Five years after Pauline Hanna was found dead and two years after her husband's acquittal, Philip Polkinghorne took the witness stand for the first time — not at a criminal trial, but at a coroner's inquest still searching for the truth of how she died. He explained the deletion of intimate photographs as an act of private shame, and described feeling betrayed by a justice system he had initially trusted. The inquest reminds us that a verdict of not guilty does not always close the wound a death leaves behind.
Acquitted man testifies he deleted intimate photos after becoming murder suspect
Pauline Hanna was found dead in 2021; her death remains the subject of an ongoing inquest despite her husband's acquittal.