Philip Polkinghorne is accused of killing his wife Pauline Hanna in 2021. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
Philip Polkinghorne's obsession with sex worker Madison Ashton drove him to murder his wife, says the Crown.
The former eye surgeon is accused of killing Pauline Hanna in 2021, while he claims her death was suicide.
Reading her closing address, Crown prosecutor Alysha McClintock aimed to convince the 11-person jury that Polkinghorne killed Hanna on 5 April 2021.
Jurors had relived that day in vivid detail over the past seven weeks.
Hanna had injuries on her nose and skull, and bruises on her arm.
Polkinghorne's defence offered various explanations - that she bumped her head, or that her personal trainer grabbed her by the arm.
McClintock thought those explanations were too convenient.
"So far she's been gripped, she's banged her nose, and now she's banged her head," she said.
"What are the chances that she has both become suicidal and had this bumpy old time that has injured her in all these different ways immediately prior to her death?"
McClintock zeroed in on what she called the most damning evidence against the defendant.
"The single most significant piece of evidence in this trial is that Dr Polkinghorne had tried to strangle Pauline Hanna before," she said.
"She told her best friend about it in January 2020."
Given the couple's history, McClintock said it was unlikely Hanna would lie about the incident.
"Now, the suggestion [from the defence] seems to be: maybe she lied about it to them, maybe it's the alcohol talking... But why?"
"She did nothing in relation to Dr Polkinghorne but defend him, paper over his bad behaviour. 'Oh, he's not that bad, I love him, he loves me.' Why would she lie about this?"
She told jurors that Hanna feared her husband.
A year before her death, in a message to friend and coworker Margaret White, Hanna had described the defendant as "beastly."
"Hanna said to her: 'I just need you to know, if anything happens to me.' Despite the fact she loved him, 'I just need you to know if something happens to me...' Well, just over a year later, something did happen to her," McClintock said.
Throughout the trial, jurors heard intimate details of Polkinghorne's life - his financial issues, his meth use, and his ongoing affair with Australian sex worker Madison Ashton.
McClintock suggested those challenges reached boiling point on 5 April 2021.
"He had become increasingly angry and agitated, he's obsessed with Madison Ashton, he's haemorrhaging money," she said.
"Any one or more of these support the logical conclusion that these two argued about something that night, or these issues boiled over."
In the years leading to Hanna's death, McClintock said the defendant's infatuation with Ashton became obsessive.
"He's clearly obsessed with Madison Ashton, on one hard drive alone he had 4222 saved images of Madison Ashton."
And she said that obsession drove him to murder.
"Pauline Hanna was in the way. This dream life he had with Madison Ashton couldn't be reconciled with the life he had at home with Pauline Hanna."
