The police officer who took Philip Polkinghorne’s statement after they were alerted to Pauline Hanna’s death has told a court the accused was visibly upset when he arrived at the couple’s Auckland home.
Warning: This article contains content that could be disturbing to some people.
Constable Alexander Rowland said that when he arrived at the Remuera address Polkinghorne was “audibly wailing and crying”.
Polkinghorne is accused of killing Hanna, his wife, in April 2021. The Crown says he strangled her and staged the scene to make it look like a suicide, while Polkinghorne has denied the crime.
On the morning of April 5, after Polkinghorne had called 111 paramedics arrived and had declared Hanna dead.
Rowland was then tasked with taking Polkinghorne’s statement, he told the High Court at Auckland this morning.
The statement began at about 8.48am and finished at 10.24am.
They began inside the house, at a dining room table, but moved outside when crime squad detectives asked them to, Rowland said.
He then described the moment he discovered detectives considered the scene suspicious.
When the statement was complete and Polkinghorne had signed it, Rowland went to hand it to a sergeant.
The sergeant had “1C” written on his hand, Rowland told the court.
“[That’s] basically police code for suspicious circumstances.”
Later, under cross examination, Rowland was asked about his “wailing” and “crying” comment.
Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield KC said that was different to paramedics’ description of Polkinghorne as largely composed.
Rowland stuck to his account: “That’s what I observed.”
‘She’s been working so much’
Rowland read the statement itself out to the court today — the public gallery packed and attentive as the evidence was given.
Polkinghorne told Rowland that the dead woman was his wife, and that she had been incredibly busy with work recently, Rowland said.
Hanna was a health boss in South Auckland, closely involved in the Covid-19 vaccine rollout.
“When I was talking to him, he seemed fine,” Rowland said — although Polkinghorne “got quite upset” when he was on the phone telling other people about Hanna’s death, he added.
“He didn’t seem to get too emotional, he just was sort of straight to the point.”
Polkinghorne “had an injury on his forehead” that looked “reasonably fresh” but wasn’t bleeding, Rowland added, calling it a “graze” that was “no bigger than the size of a golf ball”.
Polkinghorne said he didn’t know how he had received the mark.
The statement said the pair had been married for more than 20 years and had known each other for about 30 years.
Polkinghorne told Rowland the pair slept in separate rooms “due to the fact that she’s been working so much”.
He said he went to bed at about 10pm on April 4: “That was the last time I saw her alive.”
In the statement, Polkinghorne said he woke up early the next morning and stayed in his room reading until about 7.45am.
He then went downstairs and “discovered her”, he told Rowland.
Polkinghorne told Rowland that Hanna intended to go to the gym that morning and was planning to go on holiday with friends.
Mansfield asked Rowland if Polkinghorne seemed “in a state of disbelief” at times while giving his statement.
“Yes,” Rowland said.
He also agreed that Polkinghorne asked his sister at one point: “Did she seem like she wanted to give up to you?”
After Rowland, Constable Danielle Gear — who was in the police car with Rowland — gave evidence.
Her account was similar to Rowland’s, regarding Polkinghorne’s behaviour when they arrived.
While Rowland went inside, Gear hung back and stayed outside, she said, because the entrance area was quite small.
Polkinghorne held a belt ‘twirling up’ in a coil — police officer
From outside, she heard a man “crying” or “wailing” but she couldn’t see who it was.
At one point, Gear described seeing Polkinghorne through the doorway, coming up some lower stairs, with a belt in his hand that he was “twirling up” into a coil.
She said Polkinghorne wasn’t trying to hide it from her as he came up the stairs.
He had changed out of his dressing gown and into clothes at that point, she added.
After Gear, Sergeant Chris Gwilliam gave evidence. He was supervising Rowland and Gear at the scene.
Gwilliam said he and another officer, Constable Max Jones, looked for a suicide note and didn’t find one.
He was told at 9.41am by an investigator that the scene was being treated as suspicious.
He said that, later, when officers were looking for the belt, he directed his constables to ask Polkinghorne — who was still giving his statement. Polkinghorne said it was in the kitchen, where police found it, Gwilliam said.
Injuries to Pauline Hanna noticed at the scene
Detective Constable Brooke Everson was the officer in charge of Hanna’s body.
She told the court today that she saw “obvious markings on the side and front of her neck” — and also a “cut to the left side on the bridge of her nose” that “appeared reasonably fresh, it wasn’t scabbed over or anything”.
“There was blood coming out of her left ear,” Everson told the court.
“There appeared to be some sort of bruising to her right thigh.
“On her left hand, there was blood between the forefinger and the middle finger. It didn’t appear to be a cut, [but] there was blood there.
“I don’t know where it had come from.”
Pathology experts are expected to give evidence later in the trial.
Earlier today, the jury heard evidence from the paramedics who were first on the scene.
The trial continues.