Sword-case accused 'confessed'

A young hitchhiker told a jury yesterday that alleged murderer Antonie Ronnie Dixon admitted he had just killed a man and "chopped up" two women.

Bradley Kukard, 19, said the confession - which he didn't take seriously at the time - came during a 10-minute journey through Howick early on January 22, 2003.

Mr Kukard said he left his girlfriend's house in Howick around 12.30am and was walking along Wellington Rd when a car, driven erratically, screeched to a halt and offered him a lift.

After he got into the vehicle, Mr Kukard said he noticed the driver was looking at him in a "funny way".

"We were quiet for a while and then he told me that he had just killed someone in Highland Park."

Mr Kukard said he thought the man was just joking or was perhaps high on drugs, so he laughed and said "okay".

"After he told me he had killed a man at Highland Park he showed me the gun.

"I wasn't sure it was a real gun because it looked like it was hand-made.

"He asked me if I had heard about the two ladies who got chopped up in Papakura or wherever it was [Pipiroa] and he said that was him too."

Mr Kukard said he told the driver he hadn't heard of any of the incidents.

He described the driver as wide-eyed and said his hands were shaking.

Mr Kukard told the jury in the High Court at Auckland that he didn't really believe the man and thought he was joking.

He said he felt the man was trying to intimidate him, staring at him as he drove along instead of watching the road, and telling him he had just murdered someone.

"I wasn't entirely sure what his intentions were but it was quite intimidating."

Mr Kukard said that the driver told him the "pigs" were after him but it didn't matter because he knew what he was doing.

Before he dropped Mr Kukard off close to where he lived, the driver told him he was "alright" and that he was "okay".

As he got out Mr Kukard got the impression that the man did not want him to leave.

Mr Kukard said that the following day when he saw the midday news about the killing in Highland Park and the incident in Pipiroa, he recognised a photograph of the man who gave him a lift.

Cross-examined by defence counsel Barry Hart, Mr Kukard agreed that the man's behaviour seemed strange and weird.

The Crown alleges that Dixon, 39, on a drug-fuelled crime spree attacked two women with a samurai sword at Pipiroa, on the Hauraki Plains, and shot dead James Te Aute at Highland Park in east Auckland.

Dixon has denied the attempted murder of the women, Renee Gunbie and Simonne Butler, and murdering Mr Te Aute.

Earlier witnesses told the jury of incidents at the Mobil and Shell service stations in Highland Park where they were confronted by a gunman.

A laser sight on the weapon was trained on the chest of two young men at the Mobil station by a man described as "high, jumpy and looking paranoid".

Pavel Janovec, who worked at the Shell station, said that the man pointed the weapon at him and at a young customer and pretended to fire, making shooting noises.

The trial continues today.