http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2217780a11,00.html
Dixon told police: 'Lock me up'
26 January 2003
By MONICA HOLT
The man accused of mutilating two women with a sword and shooting dead a man walked into a police station demanding to be locked up - 10 days before the attacks.
Antonie Ronnie Dixon, 34, stood at the counter at the Manukau police station in a highly agitated state late on Saturday, January 11, wanting to be put in a cell. He was turned away by police who "laughed at him and said he was crazy," close family friend Rebecca Scott said.
The incident was one of many unusual events leading to the attacks on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning which left a south Auckland father of three dead and two women with severe injuries.
"He was worried someone was out to get him," Scott said. "He just turned up at the police station and said `put me in a cell. Lock me up'."
He phoned his fiancee Simonne Butler, who was with Scott in Beachlands, east of Auckland, and told her to come and pick up the car.
Persuading him to leave, Butler said: "Come on Tony, you're being silly."
Scott said: "The police just laughed at him and told him `we don't want you in here'. They thought he was crazy."
Dixon phoned Butler three times and eventually left.
Scott said Butler was interviewed by police about the incident the next day.
Detective inspector Steve Rutherford, who is in charge of the inquiry, said he was not aware of the incident.
But police are still sifting through a huge volume of information about Dixon's background and won't deny it happened.
Dixon had been worried for some time someone was after him, Scott claimed.
Recently he had come home to the converted warehouse he shared with Butler to find the empty farmhouse a few metres away had all its windows smashed.
It has also emerged that a house owned by Butler was busted as a methamphetamine laboratory in December. Police spent several days dismantling the laboratory. Three people were arrested and police said at the time more charges could follow. Those arrested were Butler's tenants and had since moved.
The house was sold to Butler by Dixon's former wife Wendy Ross in 2000.
Dixon has two children, Tyla and Tory, from his marriage to Ross.
Dixon and Butler moved from the Beachlands house to Pipiroa about a year ago. "Not long ago, he asked her to marry him. They were just waiting for Tony's divorce to come through." Dixon and Butler were Jehovah's Witnesses.
People spoken to by the Sunday Star-Times said Dixon was well known in Beachlands.
He would drive around in late model Holden Commodore cars.
Dixon told a Pipiroa neighbour he would buy cars at auctions and do them up to sell.
The man Dixon is accused of shooting dead, James Te Aute, was buried yesterday.
Renee Hills is recovering at Middlemore Hospital after coming out of a coma on Friday. Bulter is conscious and is due to be moved from intensive care.