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 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: Pauline Hannah's voice echoed throughout the courtroom on day nine
Speaker 1: of the trial of her husband, Philip Polkinghorn, who was
Speaker 1: accused of murdering her. It came in the form of
Speaker 1: a covert recording of a family dinner, providing Hannah a
Speaker 1: chance to explain their relationship in her own words to
Speaker 1: the jury who'll decide whether she died of foul play
Speaker 1: or whether she took her own life, and later a
Speaker 1: bombshell is dropped by the defense. Day nine began with
Speaker 1: the court watching the rest of Polkinghorn's police interview with
Speaker 1: the detective Ilona Walton, who sat in the witness stand
Speaker 1: while it played. Polkinghorn murmurs whether he should have listened more.
Speaker 1: Maybe sho didn't feel supported she always wanted a dog,
Speaker 1: he said, a bulldog, and wanted to call it Winston,
Speaker 1: after Winston Churchill. The police officer and subject quip about
Speaker 1: the number of books on the former English PM around
Speaker 1: the house. Polkinghorn mentions the interview is like something he
Speaker 1: does as a doctor, taking a history. He said, should
Speaker 1: value the history more.
Speaker 2: But I don't need to listen too much of the
Speaker 2: history because it's usually unreliable.
Speaker 1: He goes on to a story about when he was
Speaker 1: in London being asked to accompany his boss on a
Speaker 1: date and how he could swear it happened when he
Speaker 1: was a fellow, but it was actually five years later.
Speaker 3: So this is quite important.
Speaker 2: Oh yes, yes, I understand, because you don't have the
Speaker 2: You don't have the thing that we have, which is
Speaker 2: the examination. So we have the examination, see which so
Speaker 2: we get the parts.
Speaker 3: If you like, by two things.
Speaker 2: Two are texts asking you how when did I become sore?
Speaker 2: To looking at the eye and seeing what's wrong with it?
Speaker 2: But you don't have the ability to do that, unfortunately.
Speaker 1: He spoke more about the orange rope and how it
Speaker 1: was attached to the balustrade. He equipped at one point,
Speaker 1: I must be the worst person you've ever interviewed. Crown
Speaker 1: Solicitor Alisia McClintock questioned Ilona Walton about that interview. She
Speaker 1: asked about the events beforehand. Polkinghorn wanted to know whether
Speaker 1: there was a note found there wasn't, and whether there
Speaker 1: was any relevance of the COVID vaccine that had the
Speaker 1: day before. Defense lawyer Ron Mansfield, in his cross examination,
Speaker 1: asked about the suspicions that arose from the tension test
Speaker 1: done on the rope and whether Walton was instructed to
Speaker 1: keep him at the station. He spoke of a call
Speaker 1: Polkinghorn had received from his friend, a barrister. In one
Speaker 1: of the breaks of the interview, it appears as being
Speaker 1: told his wife's death was being reported in the media,
Speaker 1: that he was a suspect and forensics were at his
Speaker 1: Upland Road home. Walton reiterated multiple times he was not
Speaker 1: at the station as a suspect, but a witness.
Speaker 4: I know been critical or somewhat critical of you for
Speaker 4: not telling doctor Polpenhorn of the police view that it
Speaker 4: might be suspicious and cautioning him, and I know you
Speaker 4: don't accept that, correct, Burdie, thank you for what appears
Speaker 4: to be a polite way that you dealt with him
Speaker 4: that afternoon.
Speaker 3: So thank you.
Speaker 1: Pauline Hannah's younger brother, Bruce Hannah, was called to the stand.
Speaker 1: Their younger sister, Tracy, has lived in London for about
Speaker 1: thirty years. They had a rural upbringing, growing up on
Speaker 1: a small property with an orchard just outside Hastings. They
Speaker 1: were close before their mother died in the beginning of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one. Should suffer dementia, Pauline would visit her
Speaker 1: family in the Hawks Bay at least monthly. They messaged
Speaker 1: and called. She'd call him on hands free on the
Speaker 1: motorway on her way home from work.
Speaker 5: Hell recent to her death, were you last talking or
Speaker 5: engaging with Paula?
Speaker 6: I spoke to her on the Thursday night. Thursday night
Speaker 6: before Good Friday, she phoned. She was driving home and
Speaker 6: telling me about We had a good conversation. She was
Speaker 6: in high spirits and she was opening a vaccine clinic
Speaker 6: on the following Wednesday in Counties Manekau somewhere south for
Speaker 6: Marty and Pacifica. And then after she opened, cutting the
Speaker 6: ribbon on the Wednesday. I think on the Thursday of
Speaker 6: the Friday she was going down to centralow Targo who
Speaker 6: contract finished, and then she was going down to Central Targo.
Speaker 3: On for a ten day holiday with a group of friends.
Speaker 5: How did she seem about that work? The work part
Speaker 5: of that, Oh, good, she said, it was great. They
Speaker 5: got through it. It was quite a tall mountain climate.
Speaker 5: They got over the top of it.
Speaker 6: They've got organized and yeah, she was really proud of
Speaker 6: herself and the team.
Speaker 3: She was in high spirits.
Speaker 1: He said he met Polkinghorn in the mid nineties. They
Speaker 1: got on okay, despite not having too much in common.
Speaker 1: They'd go fishing at the couple's rings be each batch.
Speaker 1: Bruce says his sister seemed happier when she wasn't around
Speaker 1: her husband. In the twelve to eighteen months before her death.
Speaker 1: He liked it when she would visit without Polkinghorn in
Speaker 1: tow he'd get more time with his sister. She told
Speaker 1: her brother of her relationship and how her husband had
Speaker 1: a woman in Sydney and was seeing other sex workers
Speaker 1: in Auckland.
Speaker 6: Yeah, he had a woman in Sydney and he had
Speaker 6: other women and he went he visited prostitutes in Auckland. Yeah,
Speaker 6: I remember saying to her, you know it, you know
Speaker 6: is he does he use a condom? Is he safe
Speaker 6: to have sex with you after this? You know? And
Speaker 6: she assured me that it was all okay. So I
Speaker 6: think they used to be group six. Yeah, and Philip
Speaker 6: used to get her involved. I don't know she was
Speaker 6: very happy about it, but I think that for the
Speaker 6: sake of the relationship, she was trying to sort of go.
Speaker 3: Along with it.
Speaker 1: Bruce said, Pauline would tell him her husband was an
Speaker 1: angry man on.
Speaker 3: The roof with her words. They were her words. How
Speaker 3: did she use those words? And what context? Oh, she'd say, he.
Speaker 6: I can't talk to her at the moment because he's
Speaker 6: on the roof and he's completely in a complete wild
Speaker 6: and he's mad at something I don't know what, and
Speaker 6: so I just got to like walk away and just leave.
Speaker 3: Them, okay.
Speaker 5: Any other explanations for that mood of mister Paulkinhorn that
Speaker 5: caused these difficulties? No, what did you say to Pauline
Speaker 5: through the periods?
Speaker 3: I mean, what was your sort of position and discussion?
Speaker 6: I would say, well, you know, does he does he
Speaker 6: get violent? Do you you you know, what do you
Speaker 6: do when when he's like this? I know, go to
Speaker 6: the gym or I'll leave the house him. Yeah, so
Speaker 6: she seemed to have a bit of a solution for it.
Speaker 1: He was driving when Polkinghorn called him about eight thirty
Speaker 1: am on Easter Monday, April fifth, twenty twenty one, and he.
Speaker 3: Told me.
Speaker 6: He told me, he said, Ah, I've got some terrible news.
Speaker 3: It's Pauline. She's dead. She's hanged herself.
Speaker 1: Pauline. Hannah's voice slurred as she spoke of her husband.
Speaker 1: We all make mistakes, she said. She's at her brother's house, Bruce,
Speaker 1: talking with him, his wife Shelley, and daughter Rose at
Speaker 1: their Hawks Bay farmhouse in November twenty nineteen. Rose had
Speaker 1: recorded part of that conversation, about twenty minutes of it,
Speaker 1: and it was played to the court in its entirety
Speaker 1: during Bruce's testimony.
Speaker 3: But I know he loves me.
Speaker 7: I know he's just such a he wants to have
Speaker 7: sex with everybody, videos of and I've got videos. And
Speaker 7: he's really hurt me to the extent that sometimes I thought, well,
Speaker 7: why am I living with him? But I love him
Speaker 7: and he loves me, and actually it's just his malfunction.
Speaker 1: Hannah said she was considering leaving her husband, but she
Speaker 1: loves him.
Speaker 3: He's a very busy person.
Speaker 7: This last year, I would gladly say goodbye, and I
Speaker 7: wish I never had it in my life, like it's
Speaker 7: been ugly bugly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you found me and you want to walk away.
Speaker 3: Well the two billion dollars cats from Philip. You were
Speaker 3: going to walk away, that's what you said to me. That.
Speaker 7: Yeah, that's the best of it. Actually beyondest. I've considered
Speaker 7: just chucking myself over that.
Speaker 3: I don't want to do that.
Speaker 7: No, no, I don't know that. But actually I love
Speaker 7: my husband. But he is somebody who is very angry
Speaker 7: with the will when the world doesn't go his way.
Speaker 7: We've just lost Willis and millions of dollars because of
Speaker 7: the shit that's happening at Auckland.
Speaker 1: Rose said she's worried about her aunt living with such
Speaker 1: an angry man.
Speaker 7: He does love me, and he's Lord without me, And
Speaker 7: I know you.
Speaker 3: Don't understand it. I know that if he takes his
Speaker 3: stress on you, they see that logic. But I guess
Speaker 3: it every day at the moment. But he doesn't love you,
Speaker 3: then he does love me. He does love me. He
Speaker 3: does because he becomes so remorsefully in any cries, Yeah,
Speaker 3: because he knows that he's got a good thing with you. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Pauline said her husband had been revolting a rendegrade, hurtful
Speaker 1: towards her, and besides, she's only sixty three. She doesn't
Speaker 1: want to be putting up with this behavior until she's
Speaker 1: ninety three. She said, she's not a doormat because you're not.
Speaker 3: Doing what ever the fuck you want. You know, you're
Speaker 3: not screwing some thirty year old underwear model.
Speaker 7: And she got quite a lot of men fancy me
Speaker 7: quite fro because as fucking hot, and I'm bloody good
Speaker 7: at what I do, and I've got a heap.
Speaker 3: Of men were actually quite like you. Had like twenty
Speaker 3: compliments today and you look gorgeous.
Speaker 1: She told her family about Polkinghorn screwing prostitute. Well, he's
Speaker 1: in Australia.
Speaker 3: Does he have like a regular woman.
Speaker 7: No, he screws prostitutes Australia. So that's the thing that
Speaker 7: gives me confidence that it's nothing regular going it's about
Speaker 7: And in fact, does he use he used condoms.
Speaker 8: I don't want to catch something. Here's the real kind
Speaker 8: of one pointing to get sick. But here's the real oil.
Speaker 7: I used to join the prostitutes and be part of
Speaker 7: the fucking thing.
Speaker 3: And so I have been with so many odd men and.
Speaker 7: So yeah, I'm telling you, you don't want to hear it, Rosie,
Speaker 7: you don't want to. But I did that because I
Speaker 7: wanted to make sure that he didn't go off the rails,
Speaker 7: that I was part of it, because then you were there.
Speaker 7: But now I can't do it anymore. Three years ago
Speaker 7: I decided I can't do this. I had to drink
Speaker 7: two bottles of wine before I go with another man.
Speaker 7: And it's just revolting and I hate it.
Speaker 3: It all makes.
Speaker 8: Sense now, but how can you say he loves you
Speaker 8: when he wants, he does participate, he likes.
Speaker 3: He likes, he likes. He just needs to have sex.
Speaker 7: That's why every day he was in Sydney the last
Speaker 7: two weekends and he would have contact, he would have
Speaker 7: contacted L.
Speaker 1: She said she's met one of them, who she refers
Speaker 1: to as L plenty of times.
Speaker 3: But L's a lovely woman heaps of time. Until three years.
Speaker 7: Ago it happened I would go to the parties of
Speaker 7: five and six and seven. Yeah loves me more than
Speaker 7: she loves Yeah, and she and she wants me to provide.
Speaker 7: You know, she'll pay you twenty k to come over
Speaker 7: and do a party on Sunday either.
Speaker 3: And while you're involved, that's fine because you're a philip
Speaker 3: and you're partaking in a party. And that's what.
Speaker 7: Disappoints me that that that he said to me doesn't
Speaker 7: want to do it anymore.
Speaker 3: So that's good. So I pulled down and your goes
Speaker 3: and so that's that's the thing.
Speaker 8: So when you're together, it's one thing, But when he's
Speaker 8: by himself, that's different.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but it's not love Rosie Poet six.
Speaker 1: If he had a girlfriend in Auckland, Hannah said, that
Speaker 1: would be a different story. She goes on to say
Speaker 1: she's not abused, although it admits she's living through some
Speaker 1: emotional bullying. She hopes he'll change.
Speaker 7: It's not not fair, it's not fear. And I'm not
Speaker 7: gonna sat myself up for someone you love, and I'm
Speaker 7: not gonna stuff myself up for them. I have got
Speaker 7: the most amazing role you have. I've got two ndred
Speaker 7: million dollars.
Speaker 3: Sometimes I don't either.
Speaker 7: I'm not gonna destro no, because if you give that up,
Speaker 7: then you lose your power. I'm not letting him destroy
Speaker 7: the power in but an he hates profect that I've
Speaker 7: got power.
Speaker 1: Hannah said. Polkinghorn is a complex character. If she needs
Speaker 1: to leave him, she will. Though her niece asks when
Speaker 1: the benchmark is or a deadline, she said probably mid
Speaker 1: next year. She mentions troubles at auckland Ie. He's been
Speaker 1: roped in to confront his behavior. She said she doesn't
Speaker 1: go into too much detail than that. She pleads with
Speaker 1: her family, don't hate Philip. He's a good man. He's
Speaker 1: going through a lot of stress, she said. She assured
Speaker 1: her worried niece, I'm safe. Darling. Hannah said she's emotionally battered,
Speaker 1: not physically. They say she's different when he's around, and
Speaker 1: that's a red flag to them. The conversation turns to
Speaker 1: Christmas plans and then fades. In his cross examination, Ron
Speaker 1: Mansfield asked Bruce Hannah about his sister's chill pills, as
Speaker 1: she calls them. Did Bruce ever ask Pauline why she
Speaker 1: was on the medication? He said he didn't.
Speaker 4: Are we going to hear evidence in this trial of
Speaker 4: Pauline disclosing an attempt to kill herself in nineteen ninety two,
Speaker 4: shortly after your father's death. Were you aware of that?
Speaker 3: I wasn't aware of that.
Speaker 1: Mansfield referred to medical records and asked Bruce hannah Weather
Speaker 1: he had known about any of it. He didn't. He
Speaker 1: started with two thousand and one, when she was prescribed
Speaker 1: to antidepressant medication. Her most recent prescription was February twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one. He describes prescriptions for appetite suppressants and her
Speaker 1: referrals to a psychiatrist.
Speaker 4: Twenty thirteen, she was diagnosed with alcohol dependent syndrome. Were
Speaker 4: you aware of that?
Speaker 7: It was not.
Speaker 4: She was reportedly drinking a bottle of wine, burned night
Speaker 4: over the previous ten years, and had frequent amnesia memory
Speaker 4: loss while affected by alcohol.
Speaker 3: I did not.
Speaker 1: That same year, Mansfield said she was prescribed a drug
Speaker 1: which was to discourage alcohol consumption, and diazepam, which is
Speaker 1: designed to treat anxiety and alcohol withdrawal. In March twenty nineteen,
Speaker 1: he said her medical records note Missus Polkinghorn's alcohol consumption
Speaker 1: reported to be above sensible limits.
Speaker 4: Twenty three December twenty nineteen, A note Missus Polkinghorn reported
Speaker 4: to be distressed and experiencing suicidal thoughts but had no plans.
Speaker 4: She was referred to the crisis team. Were aware of that?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 4: Accorded in the notes that Missus Polginghorn had long standing
Speaker 4: depression and alcohol abuse, regular prescription of florixotine and phantomene
Speaker 4: for the past fifteen years. It's a telephone consultation in
Speaker 4: which Missus Bognhorn was upset and crying, reported her mother
Speaker 4: was in hospital and her husband had left her, had
Speaker 4: suicidal thoughts but no plans, and that's when she's referred
Speaker 4: to the crisis team.
Speaker 5: Are you aware of that?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 1: Was not. Mansfield produced an email Hannah had sent to
Speaker 1: family members in May twenty twenty. In it, she wrote
Speaker 1: it was her first full day off in eight weeks.
Speaker 1: The Crowns Brian Dicky re examined Bruce, who reaffirmed he
Speaker 1: wasn't aware of any suicide attempt or any hospitalization. He
Speaker 1: thought she would have reached out twim given their close relationship.
Speaker 1: He didn't think she drank that much alcohol. She held
Speaker 1: down a very responsible job, he said. The trial continues tomorrow.
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: Siles and sound engineer Paddy Fox. Additional reporting from The Herald,
Speaker 1: Craig Capatan and George Block, and for more coverage of
Speaker 1: the Polkinghorn trail, head to Enzidhrald dot co dot nz