Former eye surgeon Philip Polkinghorne is accused of murdering his wife, Pauline Hanna. Photo: RNZ/Nick Monro
Warning: This story discusses suicide and suicidal thoughts from the beginning.
The murder trial of Philip Polkinghorne enters its final phase next week, the final witnesses having concluded their evidence this morning.
The former eye surgeon's defence concluded with the questioning of two mental health experts.
Pauline Hanna had an increased risk of suicide leading up to her death, a psychiatrist says.
Former eye surgeon Philip Polkinghorne is accused of murdering Hanna, his wife, and staging her death to appear as a suicide.
But his defence argues Hanna's death in April of 2021 was a genuine suicide.
Hanna was grieving for her mother who had died earlier in the year, and had been taking medication to treat depression for many years.
Polkinghorne's defence also claims Hanna had an alcohol use disorder and would drink in combination with medication, including the sleeping pill zopiclone.
Academic psychiatrist David Menkes, a witness for the defence, noted this behaviour could have contributed to suicidal thoughts.
"Much like zopiclone and other sleeping medications, [alcohol] is a central nervous system depressant. It tends to, for most individuals, [put them to sleep]," he explained.
"It's generally not very pleasant to wake up from a drugged sleep... Anyone who's overindulged the night before is likely to have experienced that reaction the following day. There's two components, the hangover effect... but then there's the more general depression of mood as well."
Menkes said chronic drinkers were known to experience depression.
He explained that suicidal behaviour could be unpredictable.
"Some people do plan it, sometimes in meticulous detail... [But] that's probably the minority... A lot of people behave in a way that's called unplanned or impulsive suicide and in that case it can be much more of a sudden decision," he said.
"There will be some people where the risk is quite apparent with various threats, and there are people where there is no apparent risk and it comes out of the blue."
Mansfield previously described Hanna as a "type A" personality.
He asked his next and final witness, mental health expert Dr Sarah Hetrick, to define that phrase.
"Someone who is hard working, conscientious, a perfectionist who strives to do well," Hetrick said.
Mansfield asked whether a "type A" person would be less prone to suicide.
"That would be a myth. Evidence shows suicide touches every type of person, there is no type who is protected from suicide," Hetrick replied.
"What about someone who is characterised as having a lot to live for?" Mansfield asked.
"That's probably in that myth category, we can have things we're looking forward to and we can be experiencing a lot of distress [at the same time]. Distress can become overwhelming and we lose sight or no longer feel hope," Hetrick said.
"There's no particular combination of factors that enables us to understand why someone in front of us may go on to take their own life. Around two thirds to three quarters of people who have later committed suicide have denied feeing suicidal."
When the defence concluded its evidence, Justice Graham Lang addressed the jury.
"In your heads I'm sure you have a vast morass of evidence, that's normal in a lengthy trial like this. The function of closing addresses, which you're going to hear [on Monday] is to put all of the evidence together," he explained.
"So mull over, by all means, over the weekend what you've heard... But don't come to any firm conclusions one way or the other."
Lang indicated the Crown would begin its closing address on Monday, followed by the defence on Tuesday.
Justice Lang would then sum up the case on either Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday.
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