WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT
Weeks before Pauline Hanna was found dead under what were quickly deemed suspicious circumstances, her husband Dr Philip Polkinghorne had been called out at work for what was perceived to be erratic behaviour.
“It was very clear he hadn’t read the papers and was very agitated – in fact, outright rude to the staff,” Auckland Eye independent director Mark Conelly told jurors today at Polkinghorne’s murder trial, referring to the business’ March 2021 finance committee meeting. “It was an odd exchange where he went over a lot of ground that was just irrelevant ...
“Everyone was looking sideways, like, ‘What’s going on here?’”
Conelly was the latest in a parade of Auckland Eye employees who have been called to testify in the High Court at Auckland as Polkinghorne’s murder trial, scheduled for six weeks, reached the theoretical halfway point this afternoon.
Polkinghorne, 71, is accused of having strangled his wife before staging the scene in their Remuera home on April 5, 2021, to look like a suicide by hanging. The defence maintains that Hanna, 63, died by her own hand after decades of depression combined with elevated job stress helping to co-ordinate the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Conelly acknowledged that he and the defendant were not close – Polkinghorne had made it clear “on a number of occasions” he wanted someone with a medical degree in charge of the board – but they had a generally cordial and respectful working relationship.
But he was asked repeatedly today to recall details of the March 2021 meeting in which he said he felt it necessary to “call out” Polkinghorne for the “poor behaviour”.
“He was quite intimidating to the staff,” Conelly testified, describing it as a “tirade of verbiage” that went well beyond the subject of the meeting, which Polkinghorne had logged into late via Zoom. “I said, ‘You can’t behave like that. It’s inappropriate for a director.’”
Conelly also described receiving several long, difficult-to-understand emails from Polkinghorne – arriving in his inbox around midnight – during the two years he worked with the eye surgeon, and other meetings in which it appeared the accused man had drifted off to sleep.
“Nobody else was showing the level of fatigue that he was,” the witness said.
Conelly was also asked about an odd incident in October 2020, six months before Hanna’s death, in which a meth pipe was discovered inside Auckland Eye on a Monday morning. CCTV from the weekend showed the only people to have entered the clinic over the weekend were the chief executive, the chief financial officer, a cleaner and Polkinghorne.
Methamphetamine, which was found in various locations of Polkinghorne’s home after his wife’s death, has become a major part of the Crown’s narrative. It is contended the surgeon was high on the drug when he attacked his wife – possibly during an argument over the exorbitant amounts of money he had been spending on sex workers or his alleged “double life” with one specific sex worker.
Urine with traces of methamphetamine was found in the toilet attached to the guest bedroom where Polkinghorne said his wife slept alone before committing suicide. There were no traces of the drug found in Hanna’s blood, vitreous humor or hair. Polkinghorne, who gave a statement to police in the hours after her death during which he spoke very quickly and seemed to have trouble concentrating, was not tested.
The defendant pleaded guilty at the outset of his murder trial to two minor charges involving possession of the methamphetamine and meth pipe found in his home, but his lawyers have contended he wasn’t using the drug when his wife died.
Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield, KC, pointed out during cross-examination of Conelly that the workplace room where the meth pipe was found had been used for patients on the Thursday and Friday before the weekend. The meth pipe was never tested for fingerprints or DNA, he said.
As for Polkinghorne’s demeanour during the March 2021 meeting, he suggested his client had been frustrated with the Zoom connection and was angry because the materials for the meeting were not handed out early enough to adequately prepare. Conelly acknowledged that was a common complaint among board members but said it was the way Polkinghorne treated others – not the subject of his complaints – that stuck out.
Conelly’s testimony followed that of Auckland Eye ophthalmologist Susan Ormonde, who described for jurors another odd interaction with the defendant. It was the day before Hanna’s funeral and Polkinghorne had gone to Ormonde’s lifestyle property for lunch when they began to talk about his wife’s death, she recalled.
The defendant, she said, revealed to her that he was worried some things were going to come out – firstly, the couple’s sex life.
“What else?” the colleague recalled asking.
“Meth,” he replied.
Ormonde said she was torn by Polkinghorne’s admission, having to balance her roles as a supportive friend and as clinical director at Auckland Eye where they both worked.
“We were quite shocked,” she said of herself and her husband. “We weren’t expecting him to say meth.
“He asked us if we had ever had meth, to which we said no, and he said, ‘Well, you should.’”
Ormonde said she was “pretty certain” Polkinghorne also reported cocaine use but she was absolutely certain he mentioned the other drug. She asked him how recently he had used it and he said not in six months, she recalled, adding that she was left with the impression that Polkinghorne was saying both he and his wife had been users.
She reported it immediately to the company lawyer and to the Medical Protection Society, then later to the Auckland Eye shareholders meeting after an article in the Herald revealed the discovery of drugs in his home.
Ormonde agreed with the defence that she had never observed Polkinghorne to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol while at work.
Justice Graham Lang told jurors today that there will be no court on Monday, meaning week four of the trial won’t kick off until Tuesday morning. There have been some indications that the trial might last beyond the scheduled six weeks but the judge said today that it appears so far to be “broadly on schedule”.
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Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.
The Herald will be covering the case in a daily podcast, Accused: The Polkinghorne Trial. You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, through The Front Page feed, or wherever you get your podcasts.
The Police Association supports cameras but worries about costs.