Knife shed as flight from law ended
A MOSGIEL man who spent several months on the run from police claims there was an innocent explanation for the meat cleaver he discarded as they tried to arrest him.
Robert Paul Laxon (39) said a friend who had been towing a car needed a strop cut, and he coincidentally had the weapon to do the job when police finally caught up with him on April 7.
After a police chase with a car in which the defendant was a passenger, he took off on foot, threw the large kitchen implement away and left in a different vehicle.
He was arrested soon after. The blade was found by a member of the public.
Judge Michael Turner, at the Dunedin District Court sentencing yesterday, was sceptical of Laxon’s version of events.
Counsel Brian Kilkelly said his client had ‘‘panicked’’ and knew he was breaching the Level 4 lockdown as well.
Laxon was released from prison in June last year following a twoyear stint behind bars on serious dishonesty charges.
Mr Kilkelly stressed he abided by his release conditions — designed to aid his rehabilitation and reintegration into society — but by October, he had prioritised other matters.
Laxon, he said, spent the time reconnecting with his children rather than seeing his Probation officer so was charged with breaching release conditions for his sustained lack of engagement.
He was bailed by the court in November but then failed to show up to his next hearing.
That resulted in the warrant for Laxon’s arrest which was eventually executed this month.
Among an eightpage list of convictions, Judge Turner noted violence, drugs and driving offences, as well as multiple instances of noncompliance with previous sentences.
While Mr Kilkelly said his client had stable work as a painter and argued his client should receive a communitybased penalty, the judge disagreed.
Laxon was assessed as a high risk of reoffending and had told Probation he was unwilling to do residential rehabilitation at Moana House.
That, the judge said, was indicative of the defendant’s lack of insight.
Laxon was jailed for nine months.