Jackson Dixon jailed for four years at New Plymouth District Court for harassing ex-partner

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

He was convicted of attempted perverting the course of justice and violation of a protective order, to which he pleaded guilty, and a count of arson, to which a jury found him guilty when he pleaded guilty at trial in September.

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

The 32-year-old man claimed that he had never maintained a relationship with this woman.

But the judge found it was within the legal definition and said it started several years ago and lasted about a year.

Shortly after they broke up, the woman started a new relationship with her current husband.

She remained friends with Dixon for about three months after he began showing signs of harmful behavior toward her, and she tried to cut off all contact.

“Hooded figure” and orange glow

On the night of September 16, 2022, Dixon set out for New Plymouth from Te Aroha. Early the next morning, surveillance cameras captured his car arriving in the woman’s neighborhood.

He parked near her house, around 3:40 a.m. he approached her car, which was parked in the driveway. Although the video showed a “hooded figure,” jurors used evidence in court to determine that it was Dixon.

He put the bag by one of the back wheels and then ran back to his car.

The bag contained lighters and other flammable materials, which Dixon was found to have ignited, the court heard.

CCTV footage shows that he left the area.

When the woman’s car caught fire, her dog woke her up. She saw an orange glow through the window and heard a loud crash.

After seeing her car on fire, which was not far from her house, she woke her sister and the two went to the backyard.

After some time, firefighters arrived and extinguished the fire. Her car was destroyed.

At the time of the fire, the woman was on the verge of pregnancy and fell down the stairs while leaving the house. In this connection, she had to contact her obstetrician.

After the arson, Dixon continued to fight an order of protection he was granted against the woman. He argued that the order should not exist because the couple were not related.

Then, last September, the woman received a call from an unknown number and heard a man’s voice identify himself as “Jason.”

She thought it was Dixon’s voice, which she suggested to the caller. The voice said it wasn’t and said a “friend of a friend” had asked him to deliver the message.

“Remove yourself as a witness in the arson trial next Thursday and Shay will stop pushing for a family court hearing to challenge the protective 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 conversation. However, he pleaded guilty to the relevant charges after it was amended to admit that he had pleaded guilty to “encouraging a person”.

The charges that Dixon was convicted of against the woman were just the latest.

Judge Hicaka said Dixon had accumulated several other convictions related to her after their relationship ended.

In 2023, he was convicted of three counts of aggravated assault by digital communication and violation of a protective order.

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

The woman contacted the police, who told Dixon to remove the ad, which he did. But then he did more PR. At least once, a person came to her address to take advantage of what the ad offered. She was also approached at the supermarket by someone who addressed her using the pseudonym Dixon gave her in the ad.

“Sample of behavior”

Speaking about Dixon’s crime, Judge Hickack described it as calculated, manipulative, prolonged and very deliberate. According to him, this caused the woman great stress and excitement.

In her victim impact statement, the woman said she and her new partner had to beef up security at their home and hire security guards for their wedding.

She was diagnosed with anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder and quit her job because she felt unsafe working night shifts. She also had to change the business she created because Dixon linked it to prostitution websites.

In a letter written to the judge, Dixon apologized for his “carelessness” when someone called the woman, but said he “ignored” the arson conviction because he planned to appeal it.

He told the judge that he was not an obsessed or exhausted lover and was tired of protracted criminal proceedings.

Judge Hicaka said the car was deliberately set on fire, caused significant damage and created a danger to the occupants of the house.

He took a starting point of three years on the arson charge and added two years for violating a protective order and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

But he made no bones about the previous related offence, saying the sentences were a continuation of a pattern of behavior that could only be seen as a campaign to make life difficult for the woman.

After admitting the charges to which Dixon pleaded guilty, the judge sentenced him to four and a half years in prison, which was later reduced to four years.

Judge Hicaka imposed a permanent protective order, finding that the restraining order the defense had argued as an alternative was not “strict enough” to handle what Dixon had shown he was capable of.

Dixon was also ordered to pay the woman excess insurance claims on her car insurance and an additional $3,000 in emotional damages.

He waved to his supporters and loudly ordered his defense attorney to appeal as he left the courtroom to begin the sentencing.

Tara Shasky joined NZME in 2022 as News Director and Open Justice Reporter. She has been a reporter since 2014 and previously worked for Stuff covering crime and justice, arts and entertainment and Māori issues.