Jaxon Dixon jailed for four years in New Plymouth District Court for harassment of ex-partner

A man believed to be embittered by the end of his relationship carried out a calculated and lengthy harassment campaign against his ex which included creating fake advertisements for sex work using her photos and contact details and torching her car.

The woman has spent the past few years living in fear of Jaxon Dixon, formerly Shay Leslie Russell Mahon, and as a result her previous carefree life has been upended.

She told the New Plymouth District Court about how taxing and costly Dixon’s actions, and the drawn-out court processes that followed, have been for her and her family, and the significant toll it has taken on her mental health.

He has figuratively “hung in the shadows” of some of her and her husband’s biggest milestones, such as their wedding and the birth of their first child.

“It took months for me to feel safe going out in public again, alone,” the woman said in her victim impact statement, read by her husband at Dixon’s recent sentencing hearing.

He was sentenced on charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice and breaching a protection order, to which he pleaded guilty, and a count of arson, which a jury found him guilty of when he defended the charge at a trial in September.

Dixon, who changed his name by deed poll in 2022, shook his head in response to parts of the victim impact statement, and when Judge Gregory Hikaka later described their relationship.

The 32-year-old maintained he was never in a relationship with the woman.

Jaxon Dixon was sentenced in New Plymouth District Court. Photo / Tara Shaskey

But the judge found they had been by legal definition, and said it began several years ago and had spanned about one year.

Shortly after they broke up, the woman began a new relationship with her now husband.

She remained friends with Dixon until around three months later when he began showing signs of harmful behaviour towards her and she attempted to cut all contact.

A ‘hooded figure’ and an orange glow

On the night of September 16, 2022, Dixon travelled to New Plymouth from Te Aroha. In the early hours of the following morning, CCTV captured footage of his vehicle arriving in the woman’s neighbourhood.

He parked near her house and around 3.40am walked up to it and approached her car which was parked in her driveway. While the footage showed a “hooded figure”, the jury determined through evidence at trial that it was Dixon.

He placed a bag next to one of the rear wheels and then ran back to his car.

The bag contained fire starters and other flammable materials which the trial evidence determined was lit by Dixon.

CCTV footage showed he then left the area.

As the fire took hold of the woman’s car, she was awoken by her dog. She saw an orange glow through the window and heard a loud bang.

After seeing her vehicle in flames, which were close to her house, she woke her sister and the two made their way to the backyard.

A short time later, firefighters arrived and extinguished the blaze. Her car was destroyed.

The woman was heavily pregnant at the time of the fire and fell down the stairs as she fled the home. As a result, she needed to see her obstetrician.

Following the arson, Dixon continued to fight a protection order he had been served with relating to the woman. He argued the order should not exist because the pair were not in a family relationship.

Then in September last year, the woman received a phone call from an unknown number and heard a male voice introduce himself as “Jason”.

She believed the voice was Dixon’s, which she suggested to the caller. The voice said it was not and told her a “friend of a friend” asked him to pass on a message.

“Remove yourself as a witness for the [arson] trial next Thursday and Shay will stop pushing for the Family Court hearing to contest the protection order,” the voice said.

She asked him what would happen if she ignored the instruction and the voice said: “I don’t know but it can’t be good.”

Dixon denied any involvement in the call. However, he pleaded guilty to the related charge after it was amended to recognise he admitted “encouraging a person”.

The charges on which Dixon was being sentenced concerning the woman were only the latest.

Judge Hikaka said Dixon had accumulated several other convictions relating to her since their relationship ended.

In 2023, he was sentenced on three charges of causing harm by digital communications and breach of a protection order.

Dixon had used intimate photos of the woman she had previously shared with him to create advertisements for prostitution services. He used her business phone number as part of the ads.

The woman contacted the police, who told Dixon to remove the advertisements, which he did. But he then publicised more. On at least one occasion, a person turned up at her address to make good on what the advertisement offered. She was also approached in the supermarket by someone who addressed her using the fake name Dixon had given her in the ads.

‘A pattern of behaviour’

When referring to Dixon’s offending, Judge Hikaka described it as calculated, manipulative, long-running and highly premeditated. He said it created a huge amount of stress and anxiety for the woman.

In her victim impact statement, the woman said she and her new partner had to enhance the security of their house and hire security guards for their wedding.

She has been diagnosed with anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder and left her job because she felt unsafe working night shifts. She also had to refashion the business she had set up because Dixon had connected it to prostitution websites.

In a letter written to the judge, Dixon apologised for his “indiscretion” in having someone call the woman but said he was “ignoring” the arson conviction as he planned to appeal it.

He told the judge he was not obsessive or a jaded lover and was tired of the drawn-out criminal proceedings.

Judge Hikaka said the car fire was highly premeditated, caused extensive damage, and caused danger to the occupants of the house.

He took a start point of three years’ imprisonment for the arson charge and added two years for the breach of the protection order and attempt to pervert the course of justice.

But he did not add anything for the previous related offending, stating the convictions represent a continuation of a pattern of behaviour that could only be seen as a campaign to make life difficult for the woman.

After giving credit for the charges Dixon pleaded guilty to, the judge landed on an end sentence of four and a half years imprisonment which he then reduced to a term of four years.

Judge Hikaka imposed a permanent protection order, finding a restraining order, which defence had argued for as an alternative, was not “sufficiently rigorous” enough to deal with what Dixon has shown he is capable of.

Dixon was also ordered to pay the woman’s excess for her car insurance claim and an additional $3000 emotional harm reparation.

He waved to his supporters and loudly instructed his defence counsel to file an appeal as he left the courtroom to begin his sentence.

Tara Shaskey joined NZME in 2022 as a news director and Open Justice reporter. She has been a reporter since 2014 and previously worked at Stuff covering crime and justice, arts and entertainment, and Māori issues.