A stepfather who went into "dad mode" and choked two teenagers has avoided any significant time behind bars despite a judge condemning his retaliatory actions.
"There is nothing that excuses parents from inviting themselves into another's household and using any force against a child, let alone choking 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 Wednesday.
He previously pleaded guilty at the "last minute" to two counts of choking, strangulation or suffocation, after spending one day in custody for the offending.
Justice McWilliam sentenced the man to a jail term of eight months and one day, which she elected to suspend from Wednesday.
"Whether the cause was a spontaneous exacting of revenge for harm done to his stepson or an impulsive and misplaced attempt at vigilante justice, it is obvious the offending must be condemned in the strongest terms," she said.
However, the judge said full-time custody was "not the best way to protect the community here" and the man was a "prime candidate" for a suspended sentence that would allow him to pursue rehabilitation.
Single charges of aggravated burglary previously laid against both him and his partner were withdrawn two weeks ago.
Court documents state the man entered one of the young victim's unlocked 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 boy in a headlock and momentarily grab the second by the neck.
The man's partner, and mother of the 12-year-old, remained in the bedroom's doorway yelling at the group of boys to "be careful walking to school".
The man eventually left after the first victim's father entered the room and said: "What the f--- is going on? Get the f--- out."
The offender was arrested the following day when he tried hiding from police under a bed.
His partner told police he had gone into "dad mode" and raised his voice during the incident.
In a letter to the court, the woman said her child struggled socially and that she had reluctantly let him go to play on the day of the incident "for friendship's sake".
She said that he returned home within 20 minutes with a "battered face ... shaken and extremely upset".
Justice McWilliam accepted the offending had not been "deliberate, planned or sustained" and that the man's actions occurred during a "spur of the moment loss of control".
The judge said the stepfather had suffered historical trauma, which "has had a catastrophic effect on every aspect of the offender's life and his behaviour".
She set out conditions that would "promote the steps the offender is already taking to rehabilitate and change his behaviour", like attending programs aimed at his substance abuse issues.
"Such programs are designed to address the underlying history of trauma that led to his substance abuse and criminal offending in the first place," Justice McWilliam said.
The man's suspended jail term was backdated to account for his previous day in custody, on the condition he enter into a good behaviour order for the remainder of the sentence.
