'Concerning' level of meth contamination found in Polkinghorne's eye clinic, jurors told

News
Crime

Author: Craig Kapitan & George Block,
Publish Date: Tue, 20 Aug 2024, 9:46am

WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT

On a Monday morning in October 2020, Auckland Eye employee Janet Wigmore was “showing the ropes” to two staff members when she walked into the office complex’s retinal laser room and found something she’d never before seen: a methamphetamine pipe and lighter on a table immediately to the right of the entrance.

“I backtracked and closed the door,” the registered nurse told jurors today as a fourth week of evidence kicked off in the ongoing murder trial of eye surgeon Philip Polkinghorne.

Methamphetamine use has become a major part of the Crown’s narrative for the circumstantial case against the 71-year-old now-retired ophthalmologist, who is accused of having fatally strangled wife Pauline Hanna, 63, inside their Remuera home before staging the scene on April 5, 2021, to look like a suicide by hanging.

Prosecutors allege Polkinghorne was high on the drug when he killed her. An expert witness is expected to testify later in the trial that the drug is known to cause erratic and sometimes aggressive behaviour.

The defence has vigorously insisted her death was exactly as it initially looked: a suicide. And although Polkinghorne began the trial by pleading guilty to possession of methamphetamine and a meth pipe found in his home as police investigated the suspicious death, his lawyer has suggested through cross-examination the pipe found at his workplace five months before Hanna’s death was not his.

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Wigmore was one of three Auckland Eye employees called to the witness box this morning by prosecutor Pip McNabb, who is trying the case alongside current Crown Solicitor Alysha McClintock and former Crown solicitor Brian Dickey.

“We weren’t quite sure what to do,” Wigmore said of the discovery, explaining that she alerted operations manager Tracey Malloy shortly after the meth pipe discovery.

Malloy, who followed her in giving evidence, explained that they moved the pipe into her office and called police, who asked if there had been a break-in.

“Return it to the person it belongs to,” Malloy recalled police advising her, to which she responded that she didn’t know who the drug paraphernalia belonged to. They responded: “Well, throw it out.”

Malloy did toss the pipe, with the words “sweet puff” etched on the side, in the non-recycling bin. It was later retrieved after Auckland Eye hired an employment law firm to conduct an independent investigation. The owner of the pipe was never determined.

CCTV footage showed Polkinghorne entering the clinic with a man and a woman on the Saturday and again on the Sunday before the pipe was found, but others had also entered the clinic over the weekend. The defence suggested it could have been left by a 17-year-old who had been seen in the office the prior Thursday, although witnesses expressed doubt it would have remained undetected for so long if that was the case.

During cross-examination of Malloy, defence lawyer Ron Mansfield KC asked her if she was aware that “sweet puff” pipes were readily available for purchase on the internet.

“I’m sorry, I’ve never googled looking for a ‘sweet puff’ pipe,” the operations manager replied, evoking laughter in the courtroom gallery.

Today’s evidence follows recollections from other Auckland Eye colleagues last week about the discovery of the meth pipe and incidents of strange behaviour by Polkinghorne.

Philip Polkinghorne appears at the Auckland High Court this morning. Photo / Jason Oxenham

Eye surgeon Philip Polkinghorne arrives at the High Court at Auckland as week four of his murder trial begins. Photo / Jason Oxenham

Ophthalmologist Susan Ormonde said Polkinghorne admitted meth use to her the day before Hanna’s funeral, even going as far as to recommend Ormonde give it a try. Others described Polkinghorne appearing to have fallen asleep at meetings and one finance committee meeting weeks before Hanna’s death in which his behaviour was recalled to have stood out as especially erratic.

“He was just extremely agitated,” former Auckland Eye chief executive Deborah Boyd told the court today about that same meeting, in which he appeared via Zoom.

She described the surgeon as “often up on his feet” and displaying “quite hyperactive behaviour” that at times seemed “aggressive” to the point that several other directors commented on it.

“It was very odd,” Boyd said.

Polkinghorne’s lawyer suggested his client had been angry about receiving the materials for the meeting so late. He was connecting to the meeting via his home, so it might not be so strange that he was standing from time to time, Mansfield said.

Boyd and other witnesses all agreed Polkinghorne was dedicated to his job and his patients, and that coming in on weekends was not unusual.

“He’s highly regarded in his field - world-renowned, really,” Boyd said.

Auckland Eye eventually hired a company to test the offices for methamphetamine, but it was months after the discovery of the pipe - after Polkinghorne’s alleged admission about using methamphetamine was brought to the board’s attention.

Testing found traces of methamphetamine in an air vent in consulting room 4, among other areas. While consulting rooms are not officially assigned to each doctor, “custom and practice” was for Polkinghorne to use that room most of the time because it was closest to the equipment that he would frequently use, Boyd said.

Evidence is set to resume this afternoon before Justice 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.