Prosecutors have called police officers and a Canadian rope expert who said the bright orange nylon rope found hanging from the upstairs balustrade in the couple’s home was too loose to have supported the weight of a person. Testimony also included friends and family of Hanna who have described multiple incidents in which she revealed suspicions of infidelity, vague plans to leave Polkinghorne if he didn’t shape up, his alleged anger issues and fears he might have swindled control of their joint assets.
“I love my husband but he is somebody who is very angry with the world when the world doesn’t go his way,” Hanna said in a recorded conversation with her brother and niece from 2019 that was played for jurors. " ... He is out of control because he doesn’t understand how to control himself, but he loves me more than anything in the world. I’m his brick. He is mine.
“But there will be a point. If it continues next year, I’ll say no ... I am only 63 in February, and I’m not prepared to put up with it until I’m 93.”
She emphasised in the recording that Polkinghorne, while emotionally abusive, had not been physically abusive.
But months later, in January 2020, she would reveal to two close friends that Polkinghorne had non-fatally “strangled” her and indicated that he could do it again at any time, the friends testified in back-to-back trips to the witness box.
“I just need you to know, if anything happens to me ... " another friend recounted Hanna telling her over the phone one time after explaining that Polkinghorne had been acting “beastly”. The thought either trailed off or the friend couldn’t remember how it ended, but she specifically remembered those words, she told jurors.
Although the defence hasn’t yet had an opportunity to call its own witnesses, the narrative has been made clear through extensive cross-examination of witnesses by lawyers Ron Mansfield KC and Hannah Stuart. It was simply a suicide, they have contended.
Hanna had quietly battled depression for decades, having attempted suicide once before in the early 1990s and reporting suicidal ideation again in December 2019, the lawyers have noted. Her mental health issues were compounded, they have suggested, by her high-stress job helping to manage the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine. They have pointed to emails sent out at all hours of the night, which her manager had talked to her about.
The defence also pointed to a “powerful cocktail of medications” that Hanna had been taking, including weight-loss pills, unprescribed sleeping medication and Prozac for depression. The defence has indicated it will offer evidence later in the trial that some of the medications, when combined or when taken with alcohol, can increase risk of suicide.
Hanna’s GP, however, has testified there was no indication she reacted negatively to Prozac or the weight-loss drug. The doctor, who has interim name suppression, said she had no concerns even after Hanna sought help for problem drinking.
Justice Graham Lang told jurors on Friday that there was no need to return to court on Monday. Polkinghorne’s lawyer has an unrelated case before the Supreme Court today and is not expected to finish until this afternoon at the earliest.
The trial is “broadly on schedule” but jurors should have a better understanding of the timeline by the end of this week, the judge has said.
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.
