Philip Polkinghorne denies killing his wife Pauline Hanna in their Remuera home. Photo: RNZ/Nick Monro
Warning: Some readers might find this story distressing
The trial of a retired eye surgeon, accused of murdering his wife, has heard a blood stain on a bedsheet where the deceased is believed to have spent her last night belonged to her husband.
Phillip Polkinghorne denied killing his wife Pauline Hanna in their Remuera home in April 2021, and argued his wife struggled with her mental health, but that relationship was perfectly happy.
It is the second week of a six-week trial of Polkinghorne at the High Court in Auckland.
The Crown's case is 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 and then stage it as a suicide.
More forensic evidence is being heard as the cross-examination of Environmental Science and Research (ESR) forensic scientist Fiona Matheson continued on Monday.
Matheson was on the scene on the day Hanna was found dead in the Upland Road home, and said her role was to find evidence of either a crime occurring or to support the scenario Hanna had committed suicide.
Under cross-examination by defence lawyer Ron Mansfield KC, Matheson said she had a "dual role" in her examinations of the scene, and she had kept an "open mind".
Matheson was quizzed about her examination of an upstairs bedroom where Hanna was believed to have spent her last night.
When asked by Mansfield about the DNA result of a blood stain on the bedsheet, Matheson said the result showed the blood sample did not belong to Hanna, but belonged to Polkinghorne.
She said the stain on the sheet was on the lower right side of the bed, near the foot of the bed.
Mansfield also probed Matheson about her collection of samples from water bottles and cups inside the bedroom, and whether the purpose of that was to determine whether Hanna had been drugged, or had drugged herself.
Matheson said further testing was not done because statements from the pathologist suggested there was no need to carry out further examinations.
Last week, the court heard from Matheson that there were other probable blood stains detected in the house.
That included blood on a handrail of the staircase above where Hanna's body lay, in the bathroom and laundry around the edges of two drains.
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