A woman woken up by three armed home invaders says she still remembers "the cold sharp feeling of the metal against my skin and the voices of demands" as one of the offenders, a serial criminal, was recently sentenced to about five years' jail.
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A recently published ACT Supreme Court judgement states that in August 2020, Marley Hall and two others - armed with a shotgun, sword and knife - first tried to force their way through a premises in Narrabundah.
They failed then fled.
Later that day, the trio were again armed when they entered a unit in Gordon while the sole occupant, a woman in her 20s, was asleep.
There, they threatened to kill her.
The 27-year-old Hall, who the court said "has already accumulated a significant criminal record", had a long knife he used to threaten the victim's dog.
He held the knife to the woman's neck after she pushed it away from the dog.
"They ransacked the unit and took a lot of property away with them," the judgment states.
Hall, who was on parole and breached bail when he committed his latest offending, pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery.
In her victim impact statement, the woman said "I still remember the cold sharp feeling of the metal against my skin and the voices of demands".
She spent months in therapy, was unable to leave her home and slept in her parents bedroom at one stage.
The woman said Hall saw her partially naked, and this memory has remained with her.
In his judgment on Tuesday, Justice Michael Elkaim said "it is difficult to describe the terror she must have felt".
"I am not surprised at her extended period of suffering," he said.
"No doubt the offenders had absolutely no thought for the welfare of their victim when they committed the crime."
Justice Elkaim sentenced him to five years and one month jail with a non-parole period of three years and six months.
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The judge, who on a previous occasion sentenced Hall to jail until October 2023, said it was "extremely difficult to be lenient when all previous offers of leniency have been ignored".
"Clearly, he is a man with a very disadvantaged background who has not been able to break away from the perils of being subjected to abuse and falling under the spells of alcohol and drugs," Justice Elkaim said.
He said that while Hall's history still "cries out for an opportunity for rehabilitation", there must be limits imposed by his criminal history.
The judge said his latest sentence had leniency because it begins before Hall's current jail term ends in 2023.
Hall's lawyer asked for a non-parole period shorter than might otherwise be the case because the offender's rehabilitation was significant.
The defence lawyer said there was a need to bring Hall into society as a contributor rather than as a criminal.
The Crown said the public was entitled to a break from Hall's criminal exploits and that deterrence of others and community protection were paramount in sentencing.
The Crown emphasised the serious nature of the offending.
The jail term for Hall had a charge of attempted aggravated burglary taken into account during sentencing to avoid a separate sentence for that charge but which diminishes the leniency given for the primary offence.
He was also sentenced to three months each for joint commission taking of a motor vehicle and joint commission theft related to him stealing a handbag and using an access card inside the bag to steal a car.
Hall's co-offenders have been referred to the drug and alcohol sentencing list.
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