A stick-throwing intruder and a teenage co-offender have been jailed over what a judge has described as an "extremely frightening" invasion of a young family's home in Canberra's north.
Alexander Douglas Jeremy Warne, 33, was sentenced in the ACT Supreme Court on Wednesday to two years and six months behind bars.
Acting Justice Stephen Walmsley also jailed a 19-year-old co-offender for three years and seven months in relation to the home invasion, a subsequent carjacking, and breaches of suspended sentence orders.
The younger man cannot be named because he committed some of the offences while still a juvenile.
Acting Justice Walmsley said on Wednesday that "a bellicose and intimidating man", Damien Thomas Andy, had been "the principal instigator" of the September 2020 home invasion in Taylor.
He said Andy, aggrieved by something that had happened the night before the incident, had "put heavy persuasion" on Warne to carry out the violent intrusion with him as "a show of force".
Warne and the younger man, described as "a misguided teenage boy just along for the ride", accordingly joined Andy and a fourth person who has not been identified.
Three of the quartet were armed with either a baseball bat or a stick when the group arrived at the Taylor home, where a woman lived with children aged one and seven.
They smashed their way through the victim's front door, prompting her to flee with the children.
Acting Justice Walmsley said some of the group followed the victim as she ran to the backyard, and Warne "threw a stick at her".
The intruders also "screamed abuse and damaged property", smashing up walls, windows and a toilet seat, among other things.
One of the group removed food from the victim's fridge and threw it around her kitchen.
"Photographs show a great deal of damage throughout the house," Acting Justice Walmsley said.
The offenders eventually left, some taking with them an Xbox One X gaming console and a glass "bong".
Andy was later brought unstuck by his own CCTV cameras, which recorded him and the teenager arriving at his Queanbeyan home soon after the intrusion with baseball bats and the stolen items.
He gave evidence against Warne and the teenager when the pair stood trial, and, in March, received a partially suspended jail sentence in recognition of his assistance.
That assistance contributed to a jury finding Warne and the 19-year-old guilty of aggravated burglary and property damage. The teenager was also found guilty of theft.
When the pair faced court for sentencing on Wednesday, Acting Justice Walmsley said the teenager had also committed offences of aggravated robbery and driving a stolen vehicle in May 2021.
These crimes involved the teenager and two others stealing a car, which was later crashed into a concrete bus stop, at knifepoint.
Acting Justice Walmsley said the teenager had a disadvantaged childhood, growing up in a violent environment where he had stabbed his father and slept with a knife "in case anyone touched him".
The judge backdated the 19-year-old's sentence to start in August 2021 on account of time spent on remand, ordering that it be suspended once the man had served two years.
The teenager was also ordered to pay $320 in reparations for locksmith fees incurred by the carjacking victim.
Warne was described as "an unusual man", who had run a business and who was "obviously intelligent".
Acting Justice Walmsley said Warne had achievable goals and good prospects for rehabilitation, despite his continued denials that he was one of the home invaders.
The judge backdated Warne's sentence to begin in December 2021 to account for time already served, imposing a 15-month non-parole period that makes the 33-year-old eligible for release in March 2023.
