A co-worker of Philip Polkinghorne has told the court she was left stunned when he revealed he was using methamphetamine and then told her she should try it.
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Polkinghorne, 71, is accused of strangling his wife Pauline Hanna to death in Easter 2021.
The Crown says he then made it look like a suicide. But his defence is that he found his wife already dead in their home in Auckland's Remuera and she had taken her own life.
Susan Ormonde is an ophthalmologist and clinical director at Auckland Eye.
Polkinghorne rang her on April 5, 2021 to tell her his wife was dead. She told the court he was "almost incoherent" and very difficult to understand.
"He certainly sounded very distressed," she said.
Pauline Hanna had hanged herself, Polkinghorne told her.
In person after that, on the day prior to his wife's funeral, Ormonde told the court Polkinghorne made a shocking and concerning revelation to her.
She said he began by telling her he was worried about "things that would come out" and be made public.
"The first thing he actually mentioned was regarding his and Pauline's sex life.
"And then when we asked what the other thing was, he said 'drugs', to which I said 'which sorts of drugs?' To which, he replied 'meth'."
Ormonde said Polkinghorne then asked if she had tried it. "I said no, to which he said 'you should'."
Ormonde said she was shocked and not expecting to hear Polkinghorne say he was using methamphetamine.
She said she "absolutely" reported this back at Auckland Eye despite Polkinghorne confiding in her as a friend.
"As clinical director, one of my jobs is very much to make sure that all the patients we see are safe and receive the highest quality treatment. To find out that one of the doctors was using meth was a considerable concern," she said.
Earlier, Ormonde said Polkinghorne was an "excellent" colleague and the pair got on very well.
But she said concerns had been raised that Polkinghorne had become "generally more irritable".
This was not just in theatre, as the trial had heard previously, but outside as well.
"I certainly found him more irritable," she said.
Under cross examination, Ormonde said she did not know why Polkinghorne told her about his meth use.
Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield put it to her that he would have been aware she would have to report it.
"And he didn't obstruct that," he said. "He didn't know that I had done it," Ormonde replied.
She said she later told Polkinghorne he should report himself to the Medical Council and he told her that he had done so.
Polkinghorne pleaded guilty to possessing meth and having a meth pipe just ahead of the murder trial starting in late July.
Hanna's GP questioned over anti-depressants
Hanna's doctor, who cannot be named, has been questioned at length about her medication and prescription history that spanned many years.
Hanna was a long-term user of the anti-depressant Prozac and another drug she took long-term, Duromine, and how it was prescribed has been repeatedly raised by the defence.
The drug was used for weight loss, but Hanna's doctor said she was prescribed it to maintain her weight.
She said it was not unusual for women of Hanna's age to be "obsessed" with their weight.
"Every woman from 50 onwards, they are all worried about their weight and how they look," the doctor said. "It's nothing out of the ordinary".
At one point after extensive questioning, defence barrister Hannah Stuart presented the Medsafe guidelines for the drug and questioned whether it had been prescribed to Hanna as intended.
Crown Prosecutor Alysha McClintock stood and interjected after several more questions about the Duromine prescriptions.
"Is there a suggestion between the prescription of Duramine and the death of Ms Hanna?" she asked Justice Lang.
Stuart conferred with lead defence lawyer Ron Mansfield and replied that evidence around Duramine use, particularly in connection with drinking and other drugs, would be linked with suicide in their defence.
"So you're going to call evidence on that?" Justice Lang asked.
Stuart replied she would.
The doctor also defended her handling of the time just before Christmas in 2019 when Hanna rang feeling suicidal.
"She had suicidal thoughts, she didn't have any plan," she said.
Yesterday, the doctor told the court said she had asked Hanna if she planned to harm herself and then told her call a mental heath crisis team.
Evidence has also shown Hanna had sought help and medication to curb her drinking.
At one stage, she reported frequent black-outs and nightly bottles of wine.
Justice Lang asked the doctor whether she was aware of how Duromine interacted with alcohol.
"Yes, but she was a well-functioning woman in all aspects of her life," the doctor said, adding that Hanna had been on medications for years.
"She was mentally OK, so I didn't have any reason to think different — she presented absolutely perfect."
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