Two men capped off a four-day drug and alcohol bender by jumping in an Uber and breaking into a stranger's home while armed with a butane gas torch before again using the rideshare app to leave.
Daniel Heaven and Patrick Iaulualo kicked in the door to a Carrum Downs home in suburban Melbourne in the middle of the night in October 2020.
The owner was able to briefly fend them off with a baseball bat before the pair broke in a second time and assaulted him, then again used Uber to leave the area.
Heaven, 32, and Iaulualo, 28, on Thursday faced the Victorian County Court, where they both pleaded guilty to home invasion and common law assault.
"I have never experienced fear for my life like I have on and since that event," the victim, Paul Betteridge, said in a statement.
"It was the most traumatic experience of my life. I haven't slept properly since then. This turned my mind upside down."
It remains unclear how Heaven and Iaulualo settled upon Mr Betteridge's address when ordering the Uber and there is no evidence they knew him, the court was told.
"It's hardly a sophisticated way to go to a crime scene," Judge Paul Lacava said.
"Perhaps that speaks to their level of sobriety at the time," prosecutor Daniel Porceddu responded.
Heaven's lawyer Brett Tait said his client joined Iaulualo, who was armed with the butane gas torch, in the poorly conceived plot after several days of heavy drug and alcohol use.
"An old demon reared its ugly head," Mr Tait said.
Another man, Jacques Dalais, has been charged with aggravated burglary from the incident.
Heaven, Iaulualo and Dalais will return to court at a later date.
