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 a potential suicide.
A close friend of the retired Auckland eye surgeon accused of murdering his wife, said his friend's behaviour changed in the year leading up to his wife's death.
It's the second week of the trial of Philip Polkinghorne, who denies killing Pauline Hanna in their Remuera home in April 2021. His defence argues she had struggled with her mental health and that her death was a case of suicide.
The Crown's case was that the couple were unhappy, that Polkinghorne was a "heavy" meth user who was living a secret "double life" with a prostitute and that finances had become a strain because of this - and that the combination of these factors led him to kill Hanna during a violent struggle which he then staged as a suicide.
Stephen MacIntyre, who had known the couple for 25 years is the first personal contact of the couple to testify in the trial at the High Court in Auckland, and appeared through audio-visual link.
He said he came to know Polkinghorne through spending time together at Rings Beach in the Coromandel where they both owned baches - having coffee, fishing, diving and having dinner barbeques together on public holidays and at Christmas.
When asked by Crown prosecutor Brian Dickey whether there had been any changes he observed of the couple or in his relationship with them in the years previous to Hanna's death, MacIntyre said yes.
"I felt that Dr Polkinghorne was changing… over a period of time, some things I saw and felt I didn't particularly like, I probably just backed off the relationship a little bit," he said.
"I felt that in that period leading up to Pauline's death, he was quite changed, he told me some things that turned out … I doubted the truth of them, his nature changed, his physical presence changed, he became slimmer and more muscly, a different physique, a bit more manic, a little bit irrational I felt, at times."
MacIntyre recalled a time when Polkinghorne told him about an incident in Manaia where he crashed his ute into a fence.
He said Polkinghorne initially said that no one saw the incident and that he got a new ute, but in a later account said he had crashed due to falling asleep at the wheel and was asked to pay for damages.
MacIntyre said his friend's account was inconsistent, and he didn't know if he could believe either of those accounts.
When asked by Dickey what he thought led to that change, MacIntyre said "I felt he was using drugs".
MacIntyre said whereas in the past he would see the couple often on public holidays and Christmas, he saw them less in the year prior to Hanna's death.
He said he observed less change in Hanna, "Pauline didn't change to me other than one thing, I saw her walking one day around the coast, probably in the year before she died and I thought she seemed to have lost a bit of weight, other than that I didn't notice any difference in Pauline".
But MacIntyre mentioned an instance of Polkinghorne's "unusual" absence around Christmas Eve of 2019, with Hanna arriving at Rings Beach alone and looking "annoyed".
He said Hanna explained Polkinghorne was away at a medical conference. Polkinghorne turned up in Rings Beach a few days later, he said.
Under cross-examination by defence lawyer Ron Mansfield KC on the number of occasions he had seen the couple in the 12-18 months before Hanna's death, MacIntyre said it was about "half a dozen" times.
Mansfield also pointed to Polkinghorne going to the gym, suggesting this may have accounted for the changes to his appearance.
"The loss of weight for Dr Polkinghorne was in 2017 to 2018, might that be the period of time where you noticed he'd lost a few pounds?" he asked.
MacIntyre replied he could not recall the time, but said it was "definitely well prior to Pauline's death".
He said it was not the weight loss which led him to believe Polkinghorne was using drugs.
Mansfield probed further whether MacIntyre is a drug user, to which the witness first said he did not need to answer that question, and later said "no".
Asked whether he had been around people who used drugs, MacIntyre said he was familiar with signs of drug use, due to his job as a shipmaster and having to make assessments about workers who might be affected.
Mansfield's cross-examination involved extensive questions around MacIntyre's recollection of the ute incident he heard from Polkinghorne.
Mansfield put the date of the ute incident as 4 September, 2020, which MacIntrye agreed that it was close to that date.
MacIntyre was shown an image of Polkinghorne's damaged ute and asked if it was consistent with the damage he had heard about from Polkinghorne.
MacIntyre said he was led to believe the damage was "more extensive".
"Do you think it's possible that regarding damage to his vehicle - you might have gotten confused in your conversations," Mansfield asked, questioning whether MacIntyre had known about another person in the Rings Beach community having a car crash and confused Polkinghorne's crash with that one.
MacIntyre said he was not aware of the other car crash.
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