Surgeon Philip Polkinghorne is charged with the murder of his wife, Pauline Hanna. Photo / Michael Craig
Surgeon Philip Polkinghorne is charged with the murder of his wife, Pauline Hanna. Photo / Michael Craig
WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT
Following an argument in March, 2019, in which Philip Polkinghorne told wife Pauline Hanna the past two and a half decades together had been a waste, Hanna typed out her thoughts of despair.
“HURT HURT HURT -- in fact, wrecked,” she said in a Microsoft Word document – read aloud to jurors this morning at Polkinghorne’s murder trial.
“All these years (27) did I get it wrong that he was the only person who truly loved me as his number 1. I was number 1 in someone’s life – as he was in mine – have we got that wrong. ?? God what a prospect – I cannot live if that is the result that I got it wrong.”
The revelation came as jurors spent a second day delving into the contents of the couple’s laptops, listening to evidence from Constable Madeleine Palmer, who produced 1200 pages of documents before narrowing them down to a 92-page evidence booklet.
Polkinghorne, now 71, had been on trial for the past four weeks – accused of having fatally strangled Hanna, 63, before staging the scene inside their Remuera home on the morning of April 5, 2021, to look like a suicide by hanging. He has pleaded not guilty, insisting through his lawyers that his wife had killed herself after years of depression and mounting stress.
STORY CONTINUES AFTER LIVE BLOG
Warning: Some readers might find the contents of this live blog distressing.
KEY POINTS:
Retired eye surgeon Philip Polkinghorne has pleaded not guilty to murdering wife Pauline Hanna at Easter 2021.
The Crown alleges Polkinghorne, 71, strangled his wife and staged her death to look like a suicide at their Remuera home. The defence says there is no evidence of a homicide.
Herald reporter George Block is filing live from the Auckland High Court. Follow our live updates below.
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Pinned
23 August, 04:48 am
Justice Lang's last words to the jury
Justice Lang calls an end to the fourth week of the trial, until 10am Monday, when Reeves will continue to give evidence about what he found on Hanna's phone.
"We're getting towards the tail end of the Crown witness list," the judge tells the jury.
He says the Crown case should finish early next week.
The trial is set for six weeks and next week will be fifth.
"As far as I can tell I think we are still on target," but we'll know more next week, he says.
Justice Lang directs the jury to keep an open mind.
"There's a long way to go," he says.
"Don't come to any conclusions at this stage, it's far too early for that, and again just remember we're getting to the sharp end of the trial, so it's just absolutely essentially you don't discuss this case with anyone over the weekend."
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23 August, 04:34 am
The last interaction was on April 4 at 10.47pm, when it was plugged into a charger.
Reeves says the final entry was a calendar appointment Hanna had created for "dinner with PJP", saved for April 5, at 7pm.
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23 August, 04:32 am
The police digital forensic unit also extracted data from Hanna's Iphone 8.
At 6.06pm, April 4, she sent a message to Rose Hanna.
About 7pm and 8pm she sent messages to colleague Sharon Alabastro, whom the trial heard from earlier.
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23 August, 04:27 am
Polkinghorne had saved details of knot tying techniques on USB drive
The drive included more deleted naked images of Ashton. Six images and three videos were found on another drive - most were of Ashton.
Another drive held 51 videos, 43 were pornographic - 12 of Ashton - and 380 photos, 174 of which were pornographic, many of Ashton.
There were also 35 photos of Pauline Hanna, fully clothed.
There were also numerous naked selfies of various other women sent to Polkinghorne, Reeves said.
The drive also held screenshotted and saved Whatsapp conversations with Madison Ashton, covering arrangements to meet for sex.
The police also found an invoice from the Jake Ryan Group for four hours for $2000 on November 10, 2017.
There was also a text worker to sex worker companion Lee, who has already been mentioned at the trial, "in regards to meeting her and having sex with other males".
More drives held more porn videos and more images of Ashton and Lee.
"There was also multiple saved images of knot-tying techniques," says Reeves.
Yet another drive had about 4000 images of Ashton, under her alias Christine McQueen.
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23 August, 04:21 am
Another photo showed a meth pipe next to a glass pipe with "Sweet Puff" written on the side.
"I've seized many meth pipes," says Reeves. New ones are clear and used ones are frosted.
Polkinghorne can be seen in a reflection.
"He's naked while taking a photo."
Earlier evidence showed the meth pipe found at Auckland Eye had Sweet Puff written on the side.
An investigation conducted by the firm's lawyers could not identify who left the pipe in a laser room in October 2020.
Reeves tells the court six USB drives had images or data of note. One had 113 images, 20 were pornographic, 13 of Ashton.
There were 31 deleted videos, most pornographic.
Another had a loan agreement document that had Polkinghorne as the lender and Madison Ashton as the borrower, to the amount of about $90,000.
Videos on the drive were taken inside Ashton's apartment and Polkinghorne appeared to be filming as his reflection was in the mirrors.
Further images showed Ashton in a bedroom with her Chihuahuas.
The images were taken in June 2019.
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23 August, 04:16 am
Polkinghorne accessed Whatsapp minutes before calling police, but messages later deleted, detective says
7.03am to 8.05am: the phone was locked into a landscape orientation, Reeves says.
8.06am: flight mode was switched off and Whatsapp used, but the messages were deleted, Reeves says.
8.10am: the mobile phone app makes an outgoing call, later confirmed to be to Ruth Hughes, Polkinghorne's sister.
Reeves moves to the many hard drives and USB sticks police seized during their investigation.
He reviewed 18 USB drives in total, he says, and six of the drives contained data of interest.
A photo taken on June 22, 2019 was recovered from the first drive. The investigation team later added rectangles to areas of interest to the photo, which shows a woman on a bed. Her face is not visible. But two Chihuahuas on the bed led police to believe the woman was Madison Ashton.
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23 August, 04:10 am
1.17am: the note application was used.
1.19am to 1.20am: the photos and videos app was used. 1.45am to 1.49am: the photos and videos app was used again.
2.04am to 2.05am: the photos and videos apps was used again.
2.16am: an email was received from Norton Lifelock.com and the photos and videos app was again used.
2.44am: the phone's display was switched off.
6.46am to 7.03am: the phone was unlocked and the display was on.
The photos and videos app was used until 8.05am - the orientation changed on the phone around the same time.
8.05am: the mobile phone app was used, but because flight mode was still on, there was no connection.
Pinned
23 August, 04:06 am
Also at 11.16pm, the phone was locked and the display turned off.
At 1.10am the phone was unlocked and Whatsapp was accessed until 1.17am.
Reeves does not know what Whatsapp was used for that night. The trial has heard messages before April 5 are missing, despite screenshots showing earlier messages.
The phone was then put in flight mode.
Pinned
23 August, 04:04 am
He returns to Polkinghorne's iPhone.
Reeves said the data he extracted showed all sorts of events in the "acute period" - the days before Hanna's death - including when a phone was used, locked, when its settings were changed and other changes.
From that, he produced a timeline of the phone's activities.
Starting April 4, on 6.17pm, the day before Hanna is reported dead, Polkinghorne received a message from Hanna stating she was on her way back, referring to a visit to the tip.
Two hours later, at 8.17pm, Polkinghorne gets a message from Hanna stating "more than that I think P".
At 10.01pm a Safari web search on Polkinghorne's phone looked for a documentary on Three Now called The Price of Fish, Reeves sys.
At 11.16pm, the Whatsapp application on the phone was accessed.
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23 August, 03:57 am
After a short recess, Prosecutor Brian Dickey continues to lead Detective Andrew Reeves through his evidence.
Reeves now refers to messages taken from an iPhone belonging to Madison Ashton. The trial heard earlier her phones were seized by police when they arrived at a Mt Cook Lodge where she was staying with Polkinghorne 25 days after Hanna's death.
The messages show screenshots of videos from Polkinghorne's police interview. Another video shows a photo of the wound on his head.
The laptops revealed a couple grappling with relationship turmoil: Hanna’s suspicions about infidelity, Polkinghorne’s frequent searches for sex workers and his money and attention directed at Sydney escort Madison Ashton. It also included a sex tape of Polkinghorne and Ashton and a 2019 “goal setting” document of the surgeon’s in which he listed one of his immediate goals to “avoid cocaine, marijuana, heroin, LSD, methamphetamine”.
But the March, 2019 document by Hanna was the most direct reference jurors have seen to self-harm.
The “I cannot live” reference is the fourth-to-last paragraph in the three-page document, which appears to have been last viewed by Hanna on August 29, 2020. The letter concludes:
“I try my gutz out for Philip and everyone – and there are days when nothing is right. He is my life so why does he not get that? He picks me up when I am second fiddle I (actually 3rd) with the children – I spend hours trying to do the right thing by him. He spends lots of time on my well-being too – but why can’t my efforts be as good as his to me? I don’t know what to do. I do know that this is not sustainable for Philip or me.
“I cannot express my love, admiration, return his love and that fact that I treasure the fact that he loves me first, more than all that I have done – I am lost.......
“???????”
Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield noted that “all of their lives are being shared with the community through this trial”, but the letters appeared to be “private communications between a couple who seem at that point to have their issues”. It’s something the jury should bear in mind, he suggested.
Palmer also referred again today to a pair of letters the couple wrote each other, both with creation dates listed as January 2020. But she confirmed today that the letter from Polkinghorne appears to have been penned in late December 2019, a period jurors have heard about frequently in which Hanna reportedly told friends she couldn’t find her husband over Christmas and had to lie to his family about his whereabouts.
“I have felt increasingly devoid in the last few months from our relationship,” the lengthy letter began.
“I have come to the recognition, belatedly that you are not going to change,” he continued after listing numerous criticisms of Hanna, including her spending habits when he earned twice her salary. “I know by now the cycle of how we relate to each other, the verbal gymnastics, the overstepping of the boundaries, the barbs, and then the declaration of love, only to reboot the same pathway a week or month later. My options it seems are dead simple: either accept my lot or move on, apart.”
The letter ended with him stating he was leaving immediately for a three-day “Moving on or Up” retreat.
“I don’t know what the outcome of this retreat will be but to be frank without some sort of insight I am sure I will not be able to continue,” he wrote. “If there is a pill to make it easier, don’t worry I would take the bottle !!!”
During cross-examination of Palmer this morning, Mansfield pointed out not all couples pen letters to each other when traversing the ups and downs of their relationships. Palmer agreed that she had been on numerous callouts during her career when disagreements instead resulted in domestic violence.
Mansfield also noted there were five different drafts of Hanna’s response to the letter found on her computer.
The first version ended: “If you want to make a change (i.e. divorce) please make it now before 31 JANUARY so that I can make arrangements. I am 62 in February and I do not have a range of options. Right now I feel very scared, confused, sad and incredibly lonely.”
Future drafts did not include that paragraph, although a similar line was added to the start of the letter: “However right now I feel very incredibly scared, confused, sad and lonely therefore I apologise if this is not as coherent as you may wish.”
The final draft of Hanna’s response ended: “I love you without reserve, foibles and all – and ask that you do the same and that we enjoy each other again as partners, best friends, confidants as well as lovers. You say my actions do not demonstrate any of this – I am asking you to reconsider based on what I have discussed.
“I am sorry you are so low – you are everything to me and it hurts me too that you are suffering.”
Mansfield also directed the constable during cross-examination to an internet search of Hanna’s four months before her death: “Why do people trample over me”. The lawyer asked the witness if she knew if the search pertained to the couple’s relationship or to work colleagues. She said she didn’t.
One aspect of Polkinghorne’s defence is that Hanna’s depression had been amplified at the time of her death due to her high-stress job helping to oversee the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Mansfield also noted that searches of his client’s laptop found plenty of pornography but “to provide some balance” he pointed to web searches Hanna had conducted for “sex”, “escorts” and “dating”.
The trial is set to continue this afternoon before Justice Graham Lang and the jury.
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.
