A police officer has detailed in court executing a search warrant at a South Island lakeside lodge where murder-accused former eye surgeon Philip Polkinghorne was staying with a high-end Australian escort after his wife Pauline Hanna’s death.
This was on April 30, 2021. Hanna was found dead on April 5 that year.
“I explained to Mr Polkinghorne that we were there to seize the phone belonging to Madison Ashton,” Detective Senior Sergeant Lisa Anderson told the High Court in Auckland today.
Both Polkinghorne and Ashton were at Mt Cook Lakeside Retreat at the time. Both were advised of their rights by police, Anderson said.
She said that, after a phone was secured, it was confirmed there was a second phone of Ashton’s and this was seized by police as well.
Police were told the second phone was Ashton’s work phone.
“It was requested of Madison to provide pin numbers for her phones … she declined to provide the pin numbers … she was asked again and again refused,” Anderson said.
‘He’s a man who likes to stand out’
The court has heard from a North Shore local that Polkinghorne was a regular, often weekly visitor to a home he believed was a sex worker’s.
Rob Masters said he came to recognise Polkinghorne from his visits. His vehicle had the number plate RETINA.
The visits in Northcote Point that Masters noticed began in December 2019. One time he arrived wearing doctor’s scrubs, he said.
Polkinghorne would come on Fridays, Masters said: “Could be an hour, hour-and-a-half, sometimes it could be longer, you might come out later and see the car still there or it’d be gone.
“He would often have like a shoulder bag, which from my eye looked like a shopping bag with women’s clothing in it, maybe underwear, something along those lines.
“Or he would have alcohol, champagne.”
Masters said Polkinghorne was absent during Auckland’s Level 4 Covid-19 lockdown but returned the day after it was reduced to Level 3.
“It was like, oh yup, that didn’t take long,” he told the court.
Another resident however, Myra Riddington, told the court she saw Polkinghorne’s car at least four times a week.
“He was a terrible driver, terrible parker and nearly ran into me so the first thing you do is look at the number plate,” she said.
“He’s a man who likes to stand out, you know, he’d bring champagne and gifts for her,” detailing that the gifts included fancy bags and lingerie. Riddington said she once saw Polkinghorne arrive wearing doctor’s scrubs and a hat — “that stands out,” she said.
Fitness coach gives evidence
A personal trainer to Polkinghorne and Hanna earlier said she’d mentioned she thought her husband was seeing someone else.
The High Court trial continued in Auckland this morning. Polkinghorne is alleged to have killed Hanna and staged the scene to make it look like a suicide, while his defence is that he found her dead in their Remuera home.
Barry Payne trained them both for many years at CityFitness in Newmarket.
He would see them separately for sessions about twice a week.
Payne said the couple “seemed okay” but Hanna did mention once she thought Polkinghorne “had a girlfriend”.
Later in his evidence he detailed a phone call from Polkinghorne, made after Hanna died on Easter weekend in 2021.
He was due to see them both on that Easter Monday morning for training sessions.
“He rang me and I thought that was unusual, he normally texted me,” Payne said.
“And when I answered he said, ‘She’s gone, she’s gone’.”
He described Polkinghorne on the call as distraught.
“It was heartbroken, sort of wailing almost,” Payne said.
He later said Polkinghorne went on to say his wife had taken her own life.
The trainer said the couple generally got on well, having normal conversations for couples for the most part.
The Crown asked Payne if he saw them when things weren’t good.
“Sometimes, there might’ve been a tiff, they seemed quite fond of each other at times, yeah I saw all those things,” he said.
Payne said Hanna was very busy and often took work home with her.
Asked under cross examination if he thought her work as a DHB health administrator was a strain, he said he thought it was and she was a bit run down.
Payne, replying to defence lawyer Ron Mansfield KC, also said Polkinghorne was not manic, distracted, or acting strange before Hanna’s death.
This is after a long-term friend of the pair gave evidence yesterday in which he said Polkinghorne’s behaviour changed in the year before Hanna died.
Part of the Crown’s case which began last week is that Polkinghorne was trapped in a cycle of infidelity, drug use and financial issues.
Large quantities of methamphetamine were found at their home.
Payne said he did not notice any obvious signs of drug use by Polkinghorne, and he seemed in good spirits the last time he saw him.
