Philip Polkinghorne appears at the Auckland High Court on 29 July, 2024. Photo: RNZ/Nick Monro
Warning: This story contains discussion of a potential suicide.
A forensic scientist, testifying in the trial of an retired Auckland eye surgeon accused of murdering his wife, has told the court about which drugs were found in Pauline Hanna's body.
It is the second week of the trial of Philip Polkinghorne, who denies killing Pauline Hanna in their Remuera home in April 2021. His defence argues she had struggled with her mental health and that her death was a case of suicide.
The Crown's case was 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 which he then staged as a suicide.
On Tuesday, the court heard there was no evidence of methamphetamine use by Hanna in the six months prior to her death.
Forensic scientist Helen Poulsen was tasked with analysing blood and urine samples taken from Hanna.
Zopiclone, a sleeping drug, fluxotine, an anti-depressant, and phentermine, a diet drug, were found alongside alcohol in her blood, Poulsen said.
They quantity of zopiclone found was about two times higher than the recommended dose for therapeutic use, she said.
"In addition, patients taking zopiclone should be warned not to take alcohol at the same time," Poulsen said.
"Using alcohol with sedatives tends to accentuate the effects of sedatives, and it is potentially quite dangerous to mix and alcohol and sedative drugs like zopiclone."
A hair sample, of 24cm in length, was sent to Australia for analysis. It had 6cm of growth, which could indicate drug use in the past six months, Poulsen said.
"Zopiclone was the only drug detected in the hair sample," she said.
"No others?" Crown prosecutor Brian Dickey prompted.
"No other drugs were detected," she said.
"So what does that suggest then in terms of methamphetamine?" Dickey asked.
"There is no evidence that she had used methamphetamine. Certainty not within the six months prior to her death," Poulsen said.
The zopiclone found suggested Hanna used the drug regularly, she said.
A liquid sample from the toilet was also analysed, and Poulsen said it detected methamphetamine and amphetamines.
Earlier on Tuesday, the court heard from the first personal contact of the couple to testify in the trial at the High Court in Auckland. Stephen MacIntyre, who had known the couple for 25 years, said Philip Polkinghorne's behaviour changed in the year leading up to his wife's death.
Electricity usage in home on morning body found analysed
The court also heard from a former product tester for Consumer NZ, Paul Smith, who analysed the energy usage at the Polkinghorne home on the morning Hanna was found dead on 5 April, 2021.
The defence has argued Polkinghorne went downstairs that morning to the kitchen, to make tea and toast for his wife, before finding her body lying in the entranceway.
Smith said he analysed the energy usage of the household in the previous evening and in the early morning, from 4am to 7.30am.
He said he could not conclude specifically what appliances were drawing energy, but could make assumptions based on spikes in energy above the baseline use, and how much energy appliances like an electric kettle or toaster use.
"I reasonably think we can rule out the use of the kettle or the toaster in that period [of the early morning] because the energy increase over the baseline is not sufficient to support their use," Smith said.
Crown prosecutor Brian Dickey asked to clarify whether this was both appliances being used at the same time or separately.
"In combination we can definitely rule them out, absolutely there's not enough energy there. Separately, the energy is closer, but still there is a lot of doubt to whether you could use it there, because anything else using the energy would have to cease using that energy," Smith said.
In cross-examination by the defence, he was asked if when he completed his analysis, if he knew the house had underfloor heating.
He did not, Smith said, but he could not draw conclusions about the underfloor heating as they did not know its model or the timer it was set to.
The defence showed the court pictures of a red toaster in the Polkinghorne kitchen, set to the lowest setting, and a matching red kettle, which Smith agreed appeared to have condensation on its glass lid.
Smith said he could not make an assumption about how long it might take condensation to dry out, or when this might have indicated when the kettle was last used.
He said he could not reasonably determine the energy usage of a toaster set to its lowest setting, but his analysis was based on average consumer use.
"While you'd expect there to be some correlation between the toaster setting and the brownness of the bread, the level of toasting, it's not as easy to say that one toast to set low, or one toast to set high will produce a particular amount of energy used or amount of toast."
Smith was also quizzed about the probable use of the washing machine and dryer.
A damp sheet was found in the dryer of the Polkinghorne home on the morning of 5 April.
Smith said he agreed with a second analysis referenced by the defence, that the dryer could only have been used between 6.30pm and 10.30pm the night before.
Of the washing machine, he said it could have been used in the morning because it would have drawn a low level of electricity on a cold wash cycle, but it was hard to make an exact conclusion.
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