A move from the deep south to Whangārei just months ago got off to a horror start for school teacher Ian Russ after the driveway and the letterbox of his rental house got tagged in what appears to be a case of mistaken identity.

The words “Carl Dawson, killer and murderer” were smeared on the driveway and letterbox about 7.30pm on Saturday, and to make matters worse, Russ said police were not interested enough to come and have a look, even after he stopped a police car in town the same night.

Police said it prioritised attendance at incidents where there was a risk to a person’s safety, and that was not the case with Russ’ complaint.

He and his wife Roz Gray rent a house off Whangārei Boys’ High School on Kent Rd in Regent, next to the former Carruth Hostel, after moving to the city at the beginning of Term 1. Russ is a teacher at the school. He moved up from Tuatapere in Southland; Gray moved from Tauranga.

Their neighbour has a CCTV camera that captured six people in a white sedan tagging the driveway and the letterbox, but by the time Russ, his wife and her son came out of the house on Saturday night, the group was gone.

A possible reason for the graffiti was the group likely thought that convicted murderer Karl Dawson, who was deported from Australia following his conviction in 2017 and sent to live in Whangārei, lived in the house Russ is currently renting.

Karl Michael Dawson murdered Natasha Reid, 23, in the couple’s Brisbane apartment in 2002, stuffed her body in a drum and took it to Sydney, where it was later found in his garage.

Dawson was jailed for life by the Supreme Court in Brisbane in late 2003.

In August 2017, New Zealand’s Department of Corrections confirmed Dawson was deported to New Zealand in June of that year and had been living in Whangārei, but refused to disclose the location or the conditions of his release.

Ian Russ, pictured on his driveway, which has been graffitied by a group in what appears to be a case of mistaken identity. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Russ and his wife say they have nothing to do with the murderer.

“Obviously, the guy who murdered his girlfriend in Australia was a Dawson, and the people that were here before me were Dawsons, and I don’t know if they have any relationship with [Karl] Dawson. I don’t know anything about them,” Russ said.

He put up a sign on his letterbox as well as on a window that reads: “We are not the Dawsons, nor do we know them or anything about them. Go away, leave our place and neighbourhood alone.”

“I don’t know who the Dawsons are. It’s got nothing to do with me. Leave us alone. We don’t want you down in this area. All we’ve found out since [is] the Dawsons now live in Melbourne.

“We’ve rung the police, and they said, ‘Oh, it’s not life threatening’. People are coming down at night, doing burnouts on the streets, yelling, knocking on the doors, on the windows when we’re sleeping.

Ian Russ is peeved police have not even visited him after the graffiti attack. Photo / Michael Cunningham

“The police [force] in this country is stuffed. The police have got no concerns. They go, ‘Oh, we’ve got better things to do than muck around with that’. We feel like we’re a target now. What’s going to be next?

“Police haven’t even responded, they’ve never been here to see what’s going on. They are f*****g useless. They’ll catch you going up and down the road here - ‘No sweat, I’ll stop you and give you a ticket for that’. But when it comes to public security, they are not interested,” he said.

At the moment, his family will stay put, but they will be on alert every night with regard to any movement out on the street.

A police spokeswoman said officers received a call on Saturday evening that a small number of people had tagged the caller’s mailbox and driveway in Whangārei, and left the area on foot.

“A message was broadcast over the police radio to local staff in the area to make them aware. However, the description provided of the people was limited.

“Police prioritise attendance at incidents where there is a risk to a person’s safety, and there was not in this case.

“An assessment of the information provided to police was conducted, and it was determined that pending further information coming to light, there were no lines of inquiry.”