WARNING: DISTURBING CONTENT
Extra law enforcement officials who attended the scene of Pauline Hanna’s demise are anticipated to present proof on day three of her husband’s homicide trial at present.
Yesterday, the jury heard from a number of first responders who arrived at Philip Polkinghorne’s Remuera residence in April 2021 to seek out Hanna useless.
About an hour after they arrived, the then-68-year-old eye surgeon sat down with Constable Alexander Rowland whereas his spouse’s physique remained close by and gave a sworn assertion.
He described her battles with despair, her exhaustion and his discovery of her obvious suicide.
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However quickly after the assertion ended, the constable recalled at present, a police colleague turned to Rowland and quietly scribbled “1C″ on his hand. It was police code for “suspicious circumstances”.
Jurors within the Excessive Court docket at Auckland had the complete five-page assertion learn aloud to them at present as prosecutors spent a second day calling witnesses in what’s anticipated to be Polkinghorne’s six-week homicide trial.
Hanna, 63, was discovered lined by a quilt within the entryway to the couple’s residence on Easter Monday three years in the past. A brilliant orange rope dangled from a bannister a ground above, with one other orange rope tangled on the close by stairway. A pillow had been positioned beneath her head.
Prosecutors have mentioned from the outset of the trial that the suicide scene appeared staged, with a extra possible rationalization that the defendant strangled his spouse whereas excessive on methamphetamine – presumably as she confronted him over his spending on intercourse employees. The defence, in the meantime, has prompt to jurors that police jumped to a mistaken conclusion early on and latched on to the misunderstanding till Polkinghorne was arrested a yr and a half later.
Within the signed assertion learn to jurors, Polkinghorne described his spouse to police as somebody who labored from 7am to 10pm seven days per week in her position “helping across the logistics of the Covid-19 pandemic”.
“Pauline has been on and off depressed for a number of years,” he added. “She takes some anti-depressant treatment. I’m unsure what it’s referred to as. She has been taking it for a number of years. I’m unsure if she nonetheless has been taking it not too long ago. She additionally has suffered from bulimia about 5 years in the past. She has been taking weight discount treatment additionally.
“Pauline has been exhausted in current instances. This has been primarily from working such lengthy hours.”
However his spouse had by no means self-harmed and even talked about doing so, he added, explaining that she had a “four-wheel drive vacation” deliberate for the South Island within the subsequent 10 days. Lately, he additionally mentioned, she had been taking sleeping treatment on prime of a few bottle of wine she’d drink every evening.
Polkinghorne mentioned the final time he noticed his spouse alive was when he went as much as mattress round 10pm the evening earlier than. He remembered waking up round 5am however staying within the separate bed room the place he slept, studying, till about 7.45am.
“I went into the kitchen to make tea and toast. I had deliberate to wake Pauline after that,” he mentioned. “That’s after I found Pauline within the hall by the entrance door.”
Polkinghorne mentioned he discovered a pleated belt round her neck and realised it was his personal. She had been utilizing it not too long ago, he mentioned, “as a result of a wire on her dressing robe had come off”. The belt, he mentioned, was tied to a nylon rope with “granny knots”.
“I used to be very flustered. I knew she was deceased,” he mentioned. “…I attempted to name 111 on my cellphone however I used to be so flustered I couldn’t get it to work. I used my landline within the kitchen to name 111.
“As soon as that decision was ended… I undid the belt and twine from round Pauline’s neck after which went upstairs to undo the knot from the wire… I’m unsure at what level I’ve executed this however I rolled up the belt that was round Pauline’s neck and put it within the kitchen.”
He concluded the assertion: “I do not know as to why this occurred. I’ve a mark on my brow, with some dry blood round it. I do not know what it’s from. I didn’t even know I had it there.”
Former Crown solicitor Brian Dickey, who’s working alongside present Crown solicitor Alysha McClintock to prosecute the case, repeatedly targeted on the brow harm at present as a succession of first responders visited the witness field within the Excessive Court docket’s largest courtroom. The harm was described as extra of a graze than a deep reduce and “no larger than the scale of a golf ball”.
Paramedic Hannah Matheson mentioned Polkinghorne appeared stunned when she advised him concerning the harm and requested if he needed assist cleansing it up.
However general he was calm and picked up when she first arrived on the home, she recalled.
“[He] wasn’t crying, didn’t appear distressed, was answering our questions appropriately,” she defined.
A trainee paramedic who was together with her described Polkinghorne’s voice as “shakey” however with out tears.
He did, nevertheless, appear to get extra emotional as he talked to folks on the cellphone informing them of his spouse’s demise, a number of first responders mentioned. By the point paramedics had been leaving and police had been taking on, he was wailing, officers recalled.
Throughout cross-examination, defence lawyer Ron Mansfield KC obtained witnesses to agree that individuals’s reactions to distressing conditions run the gamut, from seen misery to calmly attempting to help authorities. It’s additionally commonplace for folks in shock to not realise they’ve been injured, he identified.
Regardless of the early suspicions concerning the demise, Constable Rowland mentioned Polkinghorne in disbelief that his spouse had taken her life.
“Did she appear to be she needed to surrender to you?” he recalled the defendant asking his sister.
Like Polkinghorne, Hanna additionally had what appeared like a recent reduce – hers to the bridge of her nostril, Detective Brooke Everson testified.
There have been “apparent markings” on the aspect of her neck in “criss-cross kind patterns”, the detective mentioned, including that there was blood between her forefinger and center finger however no obvious reduce. An acrylic nail was later present in her gown pocket.
The belt on her dressing robe was intact and tied round her waist, the detective famous. The recollection contrasted with Polkinghorne’s earlier assertion that his spouse had not too long ago begun utilizing his pleaded belt as a result of the wire on her dressing down had come off.
Testimony is about to renew tomorrow when the trial continues earlier than Justice Graham Lang and the jury.
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist overlaying courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms within the US and New Zealand.
