Madison Ashton quizzed by Border Force after romp with eye surgeon lover

The former mistress of Richard Pratt has told of how she was stopped at the airport just days after police searched her lover’s house over the death of his wife.

Exclusive: Three days after police burst in on sex worker Madison Ashton and her eye surgeon lover in New Zealand with a search warrant relating to the unexplained death of his wife, she was quizzed on her return to Australia by Australian Border Force officers.

Ms Ashton, the former mistress of cardboard billionaire Richard Pratt, said she was pulled aside by two ABF officers as she exited her Air New Zealand flight from Christchurch to Melbourne after a three day lovers’ weekend with Philip Polkinghorne.

Ms Ashton said she was the only one on the flight who was stopped and searched and she was questioned for about an hour and a half about where she had been and who she had seen.

“There was a young man and he asked me if had been in contact with anyone who is in trouble with police. I knew that his was a set up then and there,” Ms Ashton said.

Madison Ashton and boyfriend Philip. Picture: Supplied

Police came in with a search warrant after the death of Philip's wife. Picture: Supplied

The NZ police had a search warrant for the car Mr Polkinghorne had rented and to seize Ms Ashton’s phones on the grounds that of suspicion that an offence of murder, manslaughter and supply of drugs may have been committed.

News Corp is not suggesting Ms Ashton or Mr Polkinghorne have committed any crime only that the warrant was taken out on those grounds.

The development comes as News Corp revealed Ms Ashton is helping police investigating the still “unexplained” death of Mr Polkinghorne’s wife Pauline Hanna.

Ms Hanna, one of the officials in charge of NZ’s Covid-19 response was found dead in the Auckland mansion she shared with Mr Polkinghorne in April.

Ms Ashton said after the police raid on the luxury lodge near Mt Cook where she and Mr Polkinghorne were staying, they left the next day and booked into another hotel without using his name.

Pauline Hanna and her husband, Philip Polkinghorne. Pictures: Facebook, Norrie Montgomery, Michael Craig

She said the ABF officer asked about the whereabouts of her phones, where she stayed, in NZ where she went, who paid for the accommodation, what was her partner’s name and was he visited by police?

She said they asked if she had stayed in the same place the whole time and kept commenting about how her three day trip was “unusual”.

“He was also going through papers in my bag. The young man was very agitated and was looking for something. The papers had some handwriting on them, with some photography settings and he asked me if they were codes to a safe or some sort of combination,” she said.

An ABF spokesman said they do not comment on individual cases.

“ABF officers are able to question passengers and examine goods under the Customs Act 1901, in relation to dutiable, excisable and prohibited goods,” he said.

Ms Ashton’s lawyer Zali Burrows said “it is certainly creepy how Madison was held hostage and interrogated at Melbourne International airport. It makes you wonder if the ABF were acting as a conduit for NZ Police interviewing her, without the right to call her lawyer, to investigate the unexplained death of Mrs Polkinghorne.”

The development comes as News Corp revealed Ms Ashton is helping police investigating the

The house where Pauline Hanna was found dead. Picture: Supplied

The sudden death of Ms Hannah has made headlines for months and sparked an exhaustive police investigation into how and why she died.

Speaking out this week Ms Ashton said she is willing to help police and the investigation and has nothing to hide.

“I am doing this to help her (Ms Hanna) and to solve the mystery around her death,” said Ms Ashton.

“It is one degree or no degree of separation really. But I would do this for anybody.”

Police have not publicly revealed the cause of death. But rumours have swirled since her body was found on Easter Monday morning. Police sealed off the house as a potential crime scene and spent more than a week scouring the property for clues.

Ms Ashton told police her relationship with Mr Polkinghorne had been a romantic one as boyfriend and girlfriend for more than three years.

Ms Ashton said she first met Mr Polkinghorne and Ms Hanna when they booked her services and for a sex session in 2011.

She said as a couple they used her services a number of times as well as those of other sex workers during their visits to Sydney.

After several years, Mr Polkinghorne began booking Ms Ashton just to be with him, and then in 2017 he took the relationship from business to personal telling her, he and his wife had divorced and he was single and free to build a future with her.

Originally published as Madison Ashton quizzed by Border Force after romp with eye surgeon lover