A long-time friend of Pauline Hanna has described confronting murder accused Philip Polkinghorne when he told her drugs found in their home were his dead wife’s.
Warning: This article contains content that could be disturbing to some people.
Friends of Hanna and her husband, who’s accused of her murder, are continuing to give evidence in 71-year-old Polkinghorne’s murder trial in Auckland.
Polkinghorne is accused of killing his wife before she was found at their Remuera home on April 5, 2021. His defence has argued that she killed herself and he is innocent.
This morning, an old friend of Pauline Hanna dramatically re-enacted a strangling in court. This she said, was what Hanna showed her.
And she said it was at the hands of Polkinghorne.
Victoria Pheasant Riordan, known as Pheasant, raised her hands to her own neck at the High Court in Auckland.
This, she said, was what happened during a conversation with Hanna.
“She described to us that Philip had done this to her,” she told the court.
“And that he’d done that to her and told her he could do that at any time, she took that as a threat, a real threat that he might do that to her… he said I can do this at any time,” Riordan said.
Riordan was Matron of Honour for Hanna and Hanna was a bridesmaid at her wedding and godmother to her son.
The pair bonded while studying in Wellington in the late 1970s and lived together.
Rirodan broke down in court as she spoke of urging Hanna to leave Polkinghorne.
“She said, that it would be OK, I think that’s what she said. I’m sorry, we were really quite stressed, um, and wanted her to leave. But, at that point, she kind of backed away,” she said.
“From the get go, Philip came across as very controlling,” Riordan told the court.
Riordan recounted a surprise birthday for her husband’s 60th birthday.
“Pauline and Philip came down from Auckland and, very early on the piece, Philip said he wanted to go,” she said.
‘She made excuses for Polkinghorne’ — Pheasant Riordan
Hanna told people Polkinghorne was having a problem with his contact lens and wanted to go, Riordan said.
“So she went with him. She would make excuses for Philip.
“She’d say things like ‘Philip needs me, or that’s Philip’s way,” she said.
Before her death, Riordan said Hanna had asked her to phone instead of text, “because Philip could read the texts,” Riordan told Crown Prosecutor Alysha McClintock.
She recounted another time she was with Ms Hanna in Auckland. “She was very excited about her new role, she was really animated and excited,” she said.
“And then Philip came home.”
Riordan said she felt Polkinghorne “wasn’t particularly interested in conversation” or about Pauline.
“It wasn’t the first time he had seemed dismissive of her, it was a nice meal,” she said.
Riordan said “the whole mood changed” when Polkinghorne got home.
McClintock asked Riordan whether she was aware her friend had been taking anti-depressants.
“Oh yeah, who doesn’t [take them]?” Riordan replied, to laughter in the public gallery.
She believed Hanna had likened taking anti-depressants to being as routine as someone taking heart medication.
“Did she ever say she was unable to cope?” McClintock asked. “No,” Riordan said.
Riordan said Hanna had told her Polkinghorne had a “seemingly insatiable desire” for sex.
“She recalled a time when they were having sex and the phone rang and he answered the phone whilst they were having sex.
“And she found that disturbing,” Riordan said.
Strangulation re-enactment ‘dramatic and alarming’
Under cross examination, defence lawyer Ron Mansfield asked Pheasant Riordan if what she recounted in court were Pauline Hanna’s exact words she used at a dinner in a Hawke’s Bay restaurant.
Rirodan again put her hands around her own neck in court, re-enacting what she says Hanna showed her.
“And then, after she said to me that Philip had said to her that he could do that at any time but, I do not know if those were the exact words. It was certainly the gist of what she was saying was that he could do it to her any time,” Riordan said.
“It was so dramatic and alarming.”
Riordan said she was so alarmed that she did not recall everything, and apologised to the court.
“A lot of that evening became quite blurred after that conversation occurred,” she said. “My mind is quite foggy, I know what she did but I don’t remember her exact words leading up to it.
“I remember being very shocked.”
Earlier, Pheasant Riordan said Pauline Hanna had never mentioned not being able to cope with a stressful job.
“The stress was never debilitating,” she told Mansfield.
“I mean, as you’re reading it to me, it sounds like you’re making it more prominent than I would recall…” she said. “I don’t put the same weight on it that you do,” she told Mansfield.
Polkinghorne showed friend a ‘suicide note’
Another friend of Hanna’s, Alison Ring, told the court she had an open home policy for Polkinghorne. “He could come any time he wanted to come,” she said.
He arrived one time after Pauline Hanna’s death.
“He came round and told me about the meth found in the house, a small amount he’d said, and said that it was Pauline’s,” Ring told the High Court.
“And I looked at him and I said, ‘You expect me to believe that? Because I don’t’.”
Ring then detailed another visit by Polkinghorne after he was charged with murder.
“The biggest upset for me was when he came round one evening and he brought a little piece of paper… because I’d always said I couldn’t believe Pauline didn’t leave any suicide note,” Ring said.
She added Hanna was known to use many notes in her daily life.
She always had notes, Ring said.
“So he came with this piece of paper and said ‘she did leave me a suicide note’ and showed me this piece of paper, and it’s red, but it had the words ‘Dear P, I love you forever, from P,'” she recounted to the jury.
“And I said, well that’s not the type of suicide note I’d be expecting from Pauline and I can’t believe that it is.”
Ring said she questioned Polkinghorne why police never found the note.
She said he told her he had found it in bedding.
“I said that’s bizarre,” Ring said.
She said the note caused her a lot of distress and sleepless nights.
“It just didn’t sit with me.”
Ring detailed conversations she had with Pauline Hanna about her husband.
Hanna ‘was worried about Polk’s mental health’ — Alison Ring
One time, she said Hanna told her, “Polk has been trying his best over the last few weeks”.
Other times were different.
“She said she was really really worried about Polk’s mental health, that he was very difficult to live with”, and said that Hanna had said he was verbally aggressive.
Another time Hanna told Ring her husband was having an affair.
She said Hanna told her she had broken into his computer and saw “obscene photography”.
She said Hanna told her she would not tolerate Polkinghorne having an affair with somebody “in her space”.
“I don’t care how many prostitutes he f**ks in Sydney, he is not going to have anybody in my space,” Ring said Pauline Hanna had told her.
“When she referred to her space, I thought she meant Auckland,” Ring added.
Under cross examination, Ring told defence lawyer Ron Mansfield Hanna was “really, really angry”.
