“Mr. Scissorhands” Sentenced for Hair-Hacking Attacks on Strangers

One victim was shopping for shampoo when he snuck up and cut her hair

A British man who admitted to cutting off two strangers' hair has been banned from carrying scissors in public for three years.

The so-called "Mr. Scissorhands," 48-year-old Darren Dixon, snuck up on his two victims, hacked at their hair and fled with the locks, the Daily Mail reported.

He gave one 19-year-old college student a haircut in September 2011. She said she noticed him tailing her on the street and then felt her hair being touched before she heard metal hit the pavement. Dixon had dropped his scissors, and then he fled with them and clumps of her hair, The Guardian reported.

Police began a search for Dixon with the help of surveillance footage of him cutting the student's hair — but they didn't catch him before he cut another woman's hair a month later, this time in a store's shampoo aisle.

Dixon was arrested after that attack when police found his weapon of choice on a lanyard in his car.

"This was a bizarre case, and Dixon has never shown any indication as to why he carried out these assaults and for what purpose," Detective Constable Lawrence Gallagher said, BBC News reported.

But the sentencing judge remarked as he handed down the sentence that Dixon appeared to have hacked the women's hair "for some sort of sexual gratification."

"Any repetition of this bizarre behavior, and you will be brought back here," the judge warned.

He also sentenced Dixon to a three-year community order, requiring him to get counseling with a sex offenders group and to pay each victim £500.

Dixon's defense attorney told the judge his client had suffered depression and other mental problems as a single parent after his wife left him and said Dixon was "thoroughly ashamed" of the attacks.

Dixon's first victim, Jessica Wright, told the Daily Mail she was still haunted by hers.

"The whole ordeal has left me extremely wary of everyone now. I find myself constantly looking over my shoulder, and at times I feel terrified of my own shadow," she said. "I was really freaked out and very upset by it all. I don’t really go anywhere on my own any more."

Selected Reading: Daily Mail, BBC News, The Guardian

Contact Us