KEY POINTS:
Antonie Dixon wanted to explain his fatal shooting of a man and sword attack on two women by passing himself off as mentally unstable so as to avoid jail, the Crown says.
Crown prosecutor Simon Moore asked Dixon in the High Court at Auckland today if he was making up visions and symptoms, including seeing chuckling goblins.
Dixon, 40, is on trial on eight charges including murdering James Te Aute, who was shot dead in Auckland, and causing Renee Gunbie and Simonne Butler grievous bodily harm with a samurai sword at Pipiroa, near Thames in 2003.
He was found guilty of the charges in 2005 but the Court of Appeal later ordered a second trial, suppressing its reasons for quashing his convictions.
Mr Moore told the court Dixon had been very conscious of what his options would be should he survive the night of the attacks.
"Anything was better than going to jail, wasn't it?"
Dixon replied that he was always going to be going to jail.
"Going to the nuthouse, as you called it, was better than jail, wasn't it?" Mr Moore asked.
Dixon said that was not true.
When Dixon was committed to the Mason Clinic, where he has been twice, he told staff he would not shave, wouldn't cut his hair, would wear a white gown and would claim to be the son of God during the first trial, Mr Moore said.
An increasingly frustrated Dixon told Mr Moore he had already extensively answered his questions and because he had not taken his medication for the past two days, "already went too far" yesterday while under cross-examination.
When Mr Moore asked what he meant, Dixon replied that he knew the lawyer was the "best in the business" and had made him flustered while answering questions.
"In the last trial I would have jumped over and attacked you."
Dixon said due to treatment over the past three years he was able to handle the situation better, but objected to Mr Moore constantly asking the same questions.
"I think you're picking at words mate, and I'm not going to buy into that."
Mr Moore said Dixon was intent on making his actions on the fateful evening seem as "strange and bizarre" as possible.
He asked Dixon, who was assessed a second time at the Mason Clinic between May 2004 and mid-June, if he remembered telling the doctors about seeing certain visions in the institution.
"You told them about seeing goblins, dancing and chuckling?"
Dixon said the goblins looked like the devil and the gremlins danced and chuckled. He also said he saw a vampire bat and that the gremlins sometimes talked and danced among themselves.
Mr Moore asked if it was true he told doctors he saw the visions in black and white.
Dixon said he wasn't sure, but remembered a jailer called Sid who walked up and down with keys.
"Did you see a floating black square?" Mr Moore asked.
Dixon replied "that's the cube".
He asked Dixon if he saw ants crawling up the walls.
Dixon said it was a long time ago and he wasn't sure, but he was sure about the other creatures.
Mr Moore asked: "Did you see snowing inside the prison?"
"I saw snowing inside the corridor," was the reply.
Mr Moore accused Dixon of making up the visions and symptoms and said a psychiatrist would give evidence that they were "quite nonsensical".
- NZPA
