Philip Polkinghorne. Photo: RNZ/Nick Monro
Warning: This article contains discussion of potential suicide.
An Auckland woman allegedly murdered by her retired eye surgeon husband had described him as a sex fiend and an angry man, in a recording played for the court.
Philip Polkinghorne, 71, is accused of killing his wife, Pauline Hanna, in their multi-million dollar Remuera home three years ago.
The Crown claims Polkinghorne killed her and staged the scene as suicide, something the defence denies.
Her brother, Bruce Hanna, took the witness stand in the High Court in Auckland on Thursday afternoon.
He revealed details about his sister and Polkinghorne's relationship.
Bruce Hanna believed Polkinghorne pushed his sister into participating in sex acts which she would not ordinarily engage in, like group sex.
Bruce Hanna said Pauline seemed less happy when she was with Polkinghorne, and that this would spill over into solo trips she took to visit the family.
He said Hanna had told him about the other women Polkinghorne was seeing, including someone in Sydney, Australia, and visits he would make to prostitutes in Auckland.
"She told me she wasn't very happy with the relationship," he said.
The jury was played a recording taken by Bruce Hanna's daughter, of a tense family exchange in which Polkinghorne and his behaviour was discussed.
In the clip, Pauline Hanna expressed her discomfort at Polkinghorne's extramarital affairs.
"He goes off and screws women when he's away, and I could take... well, I do take a very foul view of that ... and he hurts me, but I know he loves me," she said.
She called him a sex fiend and claimed he just wanted to have sex with everyone.
"He's really hurt me, to the extent that sometimes I've thought 'well, why am I living with him' but I love him, and he loves me, and actually it's just his malfunction," she said in the recording.
"He is an angry man.
"I'm not going to let him destroy me," she told family.
Pauline Hanna claimed Polkinghorne wanted a smart woman as a trophy wife, but asserted she would not be made to feel like a doormat.
"I'm not going to put up with it forever," she said.
"I'm not a doormat, but I do love him."
Despite the tense conversation, Pauline Hanna was still sympathetic toward her husband.
"Please don't think Philip's a beast," she said. "He's not."
Bruce Hanna was cross examined by Polkinghorne's defence lawyer, Ron Mansfield KC.
He asked if Bruce Hanna was aware of his sister's prescriptions for anti-depressants, as well as an attempt she made, some 30 years ago, to take her life shortly after their father died.
Bruce Hanna said he was unaware of the prescriptions or suicide attempt.
He said he and his sister were close.
"Yeah, we've lived different lives, but we've always kept in contact, and when we can we've always caught up and seen each other."
Earlier in the trial on Thursday, a jury watched footage of Polkinghorne questioning if he put too much expectation on his wife before her death.
He wondered if he encouraged her to do to much, including pushing her to write something on home dialysis, something she had instituted as a policy at Middlemore Hospital. He also wondered whether he could have listened more to her concerns.
The trial continues.
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