WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT
Pauline Hanna’s high-intensity jobs responding to the Covid-19 pandemic and her work habits - so extreme that multiple colleagues expressed concern to her manager that she was sending emails at all hours of the night - were under close scrutiny today as jurors continue to consider whether her death was a murder or a suicide.
The 63-year-old’s stress level has become a significant part of the defence in husband Philip Polkinghorne’s murder trial, now in its third week in the High Court at Auckland.
The retired eye surgeon, 71, is accused of having fatally strangled Hanna inside their Remuera home over the long Easter weekend in 2021 before staging the scene to look like a suicide by hanging. But Polkinghorne’s lawyer, Ron Mansfield KC, has been adamant that the death was instead exactly as it initially seemed - a suicide by someone with a history of depression who was quietly struggling with the most stressful period of her career and the recent death of her mother.
All co-workers who have testified so far have described Hanna as a highly resilient worker who didn’t show any signs of not being able to cope with the long hours - described by one employee as adding up to about 100 hours per week, including weekends.
But Mansfield has repeatedly cited an email from Hanna in 2020, about one year before her death, in which she told family her job had been “incredibly difficult and lonely”. She indicated she had been “criticised and bullied and it has been incredibly brutal” but also described it as the “most interesting, amazing, challenging and most exhilarating” time, adding that she had “many mixed emotions”.
Auckland District Health Board CEO Alisa Claire, one of the people who oversaw Hanna as Auckland’s three regional DHBs shared responsibilities during the pandemic response, recalled checking in with Hanna for about 30 minutes on March 15, 2021, about three weeks prior to her death. She had been checking in on all of her managers to discuss workload but wanted to specifically address emails that were being sent by Hanna during hours when most people would be sleeping.
“I indicated to her it wasn’t appropriate,” Claire recalled today of the discussion about the emails. “She made it clear that she wished to continue doing it. She said that work was her happy place... She made it clear that was her preferred pattern of working.”
Because Hanna was so good at her job, it was decided she could keep sending the emails, the CEO said, explaining that she was convinced as a result of the conversation that there didn’t appear to be a negative impact.
“It felt like she was thriving,” she said, adding that her assessment didn’t change after learning of Hanna’s reported suicide and looking back to see if there was anything they might have missed. “She had casually spoken about doing her life’s best work.”
Mansfield pointed out during cross-examination that Claire was one of the people Hanna would have wanted to impress if she wanted to further her career, so it’s unlikely she would have let on if she was struggling. During the next witness, Sharon Alabastro, the lawyer suggested that because Hanna supervised her she was likewise unlikely to open up about work stresses.
Claire disagreed with Mansfield’s characterisation that Hanna would show up to the office as early as 7 or 8am and stay until 8 or 9pm. She often didn’t show up until just before the 8.30am daily meeting and wasn’t there when the manager said she would walk the halls after-hours to make sure there was some work-life balance.
“If I’d seen her after 6 o’clock I’d have spoken to her about why she was still present,” she said.
Sarah Prentice, who worked with Hanna during her 2021 role of helping to distribute the Covid-19 vaccine, agreed that Hanna was proud of her work and seemed to thrive in the environment. But she also acknowledged that the emails would come at all hours.
“I didn’t notice any particular stress,” she testified. “She did work long hours, along with the rest of us. But I think she had a habit of doing that regardless.”
She recalled a Zoom meeting with Hanna on Saturday morning, two days before her death was reported. She seemed fine, Prentice said, adding that the only thing unusual was she kept her laptop camera off.
“She said she’d just got up, preferred not to show her weekend clothes,” Prentice explained.
Hanna’s last email to Prentice was sent on 9.27pm on Sunday, April 4, less than 12 hours before her husband would call 111 to report a suicide.
Earlier in the day, jurors heard from Hanna’s niece, Rose Hanna, who described how her aunt had confided in her seven months before her death that she was contemplating a divorce but was concerned about being able to afford to do so. Through tears, the aunt said she had naively signed documents in which she thought Polkinghorne might have restricted her access to their joint assets, the niece said. They also discussed how Pauline Hanna had met with a private investigator concerning Polkinghorne’s suspected infidelity.
The niece’s testimony was followed by Polkinghorne’s barber, who told jurors about another prostitute that he said the surgeon had been dating. It is the third relationship with a prostitute that jurors have been told about so far.
The Crown wrapped up the day with testimony from housekeeper Sheryl Morris, who worked in the Polkinghorne home two days a week from December 2020 until April 1, 2021. She was shown a police photo of the dishevelled guest bedroom where Polkinghorne said his wife had spent her last night. The room had never looked that dishevelled when she went to the house, she said.
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When changing the bedding in that room, she would always include a bottom sheet, a top sheet and a duvet, the housekeeper added. Earlier scene examination witnesses have said there was no top sheet on the guest bed when police arrived but a damp top sheet was found in the couple’s dryer.
The defence is expected to begin cross-examining the housekeeper when testimony resumes tomorrow 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.
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.