WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT
Madison Ashton – the high-profile Sydney escort often mentioned but not present at the Philip Polkinghorne murder trial – had a history of “seeking financial compensation from men she was asserting she was in a relationship with”, jurors were informed as they spent another full day reviewing voluminous mobile phone data seized by police.
The reference, to a tabloid court battle for a cut of an Australian billionaire’s estate, came as Polkinghorne’s lawyer sought to downplay a series of intimate messages with the escort before and after the suspicious death of Polkinghorne’s wife.
“Darling you and I aren’t going anywhere. We are going to last 100 years,” Polkinghorne had written to Ashton 18 days after Pauline Hanna was found dead, with references also to a long-distance “relationship” that had been marred by Covid-19 travel restrictions for the past 14 months.
The pair’s communications have become one of the centrepieces of the Crown’s circumstantial case against Polkinghorne, now 71, who is accused of having fatally strangled wife Hanna, 63, before staging the scene inside their Remuera home on Easter Monday 2021 to look like a suicide by hanging. Prosecutors have theorised the eye surgeon lashed out at his wife while high on meth and arguing over his significant spending on sex workers or his “double life” with Ashton.
The defence, meanwhile, has said Polkinghorne and Hanna had been in a happy “open” relationship. Her death was the result of decades of depression, not homicide, they have insisted.
The trial, which has consistently attracted an overflow crowd of onlookers, is now in its fifth week in the High Court at Auckland.
During cross-examination this afternoon of Detective Andrew Reeves, Ron Mansfield KC acknowledged his client and the escort had exchanged messages that went beyond communications about booking appointments. But he repeatedly characterised their interactions as a “friendship”.
After media reports of the investigation into Hanna’s death, it was only immediate family and Ashton who were keeping in contact with the widower, Mansfield said this afternoon, suggesting the escort filled a void at that time after other friendships and loyalties “dried up”. While Ashton had told Polkinghorne she loved him, she had also made that statement to other clients as part of her paid “girlfriend experience”, Mansfield said.
“I didn’t see her saying ‘I love you’ as much to other men,” the detective replied, but he acknowledged there were other references.
Mansfield also hinted that Ashton’s references to a relationship might have been because she saw financial opportunity in the tragedy. The defence lawyer noted Ashton’s former Australian court case, saying it involved “some wealthy Australian male” but not elaborating beyond that to jurors.
The cross-examination came after over a day of direct examination by Crown prosecutor Brian Dickey, in which the detective read aloud numerous communications between the defendant and the escort – including advice from Ashton about what Polkinghorne should wear to his wife’s funeral, the planning of a sex tryst at a Mt Cook Village chalet three weeks after his wife’s death, and discussions about how they would share household chores in the future.
“Okay sounds like you’re breaking up w th [sic] me what the f***,” Ashton wrote on WhatsApp at one point as the two discussed the South Island meet-up.
Polkinghorne replied: “F*** no! Christ never, I am not trying to push you in any direction. I haven’t come this far to walk away.”
The detective, Reeves, had also been asked to read aloud a series of screenshots found on Polkinghorne’s phone depicting a WhatsApp exchange between the two on December 8, 2020. The two appeared to have a tiff after Polkinghorne said he was considering not spending Christmas with her in Australia because he didn’t want to do the two-week quarantine upon return if she had a booking with someone else.
“I’m not even going to dignify this with a response,” Ashton said, before typing out a long response. “... I mean it stay off my social media or take off the news alert. I’m sick of the misperceptions and you flaring up and be [sic] an absolute arsehole about it. You don’t ask me first and you just love drama and I’m not f**king into it, serious Philip I’m not into it.
“...Thank you so much for f**king ruining Christmas and ruining the whole f**king thing f**k off. I don’t want to hear from you until I’m back in Sydney. I mean it I don’t wanna hear from you I’m really upset. And I’m so disappointed in you.”
Polkinghorne then said he’d ring her in 90 minutes, once he was finished with his surgery. He had something important to say, he told her. She blocked the surgeon, then unblocked him and agreed to talk the next day after he said “god you have never done that before”.
Ashton went on to say Polkinghorne had been mistaken about her planing to see a client while he was scheduled to be there.
“And it breaks my heart that this it’s not the first time, and it probably won’t be the last time. I will never ever bite my tongue when I feel disrespected and completely painted to be something that I am not, not seeing you for 10 months, and that I would work over our Christmas, it’s such a disgusting suggestion from you, i’m shocked that this would actually come from you. And your wording, and the vibe, as if I am a Neanderthal.
“...You have a gutter mentality sometimes when it comes to me and my occupation, in how you communicate and some of your concepts that are in your mind. I accept this is something that is not ideal about you, but you are not perfect but you are very lovable. Kind and patient, sexy and many other attributes...”
Jurors were also shown two clip art images that had been screenshotted by Polkinghorne a month before the exchange. They were both love hearts with “MA x PJP” in the middle – their initials.
Data extracted from the phones indicated Hanna was aware of Ashton and had met her in person along with her husband as early as the first booking in 2015, the detective acknowledged under cross-examination. Other bookings also showed that Hanna had been in attendance, including one in November 2016 that also included two male sex workers, the defence pointed out.
“Hi, Philip,” began an email from Ashton’s personal assistant ahead of the 2016 booking. “My apologies for the delay in getting back to you. That shouldn’t be a problem at all to arrange. I will just have to make sure both men are free. So can I confirm Philip that it will be yourself Paula and Christine and the two gentlemen for two to three hours? Sounds like an amazing time – that’s for sure. I will be in touch once we have worked out finer details.”
Earlier evidence has made it clear that Hanna knew her husband would see sex workers, which she described in a recorded conversation with family as “just sex”. She also acknowledged to family having reluctantly participated in group sex with him in the past. But other evidence has indicated she was worried about her husband forming an emotional attachment with someone, particularly in New Zealand. The Crown has suggested she did not know how deeply a relationship had developed between her husband and Ashton.
A search of Hanna’s phone and laptop showed that she had previously contacted a private detective to consider opening an infidelity investigation.
On December 7, one day before her husband’s tiff with Ashton, Hanna had searched on her phone: “is watching pornographic videos normal make [sic] behaviour”. On Christmas Eve, she conducted three back-to-back searches: “P pipe”, “what does P look like” and “what sensation does P give you??”. There were pictures, taken with her phone on Christmas Day, of two used meth pipes, which appear to have been found in the couple’s home.
On December 29, she searched two terms that the Crown asked the detective to direct jurors to: “asphyxia” and “anorgasnia”. The detective said he thought the second term was a misspelling of “anorgasmia”, a medical condition in which a person has difficulty achieving orgasm.
Significantly, the detective said, he found no searches involving the terms self-harm, suicide, hanging, tying knots or depression.
There were two searches on January 9, however, suggesting she might be again considering a split with her husband. They were: “matrimonial property and trust NZ” and “apartments for sale ahuriri Napier”.
Cross-examination of the detective is expected to continue tomorrow, when he returns to the witness box for a third day of testimony before Justice Graham Lang and the jury.
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Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.
The Herald will be covering the case in a daily podcast, Accused: The Polkinghorne Trial. You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, through The Front Page feed, or wherever you get your podcasts.
The Police Association supports cameras but worries about costs.