Speaker 1: Kiyota. 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, will 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: How did Pauline Hannah die? That's the question for the jury,
Speaker 1: who for weeks will consider evidence and ultimately decide was
Speaker 1: it murder or suicide. It's also a question put to
Speaker 1: two different pathologists tasked with exploring how the sixty three
Speaker 1: year old died in her Remuera home in April twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one. Philip Polkinghorn is accused of murdering his wife,
Speaker 1: but maintains she took her own life. We also hear
Speaker 1: from a longtime friend of Pauline and about an incident
Speaker 1: that worried her and her husband, and we get the
Speaker 1: first glimpse into Philip's work life. What were the issues
Speaker 1: at Auckland I We've heard so much about. On day twelve,
Speaker 1: the Crown called forensic pathologist doctor Keelak Kesher of Auckland
Speaker 1: City Hospital. He conducted the autopsy of Pauline Hannah's body
Speaker 1: and he's done around four thousand of them over ten years.
Speaker 1: He did Hannah's post mortem on April sixth, twenty twenty one,
Speaker 1: the day after she was reported dead.
Speaker 2: There were particular which are small pinpoint hemorrhages on the face,
Speaker 2: the aural and the mouth, the contractarverrahs of the eyes.
Speaker 2: There was blood emerging from the right ear. There was
Speaker 2: an abrasion on her nose on the bridge of the nose, sorry,
Speaker 2: one on the left side of the nose, another abrasion
Speaker 2: on the left side of the back. There was a
Speaker 2: cluster of bruising on the back of the right arm.
Speaker 1: These small pinpoint hemorrhages or contusions are commonly seen when
Speaker 1: there's an obstruction to the neck veins. On the injuries
Speaker 1: to her nose, he said, any number of things could
Speaker 1: have happened. She could have fallen or been struck. You
Speaker 1: can never know.
Speaker 2: There was no evidence of any healing or like a
Speaker 2: scab formation on the injury, so it was quite recent.
Speaker 3: Beyond quite recent. Can you be more particular on timing.
Speaker 4: No, all I can say is at or around time
Speaker 4: and death.
Speaker 1: Red discoloration on her back was different to a scrape
Speaker 1: and indicated lividity when the blood begins to pull in
Speaker 1: a part of the body after death.
Speaker 2: So if you die and line your back, the blood
Speaker 2: will pull to the towards your back.
Speaker 3: And so that's the reddening we can see here. Yes,
Speaker 3: how quickly will it occur or repair?
Speaker 2: It'd say they If you read the textbook, they say
Speaker 2: about thirty minutes to three hours it starts to appear,
Speaker 2: and then there's maximum around about twelve hours ten ten hours, So.
Speaker 5: Any time between that period, depending how you're placed post there,
Speaker 5: the levedity may present in that area or certain areas. Yes,
Speaker 5: associated with how you've been positioned, how their bodies positioned.
Speaker 4: Yes.
Speaker 1: On the back of a right arm, there were several
Speaker 1: round purple bruises in a.
Speaker 2: Cluster vindicative of anything or are they say again mechanism
Speaker 2: injury is a blunt impact. We see them quite often
Speaker 2: if someone is held and those are the things marks
Speaker 2: on the back of the arm.
Speaker 5: Right So you're not saying that are at your finglets,
Speaker 5: but that's they could.
Speaker 4: Be absolutely correct.
Speaker 3: You can't look at that and say, therefore summon's being held.
Speaker 4: No, I can't say that for sure.
Speaker 1: The bruises on the arms had no signs of yellow
Speaker 1: wing that would indicate that they were older bruises, he said.
Speaker 1: Onto the belt impression on her neck, Kesha said he
Speaker 1: had seen it himself at the scene, a criss cross
Speaker 1: pattern on the right side. An officer there alerted him
Speaker 1: to a belt found. He said that looked identical with these.
Speaker 3: Taken at the post mortem.
Speaker 2: Yes, this is taken out of the post mortem roughly
Speaker 2: twenty hours later, and as you can see, there is
Speaker 2: no markings left right.
Speaker 5: So the markings have gone away to some greater or
Speaker 5: lesser extent. Yes, what does that suggest to you? Was
Speaker 5: there any bruising underneath the skin?
Speaker 4: No, there was no bruising under the skin or the
Speaker 4: muscles of the neck.
Speaker 3: And what does that sug you see?
Speaker 2: You in the terms care thought that there was an object,
Speaker 2: most likely the belt on the neck.
Speaker 4: After death.
Speaker 1: The shape of the marks on her neck was also
Speaker 1: more consistent with a ligature applied from directly behind her,
Speaker 1: rather than one secured to a point above, like the
Speaker 1: balustrade where the orange rope was tied. That being said,
Speaker 1: his final finding was that she died via neck compression,
Speaker 1: a broad finding that encompasses manual or ligature strangulations, hangings,
Speaker 1: and auto erotic asphyxiation. Normally, though Kesha said, when people
Speaker 1: are strangled there'd be more injuries.
Speaker 2: But normally with people that have that are strangled, they
Speaker 2: have a lot more injuries, not just to the neck
Speaker 2: and the face, but also the arms, hands, even the legs.
Speaker 5: We do have some injuries to the arm in this case. Yes,
Speaker 5: so what are you saying they're not enough to provide.
Speaker 2: You I would normally see a lot more than what
Speaker 2: I saw necessarily, so it's not necessary if she subdued
Speaker 2: some other way.
Speaker 1: On cross examination, Ron Mansfield asked about the belt mark.
Speaker 1: He quickly had kesher can see the belt could have
Speaker 1: been used in her death then removed shortly after she died,
Speaker 1: and if it had.
Speaker 6: Been removed one to two perhaps longer hours after her death,
Speaker 6: then that might also explain. Might it not why it
Speaker 6: was seen on the fifth but it wasn't seen on
Speaker 6: the six.
Speaker 4: It's possible, but I'd say it's less than two hours.
Speaker 6: Well, we can agree the time period might be one.
Speaker 4: To two hours couldn't we It's possible yet.
Speaker 3: Well, both possibilities.
Speaker 6: Are equal, aren't they.
Speaker 4: Yes, So the.
Speaker 6: Absence of the belt impression by the time you do
Speaker 6: the autopsy on the sixth simply means one of two things.
Speaker 6: Perhaps it was placed on her neck after.
Speaker 4: Her death, yes, Or.
Speaker 3: She was discovered dead and.
Speaker 6: It was removed one to two hours following her death. Yes,
Speaker 6: And you can't tell us, can you which one of
Speaker 6: those is more likely than the other.
Speaker 4: That's correct, They can't.
Speaker 1: Mansfield pointed out that the talk of the belt impression
Speaker 1: was not included in his report.
Speaker 4: Why not include it, I've never included in the past.
Speaker 6: Well on how many occasions have you undertaken an autopsy
Speaker 6: having seen it the scene, an impression or literature mark,
Speaker 6: and then.
Speaker 4: The next day not seen it.
Speaker 6: Never So, given that, and if you thought it was significant,
Speaker 6: why would you not report on it within your autopsy report?
Speaker 4: I just didn't report it.
Speaker 7: But nonetheless, doctor, even if you thought then that this
Speaker 7: might be significant, it doesn't appear to have had any
Speaker 7: bearing whatsoever on your ultimate conclusion in your report.
Speaker 2: The reason I didn't report it is I thought it'd
Speaker 2: be there during the post mortem, So first time I've
Speaker 2: ever had one disappear.
Speaker 6: Well, when it didn't, when it didn't appear on post mortem.
Speaker 6: And although you've told us that there are two explanations
Speaker 6: for this, it would not be difficult to report on
Speaker 6: it within your report, would it.
Speaker 4: It's correct, but you chose not to. That's correct because
Speaker 4: it had no.
Speaker 6: Significance if, in fact was noted, did it?
Speaker 4: It's incorrect?
Speaker 6: Well does it impact on your ultimate conclusion within your report?
Speaker 4: No? Well, why does it today, doctor, I don't understand.
Speaker 6: Well, why does it today impact on what you can
Speaker 6: tell us?
Speaker 4: Why is it today?
Speaker 6: For the first time, you're telling us that the position
Speaker 6: of the belt impression might have some significance.
Speaker 2: I've told the police from day one, Well.
Speaker 6: Where is it within your report?
Speaker 4: I didn't put on my report?
Speaker 1: Okay, As you conceded, the direction of the belt impression
Speaker 1: didn't have an impact on his overall conclusion of neck
Speaker 1: compression as the cause of death, which did not rule
Speaker 1: out the possibility of suicide by hanging. Mansfield brings up
Speaker 1: the lack of injuries one might see in someone who's
Speaker 1: been manually strangled.
Speaker 4: So even if.
Speaker 6: And there's an absence of any evidence on this, but
Speaker 6: even if a choker hold was applied, then there's just
Speaker 6: no injury that you observed on missus Polkinghorn, or any
Speaker 6: injury reported to you on doctor Polkinghorn. There might be
Speaker 6: consistent with any form of resistance by missus Polkinghorn.
Speaker 4: Correct, that's correct.
Speaker 1: He goes through her injuries. The pinpoint hemorrhages, for example,
Speaker 1: could be a result of suicide by hanging. Bruises on
Speaker 1: her right arm, which he earlier said were consistent with
Speaker 1: being grabbed, were difficult to age and could have been
Speaker 1: caused Kesher agreed by Hannah being steadied by a personal
Speaker 1: trainer at the gym. The trial heard earlier she'd been
Speaker 1: at a personal training session in the days before her death.
Speaker 1: Mansfield asked about the abrasion on her nose.
Speaker 6: Are you able to tell us whether they occurred before
Speaker 6: her death or whether they could have occurred shortly.
Speaker 4: After her death at or around time of death.
Speaker 6: So, for example, if she was moved one to two
Speaker 6: hours after her death and her knees came into contact
Speaker 6: with a surface, either the floor, a wall, or a step,
Speaker 6: then that might explain such abrasions. No help me with that.
Speaker 2: And then because there's a hemorrhage under the ambrasion on
Speaker 2: the nose, so she was alive when it occurred.
Speaker 1: Mansfield asked the pathologist on the particulars of full suspension
Speaker 1: versus partial suspension hangings. Both the judge and lawyers have
Speaker 1: urged extreme caution in reporting these details, and we've chosen
Speaker 1: to leave out much of what was said about the
Speaker 1: particulars of the method. Essentially, what we know is that
Speaker 1: a full suspension is when someone's feet are off the floor.
Speaker 1: A partial one could be when someone's sitting or slumping.
Speaker 1: He goes on to clarify there aren't any indications that
Speaker 1: Pauline was fighting back, but.
Speaker 4: Also just in the fight.
Speaker 6: While the assailant is applied the required pressure through their
Speaker 6: hands to their neck, not only might we see variable
Speaker 6: bruises with shape and intensity to their neck on the outside,
Speaker 6: we are also likely to see bruises to the rest
Speaker 6: of their body correct yes, reflecting the fact that they're
Speaker 6: held down or pinned down, yes, or that they're punched
Speaker 6: or kicked.
Speaker 4: That's correct.
Speaker 1: So we don't see bruises on her neck. No scratches
Speaker 1: and other injuries on her are minor. Kesha agreed. You
Speaker 1: can tell the difference. If an injury is caused due
Speaker 1: to being restrained, you'd see bruises around the rest if
Speaker 1: they're being held down. For instance, the finger type bruising
Speaker 1: on her arms was light, they'd be more intense. Kesha
Speaker 1: said they spoke more about lividity. This can happen as
Speaker 1: soon as thirty minutes after death. Mansfield mentions the defense
Speaker 1: pathologists view that areas of Hannah's body suggest she was
Speaker 1: sitting when she died.
Speaker 6: That that postward and lividity has moved when she's been
Speaker 6: taken off the chair and laid on the ground.
Speaker 3: Yes, because that's what occurs. Correct. Yes, so whilst post.
Speaker 6: Wartem lividity might be obvious if she had remained on
Speaker 6: the chair, given that she was moved and laid down
Speaker 6: on the ground, the post wartem lividity has moved consistent
Speaker 6: with lying flat on the ground.
Speaker 2: Yes, so after about ten hours, it becomes fixed. Before
Speaker 2: ten hours, no matter if you move the body delibery,
Speaker 2: it can change.
Speaker 1: Brian Dickey then had a chance to clarify a few things.
Speaker 1: When we say Hannah's injuries weren't indicative of a violent assault,
Speaker 1: what does that mean that.
Speaker 2: None of them were path and your monarka of or
Speaker 2: Pathan monarka of an assault?
Speaker 4: What does that mean that none of the.
Speaker 2: Injuries that I found or saw are consistent with a assault?
Speaker 3: Could they have been caused by the soul? Yes?
Speaker 5: So, I think the words my learned friend use with
Speaker 5: you were in with the indicative of an assault, and
Speaker 5: I think you've indicated they're not indicative injuries.
Speaker 4: That's correct.
Speaker 5: Does that exclude them from having occurred in an assault?
Speaker 4: No? They could have occurred during an assault.
Speaker 1: What about a choke hold? Can only someone train to
Speaker 1: do one do it?
Speaker 5: You've been asked about the chokehold variously and at different
Speaker 5: times referred to police officers and the sas officers for reasons.
Speaker 3: I mean, a friend knows. Do you need to be
Speaker 3: expert to apply a choke hold?
Speaker 4: I'm not an expert. I read a lot. I think
Speaker 4: I could apply it.
Speaker 1: The abrasion on her back isn't the usual scrape marks
Speaker 1: you'd see if a body had been dragged, And.
Speaker 5: If the body's carried rather than dragged, would you expect
Speaker 5: to see any marks from that?
Speaker 8: No?
Speaker 5: If the body was inside of something else, something soft,
Speaker 5: like a blanket or something, you expect to see marks
Speaker 5: to the body if it.
Speaker 4: Was carried or dragged.
Speaker 1: No, and then onto choke holds.
Speaker 5: Gus about the likelihood of injuries in a violence attack
Speaker 5: causing a homicide attacker.
Speaker 4: Have you considered it if it was by surprise, Yes?
Speaker 5: What about if it was by surprise, there'd be less
Speaker 5: injuries if a choke hold was applied.
Speaker 1: Next was doctor Martin Sage. He's a forensic pathologist as well.
Speaker 1: He started doing homicide cases in nineteen eighty nine. He's
Speaker 1: undertaken more than ten thousand autopsies. I stopped counting a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago. He said he couldn't determine one
Speaker 1: way or another whether the beltmark on her neck happened
Speaker 1: before or after death. He spoke of something called a
Speaker 1: corrotid hold, which is different to a choke hold.
Speaker 9: And I've been listening here this morning, and I want
Speaker 9: to make very clear the distinction between a choker hold
Speaker 9: and a carotid hold. So when people talk about a
Speaker 9: choker hold, they mean you're using your hands on the
Speaker 9: neck like that, whereas.
Speaker 4: A carotid hold is a very specific.
Speaker 9: Martial arts move that you have the front of somebody's
Speaker 9: neck and the crock of your elbow, and as you
Speaker 9: move this towards your shoulder, you squeeze both sides of
Speaker 9: the neck and that cuts off both the venus and
Speaker 9: the arterial drainage and people go unconscious very quickly.
Speaker 4: Indeed, I've seen this done.
Speaker 1: Sage said, you can kill someone without causing injuries.
Speaker 4: From a diagnostic point of view.
Speaker 9: As a forensic pathologist, it's really nice if they're there,
Speaker 9: and it's terribly inconvenient if they're not, But they're absence
Speaker 9: doesn't prove that it didn't happen.
Speaker 1: Essentially, net compressions are always a problem for pathologists because
Speaker 1: the extent of the injuries very considerably.
Speaker 5: I think you will have heard questioning about injuries not
Speaker 5: present on her is does that really establish anything to
Speaker 5: your mind that she doesn't have certain.
Speaker 3: Types of injuries.
Speaker 9: We're not alone as a part of medicine in the
Speaker 9: fact that positive findings are very useful, but negative findings
Speaker 9: don't exclude things.
Speaker 1: So to summarize, the jury spent Day twelve listening to
Speaker 1: evidence from those two New Zealand pathologists who both came
Speaker 1: upon the agreed conclusion Pauline Hannah died from a net compression.
Speaker 1: For coverage of other news events in New Zealand, from
Speaker 1: foreign interference on our shores to new sanctions for beneficiaries.
Speaker 1: Listen to the front page The Herald's daily news podcast
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts. Day thirteen began with testimony
Speaker 1: from Pauline Hannah's friend Alison Ring. She requested not to
Speaker 1: be filmed or recorded, but you'll remember we can report
Speaker 1: what she said. Ring met Hannah through Polkinghorn. Her husband's
Speaker 1: not phomologists too. That'd meet for dinner when on walking holidays.
Speaker 1: They had a canal barge holiday in France. She spoke
Speaker 1: to Hannah about her mother's death. She said she was coping.
Speaker 1: Ring said her friend's last words to her were, Polk
Speaker 1: has been trying his best over the last few weeks.
Speaker 1: She remembered he was agitated about what was happening at
Speaker 1: auckland I, and Hannah was worried about his mental health.
Speaker 1: Hannah had told Ring that polking Horn was argumentative, condescending
Speaker 1: and putting her down. She also confided in her friend
Speaker 1: Polk's having an affair. Hannah had apparently broken into his
Speaker 1: computer saw obscene photography. She said, I don't care how
Speaker 1: many prostitutes he fucks in Sydney, but he's not going
Speaker 1: to have anybody in my space. She remembers her friend
Speaker 1: saying Hannah said she was going to see a lawyer
Speaker 1: and sought out her will and finances. If he doesn't
Speaker 1: give her up, I'm leaving him, she said. Ring said
Speaker 1: polking Horn told her after Hannah's death, I've let her down.
Speaker 1: I wish I was dead and I wish I was
Speaker 1: with her. Ring supported him. After the death. She was
Speaker 1: asked by Dicky if that changed. She said, yes, it
Speaker 1: did slightly, she said. After the news had broke that
Speaker 1: meth was found in the Remuera home, Polkinghorn claimed it
Speaker 1: was Pauline's. Ring also said she was devastated to learn
Speaker 1: he'd been in Mount Cook with escort Madison Ashton only
Speaker 1: weeks after his wife's death. The biggest upset, said Ring,
Speaker 1: was when Polkinghorn came around one evening with a little
Speaker 1: bit of paper and claimed she did leave a suicide note.
Speaker 1: Ring said it read dear p I Love you forever
Speaker 1: from p all words to that effect. Polkinghorn said it
Speaker 1: was in the bedding. Ring remembers being very distressed about this.
Speaker 1: It didn't sit well with her. The note incident happened
Speaker 1: after he was charged with murder. In his cross examination,
Speaker 1: Ron Mansfield asked about the no note the conversation took
Speaker 1: place after he was charged. She maintained she told police
Speaker 1: of it well after she made her initial statement. Mansfield
Speaker 1: suggested she was mistaken about the purpose of why Polkinghorn
Speaker 1: showed her the note. She reiterates the conversation about Hannah's
Speaker 1: suspicions of another woman. The topic wasn't raised again because
Speaker 1: she hadn't left him. She assumed that worked it out.
Speaker 1: She also knew of Polkinghorn's frustrations at Auckland Eye and
Speaker 1: that he was going to try and get onto the board.
Speaker 1: Victoria Pheasant Riordan took to the stand. She goes by Pheasant.
Speaker 1: Her and her husband John live in the Hawk's Bay.
Speaker 1: She met Hannah when she was seventeen years old. They
Speaker 1: ended up flooding together in Candala in about nineteen seventy
Speaker 1: eight for six or seven months. They were doing a
Speaker 1: secretarial course at the Wellington Polytech. Pauline was a bridesmaid
Speaker 1: at her wedding in nineteen eighty four. Pheasant would be
Speaker 1: matron of honor at Pauline and Philip's wedding and Havelock North.
Speaker 1: Pauline was the Randan's son's godmother. Pheasant says Philip was
Speaker 1: very controlling from the get go. She'd always make excuses
Speaker 1: for him. She said. She told the court of a
Speaker 1: time Pauline visited in twenty twenty. They had dinner, they
Speaker 1: got onto the subject of her marriage.
Speaker 10: She became quite agitated, and she described to us that
Speaker 10: Philip had done this to her.
Speaker 3: It were just kept that in our records.
Speaker 8: So you've got your hands across one another up around.
Speaker 10: Union yes, with the thuns on either side of the windpipe,
Speaker 10: and that he had done that to her and told
Speaker 10: her that he could do that anytime. So she took
Speaker 10: that as a threat, a real threat.
Speaker 11: That he might do that to her.
Speaker 1: Pheasant and her husband, John immediately said she needed to
Speaker 1: leave him. They knew there were emotional problems, financial issues,
Speaker 1: but this was the first time she told them of
Speaker 1: anything physical happening. She got emotional on the stand, remembering
Speaker 1: the conversation with her.
Speaker 11: Friend that that it would be okay.
Speaker 4: I think that's what she said. I'm sorry.
Speaker 10: We were really quite stressed and wanted her to leave,
Speaker 10: but at that point.
Speaker 4: She kind of.
Speaker 1: Pheasant text Pauline the next day she said to her
Speaker 1: friend she wished she could help take her pain away.
Speaker 1: You are so strong, it read, and we are here
Speaker 1: for you if you run out of that strong.
Speaker 8: See there's sentence where she says, it was such a
Speaker 8: treat to spend time with you and Connor. Yes, and
Speaker 8: underneath that, don't worry about me. I will be fine,
Speaker 8: as you say, I am strong.
Speaker 4: Yes.
Speaker 8: Is it the sort of thing you were referring to before,
Speaker 8: the sort of don't worry type yes suggestion.
Speaker 4: Yes.
Speaker 1: She saw Pauline on more occasions in twenty twenty when
Speaker 1: she went down to visit her ailing mother Fae. Pheasant
Speaker 1: saw her at Fay's funeral in February twenty twenty one
Speaker 1: and said her friend seemed in control, but sad. She
Speaker 1: stayed with the couple in Auckland once. She can't remember
Speaker 1: when it was.
Speaker 10: Yeah, she's really animated and excited. And then Philip came home.
Speaker 8: When Philip came home, and what what do you mean
Speaker 8: by that?
Speaker 4: Well, the whole mood changed.
Speaker 1: Crown Solicitor Alicia McClintock asked about whether she knew Pauline
Speaker 1: took antidepressants.
Speaker 8: We've heard evidence in this trial that Pauline took antidepressants.
Speaker 4: Is that something you were aware of? Oh yeah, I
Speaker 4: mean who doesn't.
Speaker 10: Sorry, it was not something that was of concern. It
Speaker 10: was just a thing. It's like I'm taking my heart pills.
Speaker 10: I mean it was. Yes, Yes, we were aware that
Speaker 10: she was taking antidepressants.
Speaker 1: Pauline had told her about Philip's insatiable desire to have sex,
Speaker 1: but that was about the extent of it. On cross examination,
Speaker 1: Ron Mansfield asked Pheasant about her and Pauline's early days.
Speaker 6: I can see by the information that you provide the
Speaker 6: police that at that time you were both quite heavy drinkers.
Speaker 4: By the looks of it, I.
Speaker 10: Think we lived on potato soup and whiskey. But I mean,
Speaker 10: obviously we were studying, so it wasn't it wasn't a
Speaker 10: big It wasn't a big thing.
Speaker 4: It wasn't a get drunk thing. It was just a
Speaker 4: bit of a joke, right.
Speaker 1: She spoke about being concerned about Pauline's drinking at one
Speaker 1: stage and telling her so, but she thought she'd cut back.
Speaker 1: He asked whether Pauline had spoken to her about being
Speaker 1: stressed at work, Pheasant can't recall, but she said Pauline
Speaker 1: enjoyed what she was doing. They spoke about twenty nineteen
Speaker 1: being a terrible year. She agreed Polkinghorn's issues at auckland
Speaker 1: I and the financial trouble was it caused added to
Speaker 1: it being a bad year. At the dinner where Pauline
Speaker 1: confided in her friends, Philip had taken to her neck
Speaker 1: with his hands. Pheasant admits she doesn't remember the exact
Speaker 1: words she used, but took it to mean he could
Speaker 1: do it at any time. Pheasant and Mansfield ran through
Speaker 1: a series of text messages between the pair, lots of exes,
Speaker 1: hearts and flower emojis, and a mention of a poem,
Speaker 1: one that would later be read out at Hannah's funeral.
Speaker 1: Dean Corbett, an ophthalmologist, took to the stand. He's worked
Speaker 1: at Auckland Eyre since two thousand and worked with Polkinghorn
Speaker 1: he met him in nineteen ninety one. He gave the
Speaker 1: court a glimpse into the inner workings of the practice.
Speaker 1: All members are equal shareholders. There are now eighteen of them,
Speaker 1: and they buy shares into the practice that is led
Speaker 1: by a board of directors. Around two thousand and nine,
Speaker 1: it moved to being an appointed, smaller board with some
Speaker 1: independent directors. Positions are voted on at the AGM and
Speaker 1: terms of about two or three years. People can be
Speaker 1: re elected for a maximum of three terms. This is
Speaker 1: important because the trials already heard on several occasions Polkinghorn
Speaker 1: was having troubles at auckland I and he was hoping
Speaker 1: to get onto the board. This is the first testimony, though,
Speaker 1: that focuses on those issues. Corbett said Polkinghorn had a
Speaker 1: short fuse and an intolerance to things going wrong in
Speaker 1: the operating theater. He would get very upset if there
Speaker 1: would be something going wrong about the theater staff's performance,
Speaker 1: he said, but it was never vindictive and always in
Speaker 1: the patient's best interest, he said. Corbett said that when
Speaker 1: he was chairman about twenty eighteen twenty nineteen, there were
Speaker 1: some complaints from theater staff about Polkinghorn's aggressiveness to them personally.
Speaker 1: Auckland I told Polkinghorn to improve his conduct and approach
Speaker 1: to theater staff while operating, and Corbett told police the
Speaker 1: surgeon had made an effort to change. In the year
Speaker 1: before Hannah's death, he was more emotional and seemed like
Speaker 1: a different person. A surprise exit of two doctors around
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen caused some stress. There was a rewriting of
Speaker 1: the shareholder agreement, which was interpreted in different ways by
Speaker 1: those leaving and those who remained, and a disagreement ensued.
Speaker 1: Corbett said Polkinghorn was very concerned about getting the same
Speaker 1: exit value as those two other doctors. After Hannah died,
Speaker 1: there was a shareholder meeting that Polkinghorn wasn't at. It
Speaker 1: was raised he'd told another doctor he'd been using meth
Speaker 1: and they reported it to the Medical Council. On cross examination,
Speaker 1: Ron Mansfield asked about Polkinghorn's work as a vitrio retinal specialist,
Speaker 1: which focuses on the rear of the eye and as
Speaker 1: often the last chance saloon before someone goes blind. He
Speaker 1: agreed Polkinghorn had an excellent reputation within this profession. He
Speaker 1: was internationally respected for his work. He'd invested a considerable
Speaker 1: amount of money into Auckland Eye and when he retired
Speaker 1: after Hannah's death, it was like an end of an era.
Speaker 1: Mansfield asked about Polkinghorn being stressed when the two other
Speaker 1: doctors left in difficult circumstances, in twenty nineteen because their
Speaker 1: two payouts meant the practice was not so well placed
Speaker 1: to pay him out upon his proposed retirement. Corbett agreed
Speaker 1: their departure created huge issues and endangered the company, requiring
Speaker 1: legal advice. Corbett said the practice was one hundred percent
Speaker 1: behind Philip and trying to engineer the best possible retirement
Speaker 1: for him. Mansfield asked if Polkinghorn was ultimately offered four
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty thousand dollars upon retirement. Corbett isn't sure,
Speaker 1: but he agreed the other specialists received more like six
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty thousand dollars. He agreed Polkinghorn might have
Speaker 1: found it hard to take on a personal and professional level.
Speaker 1: The trial continues tomorrow. You can listen to episodes of
Speaker 1: Accused the Polkinghorn Trial through the front Page podcast feed
Speaker 1: or find it on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: This series is present and produced by me Chelsea Daniels,
Speaker 1: with producer Ethan Siles and sound engineer Patty 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 Enzidhrold
Speaker 1: dot co, dot nz,