Antonie Dixon

Antonie Roni "Tony" Dixon (1968 – 4 February 2009) was a convicted New Zealand thief and murderer. His most notorious crimes were committed in an 11-hour spree of violence in 2003 in which he completely or partially severed the hands or arms of two women with a Samurai sword, shot a man dead with a homemade sub-machine gun and kidnapped another man. Dixon acquired over 150 convictions, mostly for theft and burglary; he was imprisoned at least 14 times. His former girlfriend Simonne Butler said he used methamphetamine from at least 2001.

Dixon suffered horrendous abuse as a child, according to evidence given at his 2007 Appeal Court hearing. It was reported that he had been frequently tied to a clothes line, sexually abused, could only bark like a dog, and showed paranoid behaviour over several years. In prison he beat and attempted to gouge the eye of another inmate and pulled a weapon on his own lawyer. He died in prison in 2009.

Dixon attacked both of his partners, Renee Gunbie and Simonne Butler, with a Samurai sword at Pipiroa on 21 January 2003. Before the sword broke, Gunbie's left hand was completely severed and both of Butler's arms were partially severed. After stealing a vehicle and travelling to Auckland, Dixon fatally shot James Te Aute in Highland Park with a burst of ten bullets from a homemade sub-machine gun. He then took a man hostage and engaged in a standoff with the police. Eleven hours after he started, Dixon surrendered to the New Zealand Police. He used methamphetamine throughout the episode. Renee Gunbie lost her left hand; Simonne Butler's arms were both reattached.

During his trial, Dixon advanced a defence based primarily on insanity. Throughout much of the trial he bore a wild, wide-eyed look and an odd haircut. Photographs of this appearance featured in leading newspapers around the country. At the conclusion of the trial, he was convicted of murder, wounding, kidnapping, shooting at police and aggravated burglary; he was acquitted on five charges of attempted murder. For the murder, he was sentenced to life imprisonment with 20 years' minimum non-parole.

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