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 Crown has alleged extramarital affairs, dealings with sex workers
Speaker 1: and a drug habit. The defense claims a suicide, casual
Speaker 1: drug use and an open and loving relationship. All the
Speaker 1: cards have been laid on the table in the first
Speaker 1: day of the trial of Philip Polkinghorn, accused of murdering
Speaker 1: his wife, Pauline Hannah, whose body was found in the
Speaker 1: couple's remuware A home in April twenty twenty one. Polkinghorn
Speaker 1: started the trial today with guilty please to possession of
Speaker 1: methanphetamine and a meth pipe. For the past two years
Speaker 1: the charges were not allowed to be reported, but suppression
Speaker 1: lapsed with the admission of guilt. The guilty please leave
Speaker 1: just one charge remaining for the six week trial murder.
Speaker 2: Philip John Polkinhorn on charge one surcross list to Edwicklund's charges,
Speaker 2: but on about the fifth of August two thousand and
Speaker 2: twenty one at Auckland murdered Pauline Kay Hannah.
Speaker 3: How do you plead guilty or not guilty? Not gaughty?
Speaker 1: A jury was selected by eleven am before Crown Prosecutor
Speaker 1: Alicia McClintock outlined the Crown's case against Polkinghorn. She started
Speaker 1: by saying he led a double life.
Speaker 4: He was spending large amounts of money on sex workers
Speaker 4: and engaging and a number of extramarital encounters and relationships.
Speaker 4: He had a problematic methamphetamine habit. He was spending marital
Speaker 4: finances in many ways that benefited only himself.
Speaker 1: McClintock said. Over Easter weekend twenty twenty one, Pauline Hannah
Speaker 1: did a series of things that were normal for her.
Speaker 1: She trained with her personal trainer. She took dinner to
Speaker 1: some unwell friends. She went to the rubbish tap. She
Speaker 1: did some work at home, the home she shared with
Speaker 1: Philip Pulkinghorn.
Speaker 4: Her work was something that was incredibly important to her.
Speaker 4: She took pride in her work Miss Hannah also took
Speaker 4: great pride in her appearance. She was immaculately turned out
Speaker 4: always no matter what she was doing. Miss Hannah's life
Speaker 4: that Easter weekend was very busy, and that's something she thrived. Overall,
Speaker 4: she was well, but one aspect of her life was
Speaker 4: troubling for Miss Hannah, and it had been troubling for
Speaker 4: her for quite some time. Her husband, the defendant, was
Speaker 4: both controlling.
Speaker 5: And sexually demanded of here.
Speaker 4: In unusual ways. At times, he had become aggressive towards her.
Speaker 4: He was having several extramarital encounters. She was concerned what
Speaker 4: he was doing with their finances. This aspect of her
Speaker 4: life was distressing for Miss Hannah. She considered leaving her husband.
Speaker 4: She spoke to her friends about her relationship to Clark. Ultimately,
Speaker 4: she was coping with this challenging aspect of her life.
Speaker 4: She loved her husband, even if she did not always
Speaker 4: love how he treated.
Speaker 1: Her, but that's just the crown side of the story.
Speaker 1: Defense lawyer Ron Mansfield told the jury it would later
Speaker 1: hear evidence to suggest neither Polkinghorn or their relationship was perfect.
Speaker 6: But you will hear evidence through the course of this
Speaker 6: trial that might make you think doctor Polkinghorn wasn't perfect,
Speaker 6: or perhaps their relationship wasn't perfect. I don't know what
Speaker 6: is perfect. I don't know the perfect person, and I
Speaker 6: don't know the perfect relationship. And I'm sure you're much
Speaker 6: the same.
Speaker 1: The Crown allegeds Polkinghorn staged the scene to make it
Speaker 1: look like his wife's death was a suicide.
Speaker 4: Brown allegens the evidence in this case will show the
Speaker 4: rope was too loosely tied to have sufficient tension to
Speaker 4: kill Miss Hannah, and simply too lot. As I've said
Speaker 4: its position where it's not halfway up the balustrade. If
Speaker 4: it had borne the weight of Miss Hannah, even though
Speaker 4: she was slight, it would have slipped down to the
Speaker 4: bottom of the balustrade. And as I've said that it's
Speaker 4: not where it was.
Speaker 1: McLintock said the rope that was found did not have
Speaker 1: enough tension. It was too loose and too long. The
Speaker 1: Crown alleges a struggle took place, given Hannah had injuries
Speaker 1: to her nose, scalp bruises on her arm, marks on
Speaker 1: the left side of her back, and Polkinghorn had a
Speaker 1: fresh cut on his forehead that he couldn't explain no
Speaker 1: marks were noticed on her face the night before, McClintock said,
Speaker 1: But defense lawyer Ron Mansfield says, after days of scientists
Speaker 1: collecting samples, no evidence has been revealed to suggest there
Speaker 1: was a fight, an argument, or a staging.
Speaker 6: This is a case where the Crown know that there
Speaker 6: is no pathology to support its theory of a homicide.
Speaker 6: The Crown knows that there is no evidence of an
Speaker 6: argument that evening. The Crown knows that there is no
Speaker 6: evidence of any methamphetamine use by doctor Polmingthorn that night.
Speaker 6: The Crown knows that there is no evidence of any arguing,
Speaker 6: disagreement or an assault, lead alone a fatal assault.
Speaker 1: He said what Polkinghorn told police wasn't a lie. He
Speaker 1: simply answered questions asked of him. Police found thirty seven
Speaker 1: point seven grams of meth dotted all around the house
Speaker 1: in the master bedroom, bathrooms, and study. A meth pipe,
Speaker 1: meth and a lighter was found in the main bedroom
Speaker 1: where Polkinghorn slept. Hannah slept in another bedroom the night
Speaker 1: before her death. Hannah appears to have also been grappling
Speaker 1: with the former eye doctor's meth habit. The CROWND says
Speaker 1: Hannah had searched privately on the Internet prior to her death,
Speaker 1: what sensation does p give you? She searched what does
Speaker 1: a pea pipe look like? And pea pipe. These searches
Speaker 1: were just three months before her death. The searchers suggest
Speaker 1: an ignorance about drug use. McClintock said a meth pipe
Speaker 1: was also found at auckland I in twenty twenty in
Speaker 1: an exam room that Polkinghorn used. The Crown says it's
Speaker 1: the same type as the one found at his home.
Speaker 1: Mansfield said there's no evidence to suggest Polkinghorn was under
Speaker 1: the influence that night.
Speaker 6: There will be evidence of casual use of the drug,
Speaker 6: a drug which is used by many within our community,
Speaker 6: despite our views on it, without risk of argument, violence
Speaker 6: or homicide.
Speaker 1: The Crown alleged details of the couple's sex life, including
Speaker 1: Polkinghorn's relationship with Sydney's sex worker Madison Ashton.
Speaker 4: Miss Hannah did know that her husband saw Miss Ashton.
Speaker 4: She told friends about it in a way she was
Speaker 4: reluctantly accepting of the fact that he had sex with
Speaker 4: Miss Ashton when he was in Australia. Indeed, there were
Speaker 4: times years prior when Miss Hannah joined doctor Polkinghorn and
Speaker 4: Miss Ashton in threesomes in Australia.
Speaker 1: McClintock said Hannah admitted to friends she joined the pair
Speaker 1: in a threesome reluctantly in Australia, but would become concerned
Speaker 1: with her husband's obsession with group sex. Polkinghorn also apparently
Speaker 1: was seeing sex workers in Auckland as well. He was
Speaker 1: apparently transferring large amounts of money to sex workers and
Speaker 1: Miss Ashton.
Speaker 4: He had taken this one relationship, though that was Miss Ashton,
Speaker 4: to a personal level of a partner. He appears to
Speaker 4: have been planning a future with and certainly was financially supportive,
Speaker 4: but he hadn't told his wife that this was quite
Speaker 4: the tangled web of life the doctor was weaving.
Speaker 1: The Crown suggests had apparently deleted WhatsApp messages with Ashton
Speaker 1: after Hannah's death and asked her to do the same.
Speaker 1: The court we'll hear from a range of witnesses over
Speaker 1: the course of the next six weeks, including sex worker
Speaker 1: Madison Ashton. Defense lawyer Ron Mansfield says the couple's relationship
Speaker 1: was good and positive.
Speaker 6: She was open with her friends and colleagues regarding their
Speaker 6: lifestyle and certainly in relation to family, despite incuring the
Speaker 6: judgment of some of them in relation to it. It's easy,
Speaker 6: I suggest, to attribute blame to doctor Polkinghorn for the
Speaker 6: relationships outside of their marriage that he had or they had.
Speaker 6: But understand in the nature of this relationship and it's
Speaker 6: open nature in relation to sexual relationships is important to
Speaker 6: understand and accept without judgment.
Speaker 1: Philip Polkinghorn called one one one on the morning of
Speaker 1: his wife's death, and that's been played to the jury.
Speaker 1: We'll play that call for you.
Speaker 3: Now you pay one telephone from.
Speaker 5: Organizing help for you.
Speaker 3: Now, she's cold, want to up alone?
Speaker 5: What's your name?
Speaker 3: Immediately put the I mean she's creating. Okay, No, she's not.
Speaker 3: Cut her down, you can't. We all get up here.
Speaker 3: She's she's on the boats did okay?
Speaker 5: So so tell her why you believe that she p
Speaker 5: So why do you believe that she did go.
Speaker 3: Un put a punk on the botom and that she's blue?
Speaker 3: She's cold? Okay?
Speaker 5: And how old is she?
Speaker 3: Please?
Speaker 5: Okay? Fer mashine awake? No, no, okay, you're a doctor
Speaker 5: as well as I do. There I can feel for
Speaker 5: a moment. H h h oh okay, that's updated. Spear
Speaker 5: with me for a moment and need any help all
Speaker 5: right now?
Speaker 3: Can hello alone, can go to.
Speaker 5: Everything and we've build it. No need anything else that
Speaker 5: we can do for you.
Speaker 3: Well the way we'll be there quickly, not right, they.
Speaker 1: Crown witnesses has begun to be called and will continue
Speaker 1: over the course of the next few weeks. The defense
Speaker 1: will then invite its witnesses to give evidence. Prosecutors said
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the day, this case is like
Speaker 1: something of a crime novel. The trial continues tomorrow. You
Speaker 1: can listen to episodes of Accused the Bulkinghorn Trial through
Speaker 1: the front Page podcast fast 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: Siles and sound engineer Patti fox And. For more coverage
Speaker 1: of the Polkinghorn trial, head to Ensidherld dot co dot Nz.