Crown prosecutor Alysha McClintock does not have far to go in her closing address, so we'll start again at the earlier time of 9.30am so we can finish her closing, Justice Graham Lang says. 

The judge urges them to continue to keep an open mind because they have not heard the defence closing or the judge's summing-up.

There's also the meth traces in Hanna's toilet, because it puts him in that room, and he doesn't want that, says Crown prosecutor Alysha McClintock.

"He knows what happened when he went there. He killed his wife."

On his own account, he's going to the gym twice a week with personal trainer Barry Payne, and he's ready to break records, says McClintock.

The prosecutor says he could have carried her down the stairs.

There's also an important detail suggesting she was brought down the stairs. She's covered in a sheet when first responders arrive, and a sheet is missing from the bed where she slept.

The sheet was on top of her, under the duvet. No sheet was mentioned in the interview, McClintock says.

Crown prosecutor Alysha McClintock is now turning to what Polkinghorne did that night.

There's no evidence she was active at all that night. But he was, and he lied about it. He told Detective Ilona Walton he was asleep all night, from about 10pm, said McClintock.

Polkinghorne seems to be watching a documentary when he gets the last email from his wife.

At 11.16pm, he's on WhatsApp. Then his phone's off at 1.10am, when he is awake and back on WhatsApp, for seven minutes. We don't know what the message was because it's been deleted.

At 1.11am, he turns his phone on to flight mode, where it remains until 8.06am, McClintock says.

He only did that one other time, says the prosecutor. It's very unusual that the night his wife dies, his phone goes on to Airplane mode and stays on until 8.06am, the prosecutor says.

There's a lot of activity on his phone while on Airplane mode, including accessing the Photos app on his phone. There are also 90 pornographic videos, including some of him and Madison Ashton, she says.

There is photo and video app usage through to 8.05am, two minutes before he calls 111, McClintock says.

"The point is that he had plenty of time to kill her," she says.

Plenty of time to have a toot on his meth pipe, or to either surprise his wife in his bedroom or strangle her there or somewhere else, though the upstairs bedroom does seem the most likely place, McClintock says.

Plenty of time for his wife to leave at least one mark on him, that cut to his head he couldn't or wouldn't explain.

The mark he did not have on April 4, she says.

Here we have a man spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on sex workers and drugs to try to keep this second life away from Pauline Hanna, says Crown prosecutor Alysha McClintock.

There's one person in this marriage who actually had her life pretty together: Hanna, says McClintock.

She turns up dead, in a sheet under the stairs, totally out of the blue and a shock to those who knew her.

But the other person in this marriage had become progressively more shambolic and was on meth and seeing multiple sex workers, plainly infatuated with Madison Ashton, says the prosecutor.

"These two worlds, they're going to collide. They can't run in parallel forever," McClintock says.

On April 12, 2021, Polkinghorne sent another sex worker companion, Rachel/Alaria, a message asking if she's up and that he was considering Ubering over, Crown prosecutor Alysha McClintock says.

It's perfectly obvious his expenditure, in vast sums, went to things Hanna knew nothing about, the prosecutor says.

There were huge withdrawals in Australia, increasing significantly over the years, McClintock says.

Polkinghorne even purchased Madison Ashton a washing machine and had it delivered to her house, Crown prosecutor Alysha McClintock says. They were even planning to spend Christmas 2020 together.

They discuss home jobs, and Polkinghorne even gives her a little CV about what he's good at, McClintock says.

"Playing at husband and wife, at least in his world," she says.

He's clearly obsessed with Ashton, the prosecutor says. She's effectively his mistress, that he's planning a future life with, she says.

Polkinghorne is emotionally and financially fully invested in Ashton at the time of Hanna's death. It doesn't matter what Ashton's true intention were, or whether she was genuine or not genuine, McClintock says. It's about what he thought and he wanted.

This dream life that he had with Ashton could not be reconciled with the life he had at home with Hanna, the prosecutor says.

"Something's got to give."

He's also stressed about Auckland Eye and what payout he might get, McClintock says.

The trial has resumed.

Crown prosecutor Alysha McClintock says Dr Emma Schwarcz said meth use is associated with an increased risk of violence.

This gives you a clear context, and the association with aggression extends beyond the period of intoxication into periods of withdrawal, McClintock says. Polkinghorne had shown signs of aggression at work, including in the operating theater, as well as at work.

"Being an older, wealthy, privileged man does not make him immune from the effects of methamphetamine."

There's a tinderbox, ready to go up, says McClintock, and it starts from about mid-2020 with all these issues bubbling away.

Hanna knew there was a sexual relationship with sex worker Madison Ashton, but Polkinghorne was planning a future with her, including discussing their future domestic life together, McClintock says.

In 2018, Ashton had said she's not ready to commit, the prosecutor says. Polkinghorne had said let us love each other and leave the future to the future. He later talked about making plans to split from Hanna, and splitting the assets 65 to 35 in his favour. He promised to discuss this with Ashton before agreeing anything.

"Isn't that interesting?" asks McClintock.

Of course Hanna wasn't aware of all this, says McClintock.

Polkinghorne's meth use and habit had got reckless at this point in time, and that tells you something about its extent, and the increasing level of dependence he had on meth, says McClintock.

His longtime Rings Beach neighbour Stephen MacIntyre said he found Polkinghorne more erratic and jumpy, Crown prosecutor Alysha McClintock recalls.

Unusual behaviour and aggression are symptoms of meth use, as we heard from expert witness Dr Emma Schwarcz, of the Community Drug and Alcohol Service, the prosecutor says.

Use of the drug is associated with an increased libido, McClintock says.

"We know his to be very high."

She complained to friends about him wanting sex every day, calling him a sex fiend, she recalls.

Fatigue, in particular, is something associated with a meth comedown and something reported by Polkinghorne's colleagues.

Justice Lang calls a 10-minute break.

It's easy to try and excuse it as advancing age or an old-school manner, says McClintock. But it's all happening at the same time as Polkinghorne's problematic meth use, she says, and it's not a coincidence.

The amount at his home shows the significance of the habit – 37.7g.

At the same time, he's going through the cash and was being controlling of and abusive to his wife, and had an ever-developing relationship with Madison Ashton, McClintock says.

That changed behaviour, she suggests, goes hand in hand with his meth use: 37.7g is 370 individual uses, and more than $13,000 worth.

He used it regularly enough he had that "vast quantity to hand, left over" when the police searched his home.

He's not simply a casual user at that volume, says McClintock.

This is not just every once and so often, she says.

The suggestion he's not responsible for the meth in the toilet adjoining Hanna's room is just "silly", says McClintock. And he also tried to blame the meth pipe found at Auckland Eye on others, she says.

Look at what you do have about his level, about his use, his ready access to all that meth throughout the house, McClintock says. It's his DNA on the containers, not hers.

There was also a used meth pipe under the bed, she says.

He wrote up his goals to 2040, including avoiding meth, suggesting it was a problem, the prosecutor says.

And he'd also saved an image to his laptop showing how to make a meth pipe out of a light bulb. He was obviously using at home, and the Crown says his habit had increased to the point where he was using it at work, albeit not while he was operating, the prosecutor says.

We know he was at Auckland Eye the weekend before the meth pipe was found, says McClintock. He is visible in the clinic before leaving a little after 10pm on the Saturday.

Of course he smoked it at work that night, otherwise why would a meth pipe be left there, and the premises was contaminated with meth as well, she says.

On to Polkinghorne's changed behaviour over the last 18 months to two years.

Many people picked up on the fact he was acting differently, Crown prosecutor Alysha McClintock says. It's not massive or drastic but a number of people noticed, including Auckland Eye colleagues. Fellow eye doctor Dean Corbett said there were rapid, exaggerated changes in mood.

Another doctor, Susan Ormonde, found him more irritable in the year or two before 2021, McClintock says.

Ormonde was the one Polkinghorne disclosed the meth use to after Hanna died, recommending at one point she try it.

Others spoke about him coming on to a Zoom call and being outright agitated or even rude.

He was standing up, being intimating and causing his colleagues to become distressed, right before Hanna died, McClintock says.