A "naive" Canberra woman has admitted being part of a bizarre extortion plot, in which her co-offenders demanded a man pay $25,000 to prevent a "hit" on his housemate's friend.
"I was going to say the offender is a bit like Walter Mitty, but that's a bit unfair to Walter Mitty," Keona Rosalie Watson's barrister told the ACT Supreme Court on Friday.
Watson, 20, was appearing there for sentence after pleading guilty to charges of making a demand with a threat to kill and being knowingly concerned in an aggravated burglary.
A statement of agreed facts lays out a strange sequence of events, which began with Watson entering into an agreement last August.
Having become aware a co-offender was planning to carry out a "hit", she gave him the address of a house where the target would often stay with a friend.
Armed with this information, the would-be killer and another conspirator travelled to this place in Chapman to find the target.
When told by the friend's housemate that the target was not there, Watson's co-offenders said words to the effect of: "If you don't tell us where he is now, there's going to be 10 boys rocking up here and it's not going to be good."
Fearing for his safety, the occupant of the Chapman house agreed to drive the co-offenders to the target's house in Kambah.
MORE COURT AND CRIME NEWS:
- Alleged serial abuser charged with historical rape
- Dad 'stabbed with star picket' in 'ultra-violent' driveway attack
- Road-raging Rebels bikie leaves key toss victim in tears
- Drug trafficker admits guilt after $20k cannabis bust
En route, the aspiring assassin said words to the effect of: "I'm a professional kidnapper and I'll kill someone for a certain amount of money."
Holding a samurai sword, he also told "stories of how he kidnapped people and how he would like to kill people".
When they finally arrived in Kambah, they discovered the "hit" target was not home.
Annoyed, Watson's co-offenders then told the Chapman man there was a $25,000 hit out on the target and that he could prevent anything happening by paying them that much.
The Chapman man said he would pay and drove back to his house to make a bank transfer on his laptop, ultimately giving Watson's co-conspirators $2000.
While they were back at the house, the wannabe killer ransacked a bedroom and stole about $11,500 worth of property.
The aspiring assassin then returned in the early hours two days later and broke into the by-then unattended house, from which more items were stolen.
When Watson was arrested later in August 2021, she told police she had given the wannabe killer the Chapman address "because she needed money".
She received $500 for this information, along with an Xbox and two games that had been stolen during the ransacking.
Watson was initially granted bail but she breached both the conditions of her release and the ACT's COVID-19 lockdown, resulting in her being remanded in custody in September.
By the time she fronted court on Friday, she had spent 133 days behind bars.
Her barrister, James Sabharwal, made the comparison to Walter Mitty, defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as "an ordinary, often ineffectual person who indulges in fantastic daydreams of personal triumphs".
Mr Sabharwal described Watson as naive and "easily led", saying "one scratches one's head when one looks at the part [she] has played".
He then applied for an assessment of Watson's eligibility for a drug and alcohol treatment order, which prosecutor Christina Muthurajah did not argue against.
Acting Justice Verity McWilliam ordered the assessment, saying material before the court suggested Watson's crimes were a product of drug addiction.
"You've got a whole life ahead of you," the judge told Watson.
"You don't want to be throwing it away on drugs."
The case is due back in court on February 18.
