0:02

Before you listen to this podcast, a

0:04

warning. This podcast

0:06

contains references to suicide. If

0:10

you need help, there are numbers to call in

0:12

the episode details. At

0:19

that point, Sergeant Chris

0:21

had written on his hand the

0:23

number one in the letter C, and

0:25

he showed it to me, which is basically police

0:28

code for suspicious circumstances.

0:35

This is the trial, Season 2,

0:37

the Polkinghorn case from Stuff Audio.

0:40

I'm Phillip Itali. On

0:48

Easter Monday, 2021, Phillip

0:51

Polkinghorn called 111. He told

0:53

the operator that his wife

1:00

Pauline Hanna, a senior health

1:02

administrator, had killed herself.

1:09

And when emergency services arrived, they

1:12

found her on the floor at the

1:14

bottom of a set of stairs, her head on

1:16

a pillow, and covered by a

1:18

duvet. There

1:21

were no signs of life. For

1:24

more than a year, the death was

1:26

treated as unexplained. As we

1:29

heard at the top of this podcast,

1:31

within a very short time, police had

1:33

doubts about the circumstances, whether

1:35

they were actually dealing with a suicide. Sixteen

1:39

months later, Polkinghorn was

1:41

charged with murder, a

1:44

charge he denies. As

1:47

this podcast is released, a jury is

1:49

sitting in the High Court in New

1:51

Zealand's largest city Auckland to hear the

1:53

evidence in a hearing that will decide

1:56

whether he's guilty or not

1:58

guilty. Over

2:00

this series, you'll hear in detail all

2:03

of the key evidence in the case

2:05

from both the prosecution and

2:07

defence. And the crux

2:09

of this evidence is the question

2:11

of suicide or murder. The

2:15

Crown has laid out its argument that

2:17

Polkinghorn was leading a double life, paying

2:20

for escorts and meth and in a

2:22

relationship with a sex worker living in

2:24

Sydney, and that he murdered

2:26

his wife before staging the scene to

2:28

look like suicide. The

2:31

defence case is that it wasn't

2:33

a staged scene. Hannah had a

2:35

history of mental illness, was taking

2:37

medication and tragically took

2:40

her own life. Like

2:43

any defendant, Philip Polkinghorn is innocent

2:45

of the murder charge, unless

2:48

proven guilty. Soon

2:52

after 8 o'clock in the morning on Easter Monday

2:54

2021, an ambulance

2:56

was on its way to the

2:58

Polkinghorn home in the upmarket suburb

3:01

of Remiweira in Auckland, closely followed

3:03

by the police. Ambulance

3:05

officers were waved in by a woman

3:07

they later learned was Philip Polkinghorn's sister

3:10

Ruth. One of

3:12

the three St John officers answering the

3:14

emergency call was Hannah Echoff. I

3:17

cannot recall who went in first,

3:19

but as we opened the door we saw

3:21

the patient in the door

3:24

well or in the entranceway

3:27

with a white blanket or

3:29

white duvet covering her.

3:33

We went over to see her

3:35

and we could see

3:37

from the colour of her skin, she was

3:40

not breathing, no signs of

3:42

life. The senior ambulance

3:45

officer Bernard Du checked to ensure there

3:47

was no sign of a heartbeat, while

3:50

the others started on the paperwork. Hannah

3:53

Echoff told the prosecutor leading the

3:55

questioning, former Auckland Crown solicitor Brian

3:57

Dickey, that she had noticed some

3:59

rope on the stair balustrade and

4:01

on the stairs, it

4:03

stood out because of its bright orange colour.

4:06

She also noticed a person standing to one

4:09

side. A man wearing

4:11

a dressing gown, she thought in

4:13

her 60s, grey, balding and of

4:15

medium build. Philip

4:17

Hulkinghorn. I think we

4:19

spoke to him and asked his relation

4:22

to the patient and

4:24

so we could gather more information

4:26

about who the patient was. Carry

4:29

on please, what do you say if anything? He

4:32

said that he was a doctor and then

4:34

he also said that the patient was his wife. Hannah

4:37

Echoff said Hulkinghorn appeared reasonably

4:39

calm, wasn't crying. He was

4:42

answering the ambulance officer's questions

4:44

appropriately. He told them

4:47

his wife had depression and was on

4:49

medication but he didn't know the names

4:51

of the pills she took. Dickie

4:53

asked Echoff more about how

4:55

Hulkinghorn had discovered his wife.

4:58

I asked what

5:00

had happened in the morning as in how

5:02

he had found the patient. He

5:04

said that they were

5:07

sleeping separately and he had

5:10

gone down to make a breakfast and then

5:12

had found her. He

5:14

had found her? He didn't indicate to

5:17

us where he had found her, just

5:19

that he had then followed the

5:21

instructions and cut

5:23

her down. What are the instructions of who

5:25

did he say? I didn't say

5:27

but our 111 operators tell people

5:29

to cut them down. That's

5:32

routine is it? Yes. You

5:34

know that from your own own. Roll it St. John?

5:36

Yes, yeah. Echoff then described

5:38

an exchange about the injury

5:41

on Hulkinghorn's forehead. I

5:43

asked how he had received the marking

5:45

and if he wanted us to clean

5:47

it up or needed any medication and

5:49

he declined. What

5:51

did he say when you asked him about

5:53

it? He was unaware that there was a

5:55

marking on his forehead. She

5:58

said later Hulkinghorn did become upset when

6:00

telling his wife's colleagues over the phone

6:02

that she was dead and wouldn't be

6:05

coming into work. And

6:07

Polkinghorne's response to his wife's

6:09

death was something the defence

6:11

Ron Mansfield KC, that's King's

6:13

Council, wanted to dig into

6:15

further when cross-examining Ekoff. Some

6:19

people are broken down and can

6:21

hardly speak, can hardly move, is

6:24

one extreme? Yes.

6:27

And then some people are composed trying to

6:29

deal with the situation and try to ensure

6:32

that they provide you with as much

6:34

help as they can? Yes.

6:39

Mansfield also asked about the

6:41

mark on Polkinghorne's forehead. He

6:43

called it a small cut or

6:45

split. He suggested that people might

6:47

not be aware of such injuries

6:50

at a time of significant trauma,

6:52

a suggestion Ekoff agreed with. Although

6:58

we don't know why at this stage, the

7:01

nature of the wound seems important to both

7:03

sides, the prosecution asked

7:05

more questions about it after Mansfield

7:07

had finished, including was it

7:09

a graze or a cut? Ekoff

7:12

said a graze. It had width, it

7:15

was not a line like a cut. The

7:21

third paramedic who was attending the

7:23

scene was Liam Larson, a trainee

7:25

who was studying at AUT, the

7:27

Auckland University of Technology. The

7:30

prosecution asked him what he saw and

7:32

heard while his colleagues were checking for

7:34

signs of life and filling out forms

7:37

to verify death. How

7:39

he saw Polkinghorne go upstairs to change

7:41

out of his dressing gown and into

7:43

clothes before coming back down to

7:46

talk to police. I remember

7:48

him just finishing the top buttons of his shirt

7:50

as he was coming down the stairs and

7:53

then as he kind of reached the bottom

7:55

of the stairs where the patient was, he stood there and

7:57

took a few deep breaths. Mansfield

8:00

wanted to know more about what

8:02

Larson observed about Hannah as a

8:04

duvet was pulled to one side

8:06

by his colleague Bernard Du, the

8:09

senior ambulance officer, to

8:11

apply electrodes to her upper

8:13

body and thiced to check

8:15

for signs of heart activity.

8:17

Now while you're observing what

8:20

Officer Du was doing you saw

8:23

what were obvious marks

8:26

around her neck, correct? Yes.

8:29

And they looked indented? Yes. If

8:35

a death is a suspected suicide it's

8:37

standard procedure for police to attend the

8:39

scene and the court heard

8:41

that several officers arrived moments after

8:44

the ambulance. Among them,

8:46

Constable Alexander Roland, who took photos

8:48

of the scene, the entrance, the

8:51

body, the stairs, the

8:54

pieces of rope and a belt. Questions

8:57

about the belt would soon come up.

9:00

It's Constable Roland you heard at the top

9:02

of this podcast explaining how a message on

9:04

the back of a colleague's hand, shown

9:06

to him after he'd finished a statement with

9:08

the accused, indicated the circumstances

9:11

were being treated as

9:13

one C, Police Code

9:15

for Suspicious. Before

9:18

that he told the prosecution he was

9:20

taking down details from Polkinghorn about the

9:23

events of that morning. They

9:26

had started at the kitchen table with

9:28

Polkinghorn taking and receiving calls and texts

9:30

on his phone telling people his wife

9:33

had died. He'd previously gone

9:35

off to find his charger. Then

9:38

Roland got new instructions. At

9:41

some stage I got a phone call

9:43

from my partner, Danielle

9:45

Gere, and she said that the

9:48

crime squad detectives who were there didn't want

9:50

him sort of wandering around the house. So

9:54

they moved outside. Polkinghorn's

9:56

son arrived and Constable Roland heard

9:59

the father describing Pauline Hannah

10:01

as the love of his life.

10:04

Then as the prosecution questioning

10:06

continued the topic of the

10:09

belt resurfaced. My colleague

10:11

Constable Gere walked in some

10:14

stage during the statement and asked where the belt

10:16

was. I

10:18

can't remember what he said or what his reply was and

10:22

I didn't really make a connection as to what what

10:24

belt he was talking they were talking about at the

10:26

time. I sort of had to think about it and

10:28

realised it was the belt on the staircase. Did

10:31

you recall what was the Polkingham set if anything

10:33

about that belt where it was? I think

10:36

he said something like he must have rolled it up and

10:38

put it on the kitchen table or something. Is

10:40

that something you observed him do? No, didn't see

10:42

him do it. The

10:46

prosecution's Brian Dickey asked Roland

10:48

to read out Polkingham's statement

10:50

about his wife and what happened to

10:53

the court. It's lengthy,

10:55

over six minutes long so

10:57

I'll just share significant parts. We

11:00

have been married for over 20 years and

11:02

we have known each other for at least

11:04

30 years. We have three children together.

11:08

Pauline is employed at the Lettleslow

11:11

House working with the military and

11:13

police. I'm

11:15

not entirely sure what she does

11:17

there but she assists with logistics

11:19

around the COVID-19 pandemic. Pauline's

11:22

job keeps her very busy. She

11:25

works 7am to 10pm, seven days

11:27

a week. Pauline

11:30

has been on and off depressed

11:32

for several years. She

11:34

takes some antidepressant medication. I'm

11:37

not sure what it's called. She has

11:39

been taking it for several years. I'm

11:41

not sure if she still has been taking it recently.

11:44

In the statement Polkingham said his wife

11:46

had never had any health problems and

11:48

had never talked about hurting or killing

11:51

herself or harmed herself. She

11:53

liked to drink a bottle of wine in the

11:55

evenings and had recently been taking sleeping pills. She

11:58

had a four-wheel drive holiday in the morning. New Zealand's

12:00

South Island plant for just over a week

12:02

after her death. According

12:05

to Polkinghorne's statement, on Easter Sunday,

12:07

the last day Pauline Hannah was

12:09

alive, they had lunch and

12:11

dinner together and watched Netflix before going

12:13

to bed. They slept

12:15

in separate rooms he stated, due to

12:17

her being so busy with work. I

12:20

woke up around 5am this morning. I

12:23

stayed in my room until I got up around 7.45am. I was

12:27

in my room reading during

12:29

that time. Last night

12:31

I stepped in the master bedroom, which is

12:33

closer to Upland Road. Pauline

12:35

slept in our youngest child's bedroom. Our

12:38

children no longer reside with us. At

12:41

around 7.45am I

12:43

went down the staircase nearest to

12:45

the master bedroom, which is on the second floor.

12:49

I went into the kitchen to make tea

12:51

and toast. I had

12:53

planned to wake up Pauline

12:55

after that. That's when I

12:57

discovered Pauline in the corridor by the front door.

13:00

Pauline was slumped over in

13:02

a chair. By that I mean she was leaning

13:04

forward. Pauline

13:07

had a belt around her neck. In

13:11

the statement, being read by Constable Rowland to

13:13

the court, Polkinghorne said he

13:15

had called 111 and did

13:18

the belt from around his wife's neck and

13:21

then went upstairs to undo the knot. He

13:23

called his sister and then the ambulance

13:26

and police arrived. I'm

13:28

not sure at what point I've done this,

13:31

but I rolled up the belt that was around

13:33

Pauline's neck and put it in the kitchen. I

13:37

have no idea as to why this happened.

13:42

I have a mark on my forehead with some dry

13:44

blood around it. I have no idea

13:46

what it's from. I did not even know I had

13:48

it there. As

13:51

Constable Rowland was finishing the statement, the

13:53

one he'd read to the court and

13:55

getting it signed and finalised by Philip

13:57

Polkinghorne, he told the prosecution he'd

13:59

He then, at the end, got a message

14:02

from his senior officer. So

14:04

at the completion of the statement

14:06

I handed the physical copy to

14:08

my sergeant who was

14:11

Christopher William. I gave him

14:13

all the papers and at

14:15

that point Sergeant Chris had written on

14:18

his hand the number one in

14:20

the letter C and he showed

14:22

it to me which is basically police code

14:24

for suspicious circumstances and then

14:26

he's directed me to stand somewhere

14:28

outside on Darwin Lane. The

14:32

defence lawyer wanted to know if he

14:34

was relaying information to his colleagues as

14:36

he was collecting the statement to which

14:38

Roland replied no. The

14:42

officer then confirmed the signed and

14:44

written form shared voluntarily by Palkingham

14:47

was handed over to his sergeant sometime

14:49

after it was finished at 10.24. And

14:54

Sergeant Chris William told the court

14:56

that he and a colleague had

14:58

searched the house for any notes

15:00

or messages from Pauline Hannah related

15:02

to her death but could

15:04

find none. Philippa

15:14

here. I just wanted to take a

15:16

moment to say thanks for listening to this episode of

15:18

The Trial. Good stuff

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Subscribe today for about the cost of a cup of

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coffee. A

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remarkable and disturbing tale. Well

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most divisive murder case in New Zealand's

16:02

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Search for The Commune. Do

16:30

you solemnly sincerely declare into further the evidence you give

16:32

to your truth or your truth and not in better

16:35

truth? I do. Detective

16:37

Constable Brooke Everson told the prosecution

16:39

she'd been given the job of

16:41

officer in charge of the body.

16:45

As she explained, that essentially meant making

16:47

a description of anything she observed about

16:49

the body, ensuring no forensic

16:51

evidence was lost as it was

16:54

removed, and properly sealing the

16:56

body back to ensure its integrity

16:58

and to prevent any tampering ahead

17:00

of the post-mortem. Everson

17:03

told prosecution lawyer Brian Dickey that

17:06

she noticed injuries on the body. Her

17:09

head was tilted slightly towards the left, facing

17:12

there, and there were obvious

17:15

markings on the side and front of her

17:17

neck. We'll see

17:19

photos of that at a later point, but can you

17:21

just describe that for us? It was

17:23

around three centimetres in

17:25

width and had

17:27

a sort of crisscross-type pattern to

17:30

it in the skin. Did that appear on

17:32

the neck? It was on

17:34

the side and to the front. Are

17:37

there observations of any markings? So there appeared

17:39

to be a cut to the left side

17:41

on the bridge of her nose. It

17:45

appeared reasonably fresh. It

17:47

wasn't scabbed over or anything. And

17:51

there was blood coming out

17:53

of her left ear. Detective

17:56

Constable Everson's duties included attending

17:59

the post-mortem.