A home invader who severed a man’s finger in a “grave and sustained” attack in Wangaratta last year is looking at multiple years in custody as he awaits sentence. The 31-year-old Wangaratta man appeared in the custody dock at Wangaratta County Court on Thursday to plead guilty to aggravated home invasion and recklessly causing injury. The court heard on 23 August last year a man in his 50s had his finger partially amputated, suffered facial lacerations and three rib fractures following the attack inside his own home on Templeton Street. The 31-year-old planned the attack, allegedly with two others, earlier the same day. The victim had been seeing a sex worker, one of the co-accused, and paying her with cash, ice and GHB in exchange for her services. Prior to the offending the 31-year-old sent messages asking an alleged co-accused to bring rope and a blindfold to tie the victim up and “knock him out”. He went into the house around 10:30pm armed with a baton, a pocket knife and wore a bandana. The court heard the victim felt an electric shock from a taser to the ribs, allegedly carried by the co-accused, and was hit multiple times with a hard object. The 31-year-old fled after the attack and sent messages following his attack, saying “we split him like a watermelon”. “He’s gonna have mad stitches… my f***ing knuckles are so swollen,” the messages read. Nothing was taken from the victim’s home and the 31-year-old and his alleged co-accused were arrested the next day. Defence counsel James Mortley said his client had been awake “for days” on ice and was heavily intoxicated prior to the offending. “It was an appalling lack of consequential thinking,” he said. The man had been in custody since his arrest on 24 August last year. Mr Mortley said the 31-year-old felt powerless behind bars, unable to care for his ill mother or his daughter. “He accepts he let his family down, he let his daughter down and he let himself down,” he said. Judge Pardeep Tiwana remanded the man in custody, with sentencing to occur at Melbourne County Court on a later date. “As we all know ice does make you very violent,” he said. “As soon as they enter the house, they embark on a grave and sustained assault of the victim.” The court heard a proven aggravated home invasion charge comes with a mandatory non-parole period of three years in custody. The man’s alleged co-accused are set to appear in court on later dates.
