When paramedic Hannah Matheson arrived at the Remuera home of Dr Philip Polkinghorne minutes after an emotional 111 call in which he reported his wife’s hanging death, the Auckland eye surgeon’s demeanour was observed to be calm and collected.
But that calmness was momentarily broken by what appeared to be surprise when she pointed out a small graze on his forehead, Matheson told jurors in the High Court at Auckland today as the second day of Polkinghorne’s six-week murder trial began.
“I asked how he received the marking and if he needed us to clean it up ... and he declined,” the witness said of the Easter Monday 2021 callout. “He was unaware there was a marking on his forehead.
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“I think he reached for his forehead and looked at his hand and didn’t say much more.”
Crown prosecutors suggested at the outset of the trial yesterday that the injury to his forehead was one of many pieces of circumstantial evidence indicating that Hanna, 63, had been killed in a struggle with her husband - possibly strangled by the 71-year-old defendant during a confrontation over his infidelities while he was high on methamphetamine.
The murder was staged to look like a suicide, Crown Solicitor Alysha McClintock has alleged.
But in cross-examination of the witness today, defence lawyer Ron Mansfield KC had another potential explanation for his client’s demeanour and reactions that morning.
Matheson, the paramedic, said it was her role to talk with Polkinghorne as her colleague made sure there was nothing that could be done to save Hanna.
During their conversation, he volunteered that his wife had suffered depression. He knew she was on medication for it but couldn’t remember the name.
His demeanour, she said, was “reasonably calm”.
Phillip Polkinghorne, right, arrives at the High Court at Auckland with his lawyers. He's accused of having murdered wife Pauline Hanna and staged her death as a suicide. Photo / Michael Craig
“[He] wasn’t crying, didn’t seem distressed, was answering our questions appropriately.”
A short time later, she watched him make a call, seemingly to his wife’s work as he sat at a dining room table.
“He said the patient’s name and that she wasn’t coming into work today,” Matheson recalled. “I noticed that his demeanour changed and he seemed more distressed and upset on the phone.”
But in the paramedic’s line of work, it’s not unusual for a witness to be in shock and not realise they’ve suffered an injury, Mansfield suggested while questioning the paramedic. Matheson agreed.
People’s reactions to distressing situations also run the gamut, from visible distress to calmly trying to assist authorities, the witness and the defence lawyer also both agreed.
“Everyone responds differently,” Matheson said.
Paramedic Liam Larsen, then a trainee, followed Matheson on the witness stand this morning. He confirmed seeing “almost an abrasion, like a scrape or a scratch” on the defendant’s forehead measuring roughly a centimetre. While Polkinghorne wasn’t crying, his voice was “quite shakey”, he recalled.
He recalled seeing two lengths of orange rope - one dangling from the upstairs balustrade and the other bunched up to the side.
A police evidence photo of rope found at Philip Polkinghorne's Remuera home. The Crown alleges he murdered wife Pauline Hanna and staged her death as a suicide.
“She had some marks to her that looked like it came from the rope,” Larsen said of Hanna, adding the caveat that he didn’t look carefully.
The Crown is expected to call more witnesses this afternoon as the trial continues 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.
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