Chelsea Daniels: ZB reporter on the eighth day of Phillip Polkinghorne's murder trial

A court has heard Phillip Polkinghorne's police interview on day eight of his trial.

The Auckland eye doctor is accused of murdering his wife, Pauline Hanna, in 2021.

He maintains she killed herself.

Polkinghorne's dealings with other woman have been detailed today, both at a North Shore apartment in 2019, and a Mount Cook retreat in the weeks after Hanna's death.

NewstalkZB's Chelsea Daniels says Polkinghorne jumped from topic to topic in the police interview.

"Detailing things like the couple's beach house, an argument they'd had about staining, an episode of New Amsterdam they'd watched the night before."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good afternoon. The Polkinghorn trial has turned to Phillip Polkinghorn's
relationships with six workers. Now he's accused of murdering his wife,
Pauline Hannah in twenty twenty one, while his defense is
she took her own life. Chelsea Daniels has been covering
the trials. She's with us now, h ch else I
what was this morning's evidence?

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Well?

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Day eight featured evidence from Detective Senior Sergeant Lisa Jane Anderson.
Now she went to Mount Cook where Polkinghorn and his girlfriend,
Madison Ashton was staying after Hannah's death about April thirty.
For those who have been following along, Ashton is a
Sydney based sex worker. Now Anderson arrived at Mount Cook

(00:37):
Lakeside Retreat at about seven pm on April thirtieth. A
white Toyota Polkinghorn had hired was parked out the front
of a standalone unit there. Anderson was there with two
other christ Church detectives to seize Madison Ashton's phones, which
were then handed over to digital forensic units in christ Church.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
She declined to provide the pin numbers.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Pogginhorn in prison at that point. Yes, he was what
happened After she refused to supply the pin numbers, she
was asked a king. He refused to King what happened?

Speaker 1 (01:14):
What did we hear in the afternoon?

Speaker 3 (01:16):
Well, the Crown called Rob Masters. He was living in
a unit in Northcote Point, a block of about twelve
apartments there on the north shore known as Melrose Court.
Now Masters noticed a white Mercedes with the number plate
Ritna Retna. He first saw the car about twenty nineteen,
and it visited the complex on a weekly basis, sometimes

(01:39):
more frequently than that. Over time, he came to recognize
the man who drove that car. He met him a
couple of times on the driveway where he trained clients.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Did you learn of the individual's name? Yes? I did.
What was that Phillip Pulkinghorn? And how did you come
to learn of his name? He was introduced at one
of our agms as Philip John something along those lines.
I can't remember where there is surname. And then obviously

(02:13):
during the media attention right once his wife had been
had passed away.

Speaker 3 (02:24):
The woman who lived at the complex was named rachel
or Alaria. She used both names now. She was in
her early to mid fifties, long blondish grayish hair. A
Polkinghorn would visit a bag, usually in tow. Masters saw
some bottles of champagne, women's clothing. Perhaps it would never
be a farmer's bag though, or something like that. He
said that they were fancy bags. He described him as

(02:47):
being well dressed.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
He'd seen him.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
Once wearing his scrubs like the ones a doctor would wear.
He said. Rachel or a Laria would have a couple
of other regular visitors, but none as frequent as the
white Mercedes with the number plate RETA. He disappeared during
the COVID lockdowns. Now, Brian Dickie asked Masters what his
neighbor Rachel did for work.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
My understanding is that Rachel was a sex worker.

Speaker 3 (03:13):
After Hannah's death, the neighbor noticed the car with the
number plate RETNA vanished.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
And the court was also shown video of Polkinghorn's police interview,
weren't they Yeah, It's about.

Speaker 3 (03:22):
Three hours long. He jumps around from topic to topic, detailing
things like the couple's beach house, an argument that had
about staining there, the new the episode of New Amsterdam
they'd watched the night before, and Hannah's work in general.
He goes through the morning, he found his wife as well.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
Thank you, Chelsea, appreciate Chelsea Daniels has been in court
for us and you can hear more from Chelsea about
this on The Herald's podcast Accused the polking Horn Trial.
For more from Hither Duplassy Allen Drive, listen live to
news talks.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
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