A serial criminal has blown up after being refused bail on charges laid over two violent home invasions, during which he allegedly held a machete near a woman's throat and yanked a boy's hair from his head.
"F---ing hell," Ivan Stephen Djerke said when Justice David Mossop remanded him in custody on Tuesday. "This is bullshit."
Djerke, 47, had been seeking bail in the ACT Supreme Court as he awaits a trial on two counts each of aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary, plus a charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
The accused, who has pleaded not guilty, has been behind bars on remand since his arrest last April.
His apprehension came hot on the heels of the home invasions, which occurred at opposite ends of the ACT.
In the first incident, a prosecution case statement says two men, alleged to be Djerke and co-accused Aaron Kenneth Campbell, entered a Kambah home through an unlocked door.
Campbell is accused of holding a machete to the fingers of a female occupant while demanding cash and drugs, then punching the woman in the face when she said she did not have any money.
Djerke subsequently held a machete near the woman's throat, prosecutors claim, and demanded the password for her laptop.
When the woman provided an incorrect answer, Djerke allegedly punched her left cheek.
The intruders ultimately left in the woman's Subaru Forester, taking with them her car keys, phone and three toolboxes stolen from the house.
The next day, two men made a large hole in a laundry door in order to break into a home in Holt.
Prosecutors claim these people were also Campbell and Djerke, and that the pair were respectively armed with a crowbar and a machete as they demanded money.
Both men are accused of assaulting a minor in the home, with Djerke allegedly pulling a dreadlock from a boy's head before stealing a Bluetooth speaker and a CCTV system hard drive from a bedroom.
Applying for bail on Tuesday, defence lawyer Anastasia Qvist told the court a place was available for Djerke in a residential drug rehabilitation program.
Ms Qvist asked that the 47-year-old be bailed to live at the rehabilitation facility, which he would be banned from leaving unless he was with a staff member.
She noted the matter did not yet have trial dates, meaning Djerke would spend a substantial period of further time behind bars if bail remained refused.
Ms Qvist also tendered to the court a letter that indicated staff at Canberra's jail held him in high regard because of the work he had done as a peer support induction coordinator and mentor for new inmates.
Prosecutor Nathan Deakes opposed bail, arguing Djerke was likely to commit offences, endanger the safety of others, and fail to appear in court if released from custody.
Mr Deakes cited Djerke's lengthy criminal history, which dates back decades and includes convictions for a variety of crimes.
He said these included six failures to appear in court when required and a witness intimidation offence, noting the alleged home invasion victims had expressed fears for their safety if Djerke was released.
The prosecutor also pointed out that Djerke had been on bail at the time of his latest alleged offences.
Mr Deakes said Djerke had been subject to 17 bail conditions for less than a month at the time, noting these included a curfew the 47-year-old had allegedly breached by committing the home invasions.
Justice Mossop ultimately refused bail, but he said he would have granted it if not for Djerke's substantial criminal record and his history of failing to appear in court.
The bail application's dismissal did not impress Djerke, who complained via audio-visual link from a remote room at the Alexander Maconochie Centre.
"How am I supposed to get better?" he asked an empty bench as the judge returned to his chambers. "I'm trying, man."
Djerke is due back in court for pre-trial applications in April.
