Black Power women jailed for brutal bashing and kidnapping over drug debt

The jailed women Daisy Dixon (left), Rickylee Dixon and Harete Ohlson were members of Black Power Sisters Rotorua Fordblock. Photo / Andrew Warner

She was twice kidnapped by a gang of Black Power women and beaten severely over a false suspicion she stole methamphetamine from the gang's ringleader.

But today she walked into the High Court at Rotorua and faced the instigator of her horrific ordeal. She told her how she now fears for her life and has had to move away from Rotorua for her safety.

Rickylee Dixon appearing in the High Court at Rotorua for sentencing. Photo / Andrew Warner

Rickylee Dixon, 37, was today jailed for nine years and six months for her involvement in the brutal offending.

Two other main offenders - her daughter Daisy Dixon, 19, and associate Harete Ohlson - were also jailed for six years and nine months and six years respectively.

The trio appeared separately before Justice Graham Lang for sentencing after previously pleading guilty to a range of serious violence offences including causing grievous bodily harm, wounding, kidnapping, participating in an organised criminal group and blackmail.

Rickylee Dixon and her group's offending was a means to extort money from the victim's father as a way of recovering a perceived debt after Rickylee Dixon thought the victim stole methamphetamine from her car.

The victim's ordeal included being bound, gagged, beaten with a tomahawk and smashed over the head with a metal baseball bat. A sharp object was inserted into her lip and her elbow was bent back until it snapped.

She was transported around Rotorua in the back of a truck as she drifted in and out of consciousness and was only saved after her father contacted male members of the Black Power gang and asked for help.

Rickylee Dixon is considered the president of Black Power Sisters Rotorua Fordblock gang.

Along with the main trio of offenders, others involved included Angela Dehar, 50, Shaun Te Kiri and Thorne Tucker, 18.

Daisey Rifle - Rickylee Dixon's mother - was also charged but died this year with her case unresolved.

Justice Lang said the offending was a case of "history repeating itself" and showed the extent of gang life's immersion with methamphetamine use.

The victim read her victim impact statement, pausing once to compose herself.

In it, she said she had grown up with the Mongrel Mob and had become involved with Rickylee Dixon two years before the offending through drug use.

She said despite being from different gangs, they always had mutual respect for each other.

The victim said she had been forced to move out of town despite her father and other members of her family still living in Rotorua.

She said she often felt alone and despite still using methamphetamine she had reduced her intake. She said she still used to help her with the trauma she suffered from the offending.

Despite saying she forgave the offenders, she said she still feared for her life.

Rickylee Dixon was given a warning under the Three Strikes Law.

After Dixon was sentenced, she walked out of the dock and turned to family members in the public gallery and said: "Don't worry, I've got this".

Daisy Dixon, 19, the daughter of gang ringleader Rickylee Dixon. Photo / Andrew Warner

In sentencing Daisy Dixon, Justice Lang said every aspect of the teenager's life was entrenched in gang culture and it would be difficult for her to break free and rehabilitate.

He sentenced her to six years and nine months in prison.

Ohlson, who was sentenced via audio-visual link, read a letter of remorse to the court, although the victim was not present at the time.

In it, Ohlson said she was ashamed of her actions, particularly given she had since learned the victim had not done anything wrong.

She said she had grown up living among the Black Power gang in Fordlands, describing it as a "gangster's paradise". She said she was not only sorry to the victim but also her own 3-year-old son who now had to grow up without his mother.

Harete Ohlson was sentenced to six years in prison. Photo / Andrew Warner

Justice Lang noted Ohlson's mother, who was present in court, had now been drug- and alcohol-free for four years and he urged Ohlson to follow her example.

He gave her slightly more recognition for her remorse and other mitigating factors and sentenced her to six years.

Angela Dehar was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment. Photo / Kelly Makiha

Justice Lang sentenced Dehar to nine months' home detention given she had a lesser involvement in the tail end of the second kidnapping.

Dehar, who has affiliations to the Mongrel Mob, only became involved after staying in the same motel unit as the Dixons.

Tucker, who was Daisy Dixon's partner at the time of the offending, was sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment but given he had already served 13 months in custody he would be released immediately.

Among his release conditions were that he not associate with members of Black Power. This was despite a plea from his lawyer, Brian Foote, to have that condition waived given Tucker had little family support and he looked upon his Black Power associates as his family.

Te Kiri is to be sentenced next year.

The victim's ordeal

A summary of facts detailing the offending was earlier released to the Rotorua Daily Post.

Rickylee Dixon instructed people to take the victim overnight on September 12 back to Rickylee Dixon's Meadowbank Cres house.

The woman's father was called and told to bring money to keep her alive. He arrived with $1500 cash but Rickylee Dixon told him it wasn't enough.

Music was turned up loud and the victim was bashed with an aluminium baseball bat, using such force that the bat broke in half.

The father was forced to wait in the lounge, listening to his daughter being beaten.

The victim was eventually told she could leave and her father was warned not to go to the police.

On October 21 she was kidnapped again. The victim's father paid the group a few thousand dollars but they didn't let her go.

She was driven to the Kowhai and Colonial Motel, where Rickylee Dixon was living after being evicted in August. Her mother, Daisey Rifle, lived in the unit next door.

Rifle was asked to watch the woman overnight. The next day Harete Ohlson arrived, joining Daisy Dixon, Tucker, Dehar, Rickylee Dixon and the woman.

They put the victim in the tray of a ute and arranged to meet her father, but the two groups missed each other.

The victim was beaten for 40 minutes, with music turned up loud to mask the sound.

Daisy Dixon smashed her with a baseball bat, splitting her head and breaking her nose. Ohlson pulled the woman's arm backwards and snapped her elbow.

The victim's hands were tied behind her back and a sock was put in her mouth to stop her screaming. The beatings continued, including with a tomahawk and hedge clippers.

The woman urinated on herself, was struggling to breathe and was in and out of consciousness, the summary said.

Daisey Rifle entered the room and told her daughter "just ******* kill the *****".

Rickylee Dixon said they would take her body to the victim's father's home and dump her, then kill him.

Police were alerted by a member of the public about noises from the unit but the victim was in the ute by the time they arrived, covered with a canopy.

She was driven around Fordlands and was freed after the car was stopped by Black Power gang members, alerted by the victim's family.