Philip Polkinghorne entering the Auckland High Court on Thursday. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
- Former eye surgeon Philip Polkinghorne denies killing his wife, Pauline Hanna, in April 2021.
- Polkinghorne had earlier pleaded guilty to possession of methamphetamine and a pipe.
- The Crown argues a combination of financial problems, infidelity, and meth-use led Polkinghorne to murdering his wife and stage her death as a suicide.
- The defence argues Hanna killed herself after struggling with depression for many years.
A juror has been discharged in the seventh week of the trial of Philip Polkinghorne.
Speaking at the High Court in Auckland, Justice Graham Lang said he chose to discharge a juror yesterday due to an upcoming personal commitment that cannot be changed.
Justice Lang said while he expected the trial to wrap up next week, he did not want to rush the jury to make a decision.
"What we don't ever want to do is have a juror or a jury under stress to reach a verdict in a particular time frame.
"The reality is if I sent you out on Wednesday you'll be thinking we have to get a verdict on Thursday and that's exactly the kind of pressure we don't want to put on you."
He said the jury could carry on with eight women and three men.
Defence locked in on Pauline Hanna's iPhone use before her death
Police digital forensics analyst Jun Lee returned to the witness box once again for Ron Mansfield KC to continue his cross-examination.
He was called back yesterday after giving evidence as part of the prosecution's case earlier in the trial.
Lee argued Pauline Hanna's iPhone 8 could not have been used to draft text messages to her husband, and her friend's teenage daughter around 4am on the morning of her death, as the defence's IT expert claimed.
Lee said the defence wrongly claimed data showing Apple's identity look-up service was activated was the phone being used to draft texts.
He said identity look-up is an automatic security process which runs a background check of contacts on an Apple phone.
He said identity look-up is not linked to drafting or sending messages.
After a lengthy back and forth yesterday, Lee came armed with what he said was visual evidence of time-stamped background data from Hanna's phone.
Mansfield KC said the defence received a video last night and notes this morning from police via the Crown.
The jury watched the video of data logs and was given pages of phone data to sift through.
Lee said the phone's identity look-up service ran on 8 April 2021, days after Hanna's death.
He said this supported the police's argument the look-up feature is not linked to message drafting and is random.
But he accepted after the two look-up entries at 4am there were no further Apple identity look-up services until 8 April.
Lee said there are seven records of Polkinghorne's number being checked in the phone's life.
But Mansfield argued this did not make sense given the frequency of Hanna's messaging with her husband.
After two consecutive days of giving evidence, Justice Graham Lang let Lee know he was free to go.
"We are relieved to know that concludes your evidence," he said to a chuckling court room.
Identity check had to be user-activated - Apple expert
Appearing via video at the High Court in Auckland today, Atakan 'Artie' Shahho said he had been a registered Apple developer since 2008.
He told defence lawyer Ron Mansfield KC that being an Apple developer made him a better expert witness to weigh in on iPhone functions than Lee.
"It's a familiarity thing.
"It's in my DNA."
He said his analysis of data from Hanna's iPhone 8 concluded iMessage was opened on the phone at 4am.
He said two contact numbers were entered, but messages were never sent.
Those contacts were her husband, Philip Polkinghorne, and the teenage daughter of her friend.
Shahho said he noted a look-up identity check was triggered by this.
Lee earlier told the court the identity look-up process was automated and not linked to drafting or sending text messages.
Although Lee said Hanna's phone was not used after 10.47pm the night before she died, Shahho said identity look-up had to be user-activated.
"The identity service will occur when a number or contact is typed in."
The look-up service will identify if it's an Apple user, [and] it will send [the message] as an iMessage; or if it's an Android user, it will send [the message] as an SMS."
He said if a phone number was invalid, no text would be sent and the user would get an error message.
During cross-examination, Crown prosecutor Alysha McClintock questioned the defence's witness who called himself an ethical hacker.
McClintock said their expert had gone beyond the data provided to Shahho and no corresponding device logs showed the phone was moved or switched on that morning.
Throughout giving evidence, Shahho's phone kept going off.
"I need a good computer technician," he said.
Shahho said he also searched Hanna's emails for wellbeing-related words like "depressed", "God", and "help".
He said he found an email Hanna sent to herself on 14 April 2020, where she wrote about struggling with work.
"I am never good enough despite my efforts," she wrote.
"I want desperately to tell someone and cry and ask for help, but everyone seems to think I'm amazing and does not want to know that I have foibles and failings.
"Who knows what might follow. Have to tell someone even if no-one but God ever sees this."
The trial continues.