The victim of an attempted murder says he lives in fear someone will "come to finish the job" after he was shot in the face because of baseless rumours he was a "kiddie fiddler".
"I suffer from constant anxiety," the victim said in a statement read to the ACT Supreme Court on Thursday, when gunman Sugimatatihuna Bernard Gabriel Mena, 24, faced a sentence hearing.
Mena and two co-offenders, Rebecca Dulcie Parlov and Bradley Joe Roberts, stood trial twice before a jury found them guilty of aggravated burglary over a home invasion in Spence.
Jurors also found Mena guilty of attempted murder and discharging a firearm in an act endangering life.
The prosecution case was that, in April 2021, "nonsense" rumours were circulating about the victim being a paedophile.
At trial, prosecutor Trent Hickey said the offenders, intent on confronting the man about what they had heard, had driven around looking for him in the early hours of the morning.
They eventually tracked him to the home of a drug dealer, for whom he had been working as a driver.
Roberts and Parlov burst into the home when they arrived, prompting the victim to grab a knife in anticipation of a physical confrontation.
In a police interview played at trial, the man told investigators Mena entered behind the others and mumbled "something about me being a kiddie fiddler" before shooting him in the face, stomach and left arm.
The victim, who spent about a week in a coma as a result, wrote in his statement about how his face was still "in constant pain" two years later.
He described not being able to chew properly because of the damage done to his jaw, on which he thought he might need further surgery.
The ongoing impact was also psychological, with the incident replaying in his mind "over and over".
This was especially the case, the victim said, whenever he looked in the mirror to shave and saw the scars left behind by Mena's shots.
The man also detailed his fears about being out in public because he was worried people might believe "the lies about paedophilia" and attempt to finish what Mena had started.
"I wonder how long it will be before someone comes to finish the job," the man wrote in his statement.
Mena, Parlov and Roberts have all been behind bars on remand since they were arrested in 2021.
On Thursday, the court heard psychologist Vanessa Quigley had diagnosed Mena with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
Ms Quigley told the court while Mena had the intellect to understand the consequences of shooting someone, someone with his condition may not have realised the seriousness in the heat of the moment.
Mena's barrister, Slade Howell, later told the court it had been Roberts, not his client, who had initially proposed a physical confrontation with the victim, suggesting they should have "a whack on".
Mr Howell said Roberts and Parlov had then invaded the Spence home ahead of Mena, whose entrance seemed to have been prompted by his female co-offender yelling that the victim had a knife.
The barrister also argued Mena had only initially intended to intimidate the victim, not shoot him.
Parlov's counsel, Keegan Lee, asked the court to defer his client's sentencing and grant her bail to attend a residential drug rehabilitation program.
Mr Lee said Parlov had "seen the destructive path she has been on" and wanted to get on top of her drug issues, which seemed to be the cause of her criminality.
He also stressed that she should not be sentenced on the basis someone had been shot, given she had only been charged with aggravated burglary and not with offences involving injuries.
Roberts' barrister, Mary Keaney, will make submissions in writing before Justice David Mossop passes sentence.
In his submissions, Mr Hickey urged the judge to find the offenders had agreed, prior to arriving at the Spence home, to physically attack the victim.
He described the suggestion the trio had merely wanted to talk to the victim as "nonsense".
"They could've done that on the phone," Mr Hickey argued.
The prosecutor also told the court Mena, a man linked to bikie gangs, had shown "zero remorse" for crimes that were somewhat inexplicable.
"You can't use someone's background and say he has ADHD and that's why he did what is, on any view, a horrific thing," Mr Hickey said.
Mr Hickey will continue making submissions next Tuesday to Justice Mossop, who said it was unclear "why these three people decided to be vigilantes".
