A masked home invader has been locked up following his admission that he tried to set a man on fire after dousing the victim and his dog with petrol in Canberra's south.
Robert James Smith, 32, took his tie off and put it in his pocket after pleading guilty to five charges in the middle of his ACT Supreme Court trial on Wednesday.
He later presented his wrists to prison guards on the assumption they would handcuff him as he left the dock, and almost headbutted one while bowing to Acting Justice Stephen Norrish.
The Spence man went on trial on Tuesday after denying six charges laid in the wake of a September 2020 home invasion, during which the court heard he and co-offender Kye Jayden Rowe burst into a Kambah house.
One of the home's two occupants gave evidence that he was woken on the night in question, having fallen asleep on his lounge, by two men wearing balaclavas.
The intruders asked to see his "mate" and subsequently forced him into his housemate's bedroom, where they demanded payment of a purported debt.
Both victims spoke of the intruders instructing the recently awoken man to tie up the bedroom's occupant, who had only lived at the house for two weeks, with a phone charger and, later, an extension cord.
The unrestrained man eventually ran from the house and sought help from a neighbour, who called triple zero and handed him the phone to speak to police.
Meanwhile, Crown prosecutor Trent Hickey told the trial, Smith used a red jerry can the intruders had brought to the scene to pour petrol over the home's recent arrival, his bed and his dog.
The man doused in petrol later told police the taller of the two burglars, now known to be Smith, then stood in the doorway to his room holding a silver Zippo lighter.
Wearing a gown in lieu of his petrol-soaked clothes as he sat with his dog in the Tuggeranong Police Station to recount the ordeal, he said he had pleaded with Smith as the intruder prepared to set him alight.
"I was yelling, 'Please don't do this, I'll get you the money'," the man, who claimed not to owe anyone money, told police.
"There was petrol in my eyes and mouth."
The man said he eventually managed to thwart Smith, who he described as "the tall guy", by kicking him into the hallway and slamming the bedroom door closed.
He then held the door shut while Smith "bashed" on it in an attempt to get back in.
Smith and Rowe eventually fled, taking a phone belonging to the petrol-soaked victim and a black Ford Ranger owned by the other occupant.
Smith was arrested three days later, after police found the stolen utility in a parking space assigned to his unit.
He spent about six months behind bars on remand before being granted bail to await his trial.
On Wednesday afternoon, one-and-a-half days into the trial, he changed five of his not guilty pleas to admit charges of aggravated burglary, attempting to inflict grievous bodily harm, riding in a stolen car, and two counts of theft.
He had also been accused of committing an act endangering health, but that charge no longer needed to be determined because it was an alternative to the grievous bodily harm allegation.
After Acting Justice Norrish had discharged the trial jury, Mr Hickey applied to have Smith's bail revoked.
Smith's barrister, James Sabharwal, did not oppose the application and the 32-year-old, who took several puffs of an inhaler after entering his pleas, was accordingly remanded in custody.
Acting Justice Norrish listed Smith's sentencing for July 6.
Rowe, who previously pleaded guilty to charges stemming from his role in the incident, becomes eligible for parole in August.
