Samurai sword attack described to court

Police at the scene of the January 2003 attack. Picture / Greg Bowker

A prosecution witness today described in horrific detail how he saw a man attacking two women with a samurai sword.

The alleged attacker, Antonie Ronnie Dixon, 36, has pleaded not guilty to a number of charges, including murder and attempted murder.

He is accused of cutting off the hands of Renee Gunbie and Simonne Butler with a sword at the converted shed the three lived at in Pipiroa, on the Hauraki Plains, on January 21, 2003.

He has also been accused of shooting dead 25-year-old James Te Aute, who had confronted him about his strange behaviour in an Auckland car park hours later.

Dixon is alleged to have used pure methamphetamine, a drug also known as P, at the time.

Witness Roger Reekers told the High Court at Auckland that he had travelled from Waiheke Island to the Pipiroa property because Dixon, whom he had known for about 17 years, had wanted a couple of cars fixed.

He had been picked up at the ferry terminal by Ms Butler, who drove him to the Pipiroa house, where he was met outside by Dixon.
When the three of them went inside, Mr Reekers was taken to a living room where there were two bunks.

Ms Gunbie was lying on one the bunks, with serious injuries to her neck and body.

"She was black and blue and I thought she was dead at the time," he said. "Her face was all swollen up and her whole body was beaten up."

However, Ms Gunbie then sat up and Dixon told her and Ms Butler to sit at a table in the room. Mr Reekers said he was terrified at what he saw.

He said Dixon, who started to become agitated, was "taunting" the women with the sword as if he was trying to get information from them.

Dixon had complained about being ripped off and also said Ms Gunbie had told him Ms Butler was sleeping with a police officer.

Dixon turned the stereo up loud because be believed the house was bugged and the two men communicated by writing on an envelope.

Mr Reekers wrote down: "I just want to fix cars, not see this," and "Please don't let me see this, I can't handle it, mate."

Dixon then told Mr Reekers to go to an upstairs room to look for a telephone.

"Once I got up the stairs, I then heard him starting to attack the girls," Mr Reekers said.

He heard what sounded like a piece of steel slapping on a hand, and there was moaning and screaming over what seemed like a two to four minute period.

"I just sat on a chair and tried cover my ears and closed my eyes, because the noise I heard was ridiculous," he said.

"It was something you couldn't comprehend."

Dixon then told Mr Reekers to come back down, and when Mr Reekers did so, he saw Dixon strike Ms Butler once on the side of the body, holding the sword like an axe.

He then saw Dixon strike Ms Gunbie two of three times -- "like you would get an axe and you would chop a bit of wood" -- before the sword snapped.

One hand of one woman was "just hanging", but one hand of the other was "fully off" and was placed on the table.

Ms Gunbie was so badly injured, "it looked like I could see her brain".

The trial is continuing.

- NZPA