Philip Polkinghorne at day 1 of his trial for the murder of his wife at the High Court at Auckland. Photo: RNZ/Nick Monro
Warning: This story contains discussion of potential suicide.
Philip Polkinghorne told police he was "sobbing uncontrollably" while trying to call emergency services, in an interview on the day his wife, Pauline Hanna, died.
Polkinghorne, 71, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Hanna in 2021 and staging her death to look like a suicide.
On Wednesday afternoon at the High Court in Auckland, the jury was shown a police interview between Detective Ilona Walton and Polkinghorne conducted on the day of Hanna's death.
Dressed in jeans and a pink shirt, Polkinghorne told Walton he had gone downstairs that morning and put the kettle on before going into the hall and discovering his wife.
"I saw Pauline there and she was slouched and there was a chair. I could see her arm was blue and knew she was dead straight away.
"I was just a wreck when I called 111, I was trying to lie her down flat and I dropped the phone, I was sobbing uncontrollably."
Earlier on Wednesday, the couple's personal trainer Barry Payne told the court Polkinghorne and Hanna seemed "quite fond of each other".
Payne said there was one time Hanna mentioned she thought her husband had a girlfriend, but he ignored it not wanting to get involved in their personal life.
Mt Cook chalet police raid
After Hanna's death, Polkinghorne and his girlfriend Madison Ashton travelled to the South Island to stay at the Mt Cook Lakeside Retreat.
Ashton is an Australian sex worker.
Detective Senior Sergeant Lisa Jane Anderson was involved with a police raid at the property on April 30, 2021.
Police were there to seize Asthon's phones.
Anderson said the phones had been pin protected, and Ashton declined to give the pin numbers.
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