The forensic pathologist who carried out Pauline Hanna’s post-mortem examination gave evidence at Philip Polkinghorne’s murder trial today, revealing more details of injuries on Hanna’s body at the time of her death.
Warning: This article contains content that could be disturbing to some people.
As with every time the jury has entered or exited, Polkinghorne stood with his hands clasped in front of him as jurors made their way to their bench this morning. He’s accused of killing his wife before she was found at their Remuera home on April 5, 2021.
Polkinghorne’s defence has argued that she killed herself and Polkinghorne is innocent.
Forensic pathologist Dr Kilak Kesha from Auckland City Hospital took the stand today. He has completed about 4000 post-mortems, he told the High Court at Auckland. On April 6, 2021, the day after Hanna’s body was found, he examined her body.
A near-full public gallery watched attentively as he described what he found.
Several police officers were in the room that day, Kesha said — and he found several injuries on Hanna’s body.
Among them, Hanna had “an abrasion on the bridge of her nose”, an “abrasion on the left side of her back” and a “cluster of bruising on the back of the right arm”, Kesha said. Outside of the injuries, Hanna was “a healthy 63-year-old” at the time she died.
“She may have hit her nose on something, something may have hit her nose,” he said. He later agreed the injury was “minor”.
Asked whether the bruising on her arm could have come from finger marks, Kesha said that’s “absolutely correct” but he “can’t say that for sure”. The marks hadn’t gone yellow, he added, suggesting they were less than three days old.
Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield later suggested they could have come from somebody steadying Hanna at the gym. Kesha agreed.
Hanna also had a bruise on the right side of her head above her ear. “All I can say is, something hit her head or her head hit something,” the witness said.
However, he would’ve “normally” expected “a lot more” injuries to Hanna if she had been strangled, Kesha said.
He added: “It’s not necessary if she’s subdued some other way.”
Toxicology reports found “low levels of alcohol” and a “significant amount” of a sleeping pill in her system.
But the doctor also said that tolerance could build up towards sleeping medication, leading people to take larger amounts.
Ultimately, the evidence couldn’t rule out either suicide or strangulation, the witness said.
“I don’t prefer one over the other,” Kesha said. “I cannot rule out one over the other.”
Tensions were high in court today, with Mansfield at one point quietly telling a prosecution lawyer: “If you want to object, you can object.”
The trial continues.
