Antonie Dixon dies in prison 

Source: ONE NewsAntonie Dixon

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Convicted murderer Antonie Dixon, 40, has died overnight at Paremoremo Maximum Security Prison in Auckland.

The Department of Corrections says staff provided immediate medical assistance to Dixon, but were unable to revive him.

He was pronounced dead by ambulance staff when they arrived at the prison.

A prison source says Dixon suffered head and neck injuries and died in his cell.

The Department of Corrections say it appears nobody else was involved in the death.

The department is undertaking an investigation to determine what happened, and a coroner's investigation, assisted by the police, will be conducted ahead of an inquest to determine the cause of death.

Dixon was convicted in 2005 of murder, grievous bodily harm, firearm charges, shooting at police, and kidnapping, in events which unfolded during a drug-fuelled crime spree in January 2003.

During the rampage, he seriously injured Renee Gunbie and Simone Butler with a samurai sword and murdered James Te Aute with a home-made gun.

The Court of Appeal quashed the convictions last year, ruling the summing up by Justice Judith Potter contained major errors of law.

In August 2008, after a second trial, Dixon was again found guilty on the charges he faced.

Dixon has been in prison since he was charged and convicted for the first time in 2005. He was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum non-parole period of 20 years.

Details about his upbringing emerged during his trials, including alleged sexual abuse on him as a child and incidents of him being kept outside tethered to a clothesline.

His defence argued he was insane, but the Crown countered that he was "not mad, but bad".

The announcement of his death comes as his lawyer Barry Hart and the Crown were due at the High Court at Auckland to make preparations for his sentencing, after the retrial last year.

Dixon was recently understood to have tried to pull a makeshift weapon on Hart during a prison visit.