a room like a little in the in
Speaker 10: this big building they had there's room they had there
Speaker 10: was like little houses in there.
Speaker 4: Yeah. So if you go into a ring a room
Speaker 4: like that and it's a kitchen off thee and where
Speaker 4: in a beef and where fate was?
Speaker 10: Yeah, because god, I don't know if you're interfunerals in Auckland,
Speaker 10: but the bloody awful you know that they're just.
Speaker 4: You know, yes, it's awful.
Speaker 1: In the interview, Polkinghorn would trail off and not answer questions.
Speaker 1: One he couldn't answer was at the end, how did
Speaker 1: he come to suffer the wound on his forehead. That
Speaker 1: added to the suspicions of the detectives.
Speaker 10: I don't know, I said, I don't even know I've
Speaker 10: done it. Ruth said, I may have hit the tiles
Speaker 10: or something on the steat. I can't measure. It's horizontal,
Speaker 10: and that's horizontal, which is odd.
Speaker 4: I've got no idea. I didn't even know head it
Speaker 4: until some signory or bleeding looking at But.
Speaker 1: The trial continues tomorrow. You can listen to episodes of
Speaker 1: Accused the polking Horn Trial through the Front Page podcast
Speaker 1: or find it on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: This series is presented and produced by me Chelsea Daniels
Speaker 1: with producer Ethan Siles and sound engineer Patti Fox. Additional
Speaker 1: reporting from The Heralds Craig Capatan and George Block, and
Speaker 1: for more coverage of the Polkinghorn trial, head to ensidherld
Speaker 1: dot co dot enz