Meth, money, marriage and murder. It was a trial that captivated the nation: Remuera eye surgeon Philip Polkinghorne tried and acquitted for the murder of his elegant and loving wife Pauline Hanna. Steve Braunias and Carolyne Meng-Yee were at the Auckland High Court for those eight suspenseful weeks, reporting for
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Polkinghorne: Steve Braunias on his new book on the trial of the century
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Remuera eye surgeon Philip Polkinghorne was accused for murdering his glamorous wife Pauline Hanna, then acquitted. Steve Braunias dissects the sensational trial in his new book, Polkinghorne. Photo / Norrie Montgomery
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But with Philip it was a blanket or thorough denial of any culpability, and consistent right from the start.
NZH: After the trial, you asked Philip Polkinghorne if he killed his wife Pauline Hanna. What was his answer?
SB: “Of course not, f*** no.”
NZH: Did you believe him?
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SB: [Long pause] I don’t know. It’s the only question worth asking isn’t it- ‘did he do it?’ I found [his answer] unsatisfying.
NZH: At the end of the book you wrote Philip Polkinghorne had the last laugh - why?
SB: [Laughing] Well, he hasn’t been punished for the death of his wife! Horse sense tells you he killed her. Fact tells you he didn’t.
NZH: After eight weeks covering the trial, why did you want to write a book?
SB: In that first week, I was coming home on the bus. I wrote almost all my stories on the phone for the Herald with one finger. I had an epiphany going past Victoria Park that this was my sworn destiny, and the apex of a very long career, and I needed to be at the trial every day to see what was being said.
I had an epiphany going past Victoria Park that this was my sworn destiny, and the apex of a very long career
I wrote so much during the trial so I took out what I thought - well you have to say - were entertaining pieces and put them in the book.
There was a dreadful sort of moral dilemma in this trial. It was a murder trial, so it was very dark - about a poor woman who died in shocking circumstances.
And yet, unlike every single murder trial I’ve ever attended, this one was wildly entertaining. It was the strange dilemma you had to acknowledge it was thrilling to write about it.
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The prosecution ran it as a tabloid trial right from the start. They ran it like some sort of Victorian murder mystery, dark Gothic tabloid trash investigation.
And it was in that spirit, really that I was able to write. The question is: should you treat a murder trial as entertainment?
I would be aghast if I offended the Hanna family but Bruce would say, ‘that was funny.’ The things that were being told were so outlandish that you had to be true to it and make it entertaining.
NZH: How would you describe Polkinghorne?
SB: We chatted a lot, he had a nice gesture of touching and putting his hand on my upper arm and saying ‘hello.’ I found him very likeable, not an intellectual but he had a lively mind. I liked his busyness, that’s the theme of this murder investigation.
NZH: Polkinghorne was very busy - an extraordinary multi-tasker, an eye surgeon who led a double life.
SB: Very quick to tell the police he had sex with his wife every day, the free clinics, giving back to the public, that kind of thing. There’s a lot of kindness and generosity to Philip Polkinghorne.
I’m very aware that Madison [Ashton] finds Philip a narcissist and pathological, that nothing he is saying to you is sincere or true and he’s just there to use you. I respect her point of view, and she may well be right.
NZH: You have described him (among other things) as a “malignant sex dwarf” and “rutting Remuera dog” - how on earth did you convince him to talk to you?
SB: We had some comms, there were a few texts...but he gave me no indication he was reading what I was writing.
NZH: How did you feel towards Pauline Hannah during the trial?
SB: I would love to have met her. She sounds like a lot of fun, energetic, capable, hardworking. You get a good sense of Pauline by talking to her brother Bruce and her friend Pheasant - who she was and how much they liked her. And you can see that their character would have been reflected in hers too - very decent, very upfront.
But she wasn’t too dissimilar to Madison, physically. They didn’t look unalike - very attractive brunettes. And what I really mean by that is she seemed to be quite lonely - fragile.
I remember asking Pheasant one day in the court about what was her love life before Philip, and Pheasant was quite sad about that. You know, it wasn’t a bed of roses.
And of course her amazing Longlands recording - you get the strongest sense of her there ... she sounded like someone who did not take any shit from people.
Yeah there was a vulnerability in that tape, ‘I’m not a doormat’ and she plainly kind of was. At one point, she’s talking about her participation in group sex with these escorts and stuff.
She said something like, blah, blah, blah and you wondered about the multitude of sins she was covering up with this blah, blah, blah. She said quite a lot on that tape - at the same time she was withholding a lot
NZH: It was sad listening to Pauline’s letters being read out – she seemed desperately unhappy and in a coercive marriage
SB: Yeah, that’s true, and the use Ron Mansfield made of those letters in his defence - that these letters were exhibits of an unstable person.
NZH: The letters showed Polkighorne’s control over her - criticising her for not putting food away, wearing body suits he didn’t like, not paying her share of the bills - Still think he’s a nice guy?
SB: There were bits and pieces about them that were likeable. I always liked the way they wrote to each other, or texted about - the Keruru in the tree. And this was not too long before she died: the delight seeing this fat wood pigeon. They were talking very cozily and happily and contentedly about this bird in the tree of the house where she later died.
The Hanna’s were absolute representatives of New Zealand sincerity. Philip’s marriage to Bruce’s sister Pauline always struck me they were cut from a different cloth and in Bruce’s head he thought Philip was a total wanker.
NZH: How did you view Polkinghorne pre- and post-trial?
SB: At various points of the prosecution I thought very poorly of him. And thought what they were saying was correct: that he was capable and had performed this act of considerable evil.
Other times I felt angry that they were so intent, with such scant forensic evidence, on blaming him - that his strange sort of guileless character was the real deal. He woke up, had a cup of tea and found his wife died by [suspected] suicide.
He had this strange quality like, you know, ‘what am I doing here? I shouldn’t be here.’ You find yourself sometimes feeling sympathetic to him.
I think he’s gonna live this for a long, long, long, long time. I don’t think he’s got any other purpose in his life than to re-live the trial and write his wretched book to explain why the verdict was correct.
His sister said to him after it was over ‘Get yourself a dog and do some gardening.’ And he said ‘I’ve taken her up on both of those things.’ But he’s such a busy, active little sprite, isn’t he? His nature is not to relax.
NZH: Polkinghorne was recently banned by the Northern Club - how does he feel about it?
SB: It smacks of Somerset Maugham stories about ridiculous colonials, some of who may have secrets of their own, turning on this person who has brought some kind of perceived disgrace to their ranks.
NZH: You also observed there was an “unpleasantness “ to Polkinghorne?
SB: The way he told police about taking Pauline’s body off the chair, the falling over, the tripping, the banging his head - he said he made a dog’s breakfast.
These callous, brutal terms that he always used revealed something. He had an unpleasant turn of phrase, didn’t he? He made a sort of a habit of these brutal little phrases. There is an unpleasantness to him, even though I liked him.
NZH: What did Polkinghorne think of the prosecution?
SB: I seem to recall he made no comment about Brian Dickey. But he made several comments about Alysha that hinted at a kind of misogyny. He disliked her intently. She was doing all the accusing - he took vast umbrage at that. I think her closing address was better than Ron Mansfield’s by and large.
NZH: And Brian Dickey?
SB: I think the force with which Brian would have given his closing address would have been a lot louder, more emotional.
He hated Polkinghorne - loathed him! Like Alysha, he had a tremendously sincere feeling for Pauline’s family and her friends.
I think you would have seen his feeling for them more strongly in Brian possibly than Alysha who has this terribly good analytical mind.
You know, she’s not the crown solicitor through any accident. She deserves that role: she has intelligence in her argument and there is this kind of coldness about it, which is frightening.
Brian is more thunderous when he gets going, you can’t tell whether it’s performance or it’s genuine rage and loathing. I think Brian would have yelled his head off.
NZH: Which witnesses left a strong impression on you?
SB: The people in the apartment block on the North Shore who carefully scrutinised Polkinghorne’s regular Friday appearances, noting down his licence plate, and the gifts he brought, and they somehow seemed to have X-ray vision and could see inside these bags to know it was lingerie or chocolates or particular types of wine.
NZH: You took muffins to court. I usually take muffins to interviews. I was ‘out Meng-Yeed’ by you! Were the muffins an attempt to butter up Polkinghorne for this book?
SB: No one has ‘out Meng-Yeed’ you! It’s a tradition - a trial which is longer than two weeks you bring in baking. You’re in this peculiar room every day with a lot of people who are there for one set purpose- it’s like a strange chamber of horror you are all caught up in.
NZH: Why were you scathing of the police in your book?
SB: Because they were the Z-team. I was baffled why certain other detectives, who are capable, with great track records, know how to deal with witnesses, and keep the family informed weren’t chosen. It was strange for such a high-profile case.
NZH: I laughed when you called me “the Herald detective” it’s the most flattering thing anyone has said - then in the book Polkinghorne’s sister called me a c**t. What does Polkinghorne think of me?
SB: [laughs] Philip has a very dim view of you.
NZH: How impressive was Ron Mansfield’s defence?
SB: Of course, Ron dragged it out, as Ron does, probably very effectively to the point where everyone was sick of Ron. He said every day was a massive challenge and massively stressful because you had to interrogate every single witness to the nth degree, you know?
I think he was the best person to do it. He was real good and seemed to have a sincere belief that his client had been framed and was unjustly accused.
I think he was annoyed at the tabloid thrust of the prosecution: let’s look at all the sex workers, the meth. Well so what? You can see what they were doing - it goes to motive, but after a while it was like, can we get back to the killing? Can we get back to the death of Pauline Hanna?
NZH: You had lunch with sex worker Madison Ashton, Polkinghorne’s former lover, the runaway witness.
SB: I didn’t give her enough credit. I was stunned about how articulate, witty and funny she was. She spoke epigrammatically and said things like “the whore-archy” you know, she would bust out these perfectly composed sayings - it was really impressive.
Madison is super smart: a complicated character and quite adorable. I really liked her - very pretty in real life. TV doesn’t do her justice - it seems to exaggerate the massive amount of surgery. It adds to her and in real life she’s quite petite and fragile.
She’s a lot funnier and a lot smarter than Philip. She doesn’t have many friends. A lone vulnerable wolf. I wasn’t thinking straight and asked after her mother which was a shameful thing. Her mother died by suicide and she had an early induction into the sex industry.
But she’s a great survivor, she’s not a victim of anybody. She survived her own life. She’s survived what her mother did. She survived years with Polkinghorne. You know, and one way or another Pauline did not.
NZH: What attracted Ashton to Polkinghorne?
SB: She took a lot of store that Phillip was absolutely fine with her line of work, that he didn’t judge it. He quite liked it and was possibly turned on by it - I don’t know but he had no qualms about it.
She wanted to be in a relationship that wasn’t just a transaction. Phillip seemed to be offering that. He bought her a washing machine. Man hath no greater love for a partner than to buy her a washing machine.
NZH: Did Polkinghorne tell Madison he was leaving Pauline for her?
SB: He told me ‘Oh, I told her that to get her off my back,’ something unpleasant like that. I’d like to think they could have gone on to have had an actual relationship if Philip had not you know, kept things from her like the fact of his marriage. He seemed extremely deceitful about that.
NZH: Do you think Madison would have swayed the jury if she had turned up to give evidence?
SB: I don’t think the verdict would have been any different. She would have been a very powerful witness for the prosecution. I then think she would have been largely undone by cross-examination.
NZH: Polkinghorne was found not guilty of murder, did you believe the jury got it right?
SB: I thought it was one of the best juries I’ve seen: the notes they took, the concentration even during some very boring days there, particularly when Ron Mansfield was either cross-examining or leading a witness.
Ron drags it out - it’s an effective tactic. Either that or he doesn’t have anyone to tell him to shut up and rein it in, and I suspect there’s a bit of that.
But even when he was boring the courtroom to sobs, they were listening.
NZH: You wrote about Brian Dickey sloping into court like he’d come off the farm and commented about his leather loafers suggesting he looked like an Auckland wanker. And Ron Mansfield was the big hitter who wore too–tight suits, a street fighter with an awful honking nasal voice - how do you get away with flattering and eviscerating like that?
SB: Ron did say to me once, you give but you take [laughs] I think they both find it unusual that their behaviour and the way they look is described by somebody in court. I’m not sure if they like being figures of fun. I like and respect both of them - they are terrific at their jobs.
NZH: During the trial you sat in the best seat, behind Polkinghorne, and along from me. What did you and Polkinghorne talk about during the breaks?
SB: He got very angry with the prosecution and the evidence about the sex workers and meth.
I remember him very distinctly saying ‘you wait when we start calling the science’ he put a great store on that from right at the beginning.
He was right, you know, in murder trials the forensic evidence is the stuff the defence tries to complicate and find reasonable doubt for - it’s an uphill struggle.
In this case, the forensic evidence was their friend.
NZH: How confident was Polkinghorne he was going to be found not guilty?
SB: Super confident throughout. It was ‘well, I didn’t do it, and we’re going to show this’.
NZH: What was it iike interviewing Polkinghorne at his home, the scene of the crime?
SB I didn’t interview Polkinghorne at his home - I relied on the reports of others.
NZH: It’s very clear he took you for a tour around his house and you wrote about it in your book.
SB: People described it to me. The closest I got to his house was with you on that cold day during the trial when we were kept outside - we weren’t allowed in.
NZH: Why is this so awkward? It’s obvious you were there. You wrote about it from the point of view of “the visitor” and you were clearly the visitor
SB: I wasn’t there, I didn’t interview Philip - the whole chapter is based on other people’s experiences.
A journalist has a lot of sources [laughs] and according to them this is what they saw and what Philip was talking about.
[laughs] umm.. You know.. I just, just..I wasn’t there. I didn’t interview him.
NZH: Well, I don’t believe that for one moment!
You dedicated this book to your brother Mark, who died last year, and Polkinghorne reached out to you when that happened.
SB: Oh yeah, he sent me a text that was nice. When something like this happens, when there’s a death in the family, it’s like a test of who reaches out.
You don’t feel coldly towards people who haven’t, you know, life’s busy. I certainly don’t always do the right thing myself in that regard, but, the people who did reach out - you sent a message, gee, that means a great deal, you know, and that Polky did.
I say that contradicts all those things that Madison said that he’s only ever nice to you because he wants something for you from you or that he’s using you. Good on him for doing that. I don’t think he got any gain from saying that. Bruce Hanna did the same.
NZH: What’s next for you?
SB: Since my brother Mark’s death, he was a working artist, I want to write about art. I don’t know if I’d be very good at it. It’s not honouring Mark, but I like the whole process of remembering Mark for his work, and writing about art is one of those ways.
NZH How would you like to be remembered?
Oh, I’d prefer to be forgotten.
Polkinghorne: Inside the trial of the century by Steve Braunias will be published by Allen & Unwin Aotearoa New Zealand on Tuesday July 15. RRP $37.99.
Carolyne Meng-Yee is an Auckland-based investigative journalist who won Best Documentary at the Voyager Media Awards. Recently, she was runner-up for Best Editorial Campaign and a part of a team that won Best Coverage of: Philip Polkinghorne’s Murder Trial. She worked for the Herald on Sunday from 2007-2011 and rejoined the Herald in 2016 after working as an award-winning current affairs producer at TVNZ’s 60 Minutes, 20/20 and Sunday.