In secret recordings obtained by the Herald, Madison Ashton told Remuera eye surgeon Philip Polkinghorne she believed he killed his wife to be with her. Photo / Michael Craig
In secret recordings obtained by the Herald, Madison Ashton told Remuera eye surgeon Philip Polkinghorne she believed he killed his wife to be with her. Photo / Michael Craig
“I want to know about the night she died” - that was how sex worker Madison Ashton confronted her former lover Philip Polkinghorne about his wife’s death - in secret recordings obtained by the Herald.
The escort claims Philip wanted her to be Pauline 2.0, and planned to leave his marriage to move in with her in Sydney.
Polkinghorne was acquitted of Pauline Hanna’s murder in an eight-week trial in 2024.
“I want to know about the night she died. I know you did it, you did it for me so we could be together.”
That was how sex worker Madison Ashton confronted her longtime lover, Remuera eye surgeon Philip Polkinghorne about the death of his wife, health procurement executivePauline Hanna - in secret recordings obtained by the Herald.
It’s been four years since Hanna, 63, was found dead in April 2021, in suspicious circumstances in the couple’s Remuera mansion.
Pauline Hanna was found dead at the couple's Remuera mansion in 2021. Her husband Philip Polkinghorne was tried and acquitted of her murder in 2024. Photo / Norrie Montgomery.
Her husband, eye surgeon Philip Polkinghorne, was tried for murder in the High Court at Auckland, and acquitted after a sensational eight-week trial last year.
“You didn’t want to retire; you didn’t want to pay her out and that’s why you did it - to build a future with me,” Ashton insisted in a private phone conversation with the doctor in 2022.
Sex worker Madison Ashton told the Herald her former lover Philip Polkinghorne wanted to leave his wife for her, and live with her in her Sydney apartment. Photo / Supplied
Over four years, the Herald has gathered personal correspondence and videos between Polkinghorne and Ashton that suggest the Remuera ophthalmologist was living a double life and actively planning a future with the escort.
In a detailed video interview, Ashton told the Herald she first met the couple in 2011 for a foursome with another sex worker.
Madison Ashton says Pauline was intelligent but not street smart. Pauline told family she did not enjoy engaging in the group sex Polkinghorne arranged for them. Photo / Norrie Montgomery
She remembers thinking Hanna was intelligent but not street smart - and she wasn’t as keen on the foursome as her husband was.
“She was going along as the wife participating but not thrilled. With Pauline I was like, look you don’t have to do anything ... you just lay down, we’ll work around you so it looks the part, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.”
The sex worker told the Herald Philip wanted her to be Pauline 2.0.
“He’s pushing her out from basically a 30-year marriage and trying to replicate that with a new body ... He’s totally checked out because of the drugs, and he’s planning to completely remove himself to be with me,” Ashton claimed in the exclusive interview.
During his trial, Polkinghorne admitted possession of the 37g of methamphetamine police found in his home and a meth pipe stashed under his side of the bed and was sentenced to community work.
Ashton refused to appear as a Crown witness at his trial.
She told the Herald she would have given damning evidence about his drug use, and how he had planned to leave his wife and marry her. But she doesn’t believe her evidence would have affected the not-guilty verdict at his murder trial.
Madison Ashton says Philip Polkinghorne played her for a fool. She regrets her relationship with him and says she'll never forget Pauline. Photo / Michael Craig
Days after Hanna was found dead, and while Police were searching their home, Polkinghorne told the Herald his marriage with Hanna was “perfect.”
In recordings from 2022, Polkinghorne told his lover Ashton, “Pauline and I were a very, very, very good couple ... but we had different ideas about the future ... the path was veering from what I wanted”.
Ashton says she now regrets ever being involved with the ophthalmologist, who she said “played me for a fool”.
Carolyne Meng-Yee is an Auckland-based investigative journalist who won Best Documentary at the Voyager Media Awards in 2022. She worked for the Herald on Sunday from 2007-2011 and rejoined the Herald in 2016 after working as an award-winning current affairs producer at TVNZ’s 60 Minutes, 20/20 and Sunday.
