Murder accused: 'I did it for God'

Samurai swordsman Antonie Dixon says God told him to chop off the heads of the two women he lived with, then plunge the sword through his own heart.

Dixon, 40, faces eight charges relating to the January 22, 2003 incident during which Rennee Gunbie and Simonne Butler were attacked with a samurai sword at Pipiroa, near Thames, and James Te Aute was shot dead in Auckland.

Dixon was found guilty in 2005 on eight charges including murder and causing grievous bodily harm but the Court of Appeal later ordered a second trial, suppressing its reasons for quashing his convictions.

Defence lawyer Barry Hart told the jury in his opening address that calling Dixon to give evidence was a big step but it was taken so Dixon could tell the jury about himself.

The Crown would not be able to prove beyond reasonable doubt the essential elements of the charges, he said.

Dixon told the court he hated himself and his life and had sought permission from God to kill himself. He said he was told that first he must behead Renee Gunbie and Simone Butler then plunge the sword into his own heart.

"I was quite excited, because I could kill myself," he said.

He emptied a laundry basket of dirty clothes and brought it downstairs "for their heads to roll into", he said.

When the tip of the sword broke while "chopping" the two women, he took it as a sign that it was not meant to be and called police instead.

He had no memory of the "chopping", even though he knew it was him who had butchered to the two women, he could not hear their screams or smell the blood, he said.

Dixon left Pipiroa by car and on his way to Auckland he saw two snipers in the back of an ambulance who were trying to kill him.

At this stage he wanted to get a gun for protection, although what he really wanted was a bomb, to protect himself from the "new world order, police and the government".

"You just never know these days, it's just not a safe place."

Dixon eventually got a gun from a friend on a farm and smoked P as he continued to Auckland.

At a Pakuranga service station he said he feared for his life after an argument with several men, who were going to "waste him" and thought they were "demonised".

"I just know I was afraid and there was no way I could take all them on by myself."

Mr Te Aute had something concealed in his hands and came across as a "gangster" and kept coming closer, making Dixon frightened for his life.

"To me it was either me or him."

Just before Dixon shot Mr Te Aute said he was having a "biblical situation". He believed Mr Te Aute had horns in his head.

"The only reason I went to the service station was to buy a cookie crumble ice cream."

Speaking in a barely audible voice, Dixon earlier described his childhood growing up in an Auckland boarding house run by his mother, with three of his seven siblings.

"I was the chosen one," Dixon said.

He could communicate telephathically with his mother and got "messages" from radio music and programmes.

Being the "chosen one" also meant he was regularly "raped and sodomised" by multiple church elders from an early age till he was about 15, he said.

As he got bigger and stronger "they would just bring in extra men," Dixon said.

His mother was a schizophrenic who also sexually abused him, and would chain him to a clothesline.

His father "had demons" that, on one occasion, "escaped from his body and raped one of the other Jehovah’s Witnesses", he said.

The incident led to his father being kicked out of home when he was just six years old and he died two years later, Dixon said.

"I inherited the demons from my Dad, that’s where my problems, my Mum said, came from."

Dixon said he was spied on in 2003 by the "New World Order" – a world organisation carrying out terrorists investigations – who had a 747 airplane fully equipped with surveillance devices. He was also being "followed" by Cessna planes.

"I started pulling the car apart to find the tracking device but I couldn’t find it," he said.

"The planes were following me. It's being covered up, it's like a conspiracy."

The conspiracy had continued during his imprisonment and even into the court room, he said.

"The prison guards, they started asking me strange questions, my phones are bugged and my visits are being blocked," Dixon said.

Further, his Maori girlfriend who had a young baby had been banned from the court room.

The trial continues tomorrow.

- With NZPA

 

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