Two 13-year-old children who were choked by a friend's retaliatory stepfather should have felt safe from such offending during a sleepover at one of the boy's homes, a judge has said.
"They're going to have an expectation they are safe from people, outsiders, strangers, walking through the front door and into the bedroom trying to choke them," Justice Verity McWilliam said.
The man, who is not named to protect the identity of the children involved, faced the ACT Supreme Court on Friday after pleading guilty to two counts of choking, strangulation or suffocation.
Single charges of aggravated burglary previously laid against both him and his partner were withdrawn earlier in the week.
"You don't think about someone coming to grab you," the judge said.
Court documents state the man entered one of the young victim's homes about 9pm on July 30, 2022, after his 12-year-old stepson claimed his friends had "jumped him".
The 12-year-old was punched in the face earlier that evening after he was accused of breaking the rules in a game of "slap boxing".
When the man and his partner reached the first victim's bedroom, where the boys were having a sleepover, he said: "Well, you boys, we're going to have a talk."
"Get out of my room," the victim responded.
The stepfather proceeded to put the first boys in a headlock and grab the neck of the second.
The man eventually left when the first victim's father entered the room and he was arrested the following day.
In his sentencing submissions, prosecutor Marcus Dyason said the incident occurring at night in one of the boy's homes, where he and his three friends were "vulnerable", aggravated the offending.
"It occurred at a time when the [victims] wouldn't have possibly contemplated that as a likely scenario that would happen at that location," he said.
Mr Dyason also told the court that any violence against children perpetrated by an adult was "appalling".
Defence lawyer Tim Sharman agreed with the judge that the boys had an "expectation of safety" in the home but called the man's offending "momentary".
Mr Sharman also argued the offending itself had not been premeditated.
Justice McWilliam agreed, saying the man went to the house to "have words".
"But did he really think to himself to do that," the judge said while indicating a choking motion.
The defence lawyer also told the court while nothing provoked the man in the traditional sense, there was an "emotional provocation that lead to a series of unfortunate events".
"Things got out of control," he said.
Justice McWilliam will reserve her decision until a sentence hand-down on Friday next week.
