by Cam Lucadou-Wells
A pair of alcohol-fueled home invaders who drove 50 kilometres to bash a man in the middle of the night in Officer have been jailed.
Michael Harris, now 32, and Nicholas Hill, now 32, kicked in the front door and attacked the resident with a baseball ball, fists and a belt as he called triple-0 about 1.30am on 26 August last year.
The work colleagues had been earlier drinking in a Nyora pub when Harris declared his then-partner was unfaithful to him.
They drove to Officer to confront who they believed to be the partner’s lover.
However when they tapped on the window of the house, the resident told them no one of that name was living there.
After a heated argument with him, Hill and Harris then broke into the home.
Armed with a baseball bat, Hill floored the victim with a strike to his leg.
During the attack, Harris headbutted and punched the victim’s face, and Hill throttled him his belt and dragged him onto the ground.
Police arrived and found the victim with Hill’s belt around his neck. The intruders were arrested at the scene.
The victim suffered a broken nose, two broken teeth as well as strangulation injuries and blows to his body and head.
Afterwards, he missed weeks of work and stopped playing sport.
Just two months before the assault, Harris had been released from jail for a “strikingly similar crime”, sentencing judge Michael Cahill said on 25 July.
He was found to be more culpable due to instigating the trip to Officer and his criminal history.
On the other hand, Hill had no priors or history of violence.
He was more likely to have carried the bat to deter violence rather than inflict it, Judge Cahill said.
Hill reportedly told police he wasn’t proud of putting his belt around the victim’s throat, and didn’t know why he did it.
Previously, he’d stepped up to run his father’s quarry business, but had started drinking heavily.
As a first time prisoner with favourable rehabiltation prospects, Hill was set a longer-than-usual parole period.
Both men pleaded guilty to home invasion with an offensive weapon and intentionally causing injury.
Judge Cahill said he wasn’t satisfied that the pair drove to the house with an intent to assault.
He found that they had however formed a violent intent by the time they forced entry.
He noted the pair’s remorse and mental health afflictions.
Harris was jailed for four years, with a two-and-a-half year non-parole period.
Hill was jailed for three years. He will be eligible for parole after 18 months.
Both of their terms include 334 days in pre-sentence detention.
