Philip Polkinghorne looked up “leg edema after strangulation” the day after his wife’s death, a court has heard.
The former Auckland eye surgeon is on trial, accused of murdering his wife Pauline Hanna in 2021 and staging it as a suicide.
The Crown argues Polkinghorne strangled his wife and went to great lengths to stage her death as a suicide. But his defence argues Hanna ended her life after after struggling with depression for many years.
Police detective Andrew Reeves told the High Court in Auckland on Friday that Polkinghorne used the search engine Duck Duck Go to get information about strangulation on April 6, 2021.
Reeves said Duck Duck Go was designed to be untraceable, but police were able to recover the search result.
After seizing Polkinghorne’s electronic devices, Reeves said police also found he accessed WhatsApp minutes before calling police the day Hanna died, but these messages were deleted.
Reeves said all of Polkinghorne’s WhatsApp messages before April 5 were deleted, which he found odd.
After his first police interview on April 5, Detective Reeves said Polkinghorne searched on Safari how to delete iCloud storage. Polkinghorne deleted phone call logs three days after Hanna died, Reeves said.
Reeves also analysed USB drives belonging to Polkinghorne. He said one had saved images of knot-tying techniques.
Another had a photo of a meth pipe with “Sweet Puff” written on the side. Polkinghorne could be seen in the reflection of the photo.
“He’s naked while taking a photo,” said Reeves.
Earlier in the trial, the court heard the meth pipe was found at Polkinghorne’s workplace Auckland Eye.
An investigation by Auckland Eye could not determine the owner of the pipe.
Polkinghorne discussed living with sex worker after wife’s death
Reeves said Polkinghorne regularly messaged Sydney escort Madison Ashton and another sex worker after his wife died.
Detective Reeves said Ashton told Polkinghorne what to wear to his wife’s funeral.
“Do not wear a f***ing bow tie at the funeral.”
Reeves said Polkinghorne booked flights to visit Ashton in Australia between April 20 and May 2, 2021.
He said Polkinghorne and Ashton discussed living together.
Ashton was found with Polkinghorne at a luxury lodge in Mt Cook in April, where police seized her phone.
On April 12, Polkinghorne also contacted another sex worker known as Rachel/Alaria that he had thought about Ubering to her, Reeves said.
‘I cannot live’ – Dramatic note found on Pauline Hanna’s computer
In court, defence lawyer Ron Mansfield KC read out a document found on Hanna’s laptop, created in March 2019.
In the document, Hanna wrote that after a dinner the couple got into an argument.
“I talked too much in the car coming home. The rest is ugly and I don’t know what to do.
“Then all hell breaks loose — I have not behaved as he wanted — and I cry — I am gutted, been holding it in for so long.
“He is angry and doesn’t want to know me or my issues or me for that matter.”
Hanna wrote she could not live after Polkinghorne called their marriage a waste of time.
“HURT HURT HURT- in fact wrecked. All these years, 27, did I get it wrong that he was the only person who truly loved me as his number 1.
“I was number 1 in someone’s life — as he was in mine. Have we got that wrong? God what a prospect — I cannot live if that is the result that I got it wrong.”
Justice Graham Lang told the jury it was getting the the “sharp end of the trial”, but said it was too early to come to any conclusions.
The trial continues on Monday.
By Jessica Hopkins of rnz.co.nz