Anthony Batcheldor jailed for nearly four years over violent home invasion

A newly published ACT Supreme Court judgment shows Anthony Batcheldor, 30, gave his victim a number of silver coins in 2019.

He asked this man to see if anyone might want to buy them, so the victim took them to an acquaintance with some knowledge of coins.

The victim then forgot about the supposed treasures until Batcheldor rang him in mid-2020 and asked where they were.

This prompted the victim to call his acquaintance, who said she could not find them but they were fake and "not worth any money".

Batcheldor, who regarded the items as valuable, was not happy about this and decided to seek what Justice David Mossop described as "compensation and retribution".

The 30-year-old phoned the victim on June 13 last year and demanded payment of $1000 in two hours.

He then turned up at the victim's Canberra house that afternoon with a co-offender, Joshua Watson, and an unknown woman.

They let themselves into the victim's place and one of the intruders punched the victim repeatedly in the back of the head.

Batcheldor also punched the man in the left eye, ripped his singlet and threw him into a wall.

The victim eventually managed to flee to a neighbour's house, from which he could hear some of his things being destroyed.

Batcheldor was still in the victim's place at this time, smashing up the televisions and the glass panels on the heaters.

When the 30-year-old finally did leave, he did so with about $2600 worth of property stolen from the victim's house.

This included a CCTV hard drive, an Xbox gaming console, a mobile phone and fishing equipment.

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Police who were called to the area described finding the victim physically shaking and upset.

The man was taken to hospital, where he was found to have at least 12 injuries that included lacerations and bruising on his face.

Batcheldor, who was on a good behaviour order at the time in question, was ultimately arrested on July 11 last year.

He later pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated robbery and property damage.

When the 30-year-old appeared in court last month for sentence, Justice Mossop described the incident as "a violent home invasion".

"[Batcheldor] was the principal organiser of the home invasion and the principal inflictor of the violence upon the victim," the judge said.

Justice Mossop indicated the offender had worked in a number of jobs, including as a carpet-layer, lifeguard, silo constructor, sheep shearer, handyman and labourer.

He detailed Batcheldor's long history of alcohol and drug abuse, saying the offender only abstained from illicit substances in the lead-up to amateur cage fights.

The judge said Batcheldor deserved some credit, however, for taking steps to address these issues and others, including "his violent behaviours", during his post-arrest time in custody.

He noted, though, that a pre-sentence report author had identified a record of Batcheldor being involved in a serious assault on a fellow inmate on the same day as an anger management program.

The author also stated that Batcheldor "did not indicate any remorse for his actions, nor demonstrate any depth of understanding regarding the impact that his actions had had upon the victim" of the home invasion.

Justice Mossop ultimately imposed a jail term of three years and 10 months over the incident.

Given Batcheldor has already been sentenced to imprisonment for other offences since his arrest over this incident, he will not begin serving this time until June 2023.

The 30-year-old will become eligible for parole in November 2024.

Watson, who admitted aiding and abetting an aggravated robbery, has previously been sentenced to two-and-a-half years in jail.

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