A Canberra pharmacy owner says it is "hard to describe the suffering" she has endured since a syringe-wielding woman robbed her business of medication and cash.
The ongoing impact on the victim was detailed when Grace Emily Larkham, 24, faced the ACT Supreme Court for a sentence hearing on Thursday.
Larkham had previously pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated robbery, possessing an offensive weapon with intent, riding in a stolen vehicle, and joint commission minor theft.
Agreed facts show Larkham entered Capital Chemist in O'Connor on July 10, 2022, wearing a balaclava and wielding a syringe filled with "a blood-like liquid substance".
She stormed the business in concert with Kiran James Eichmann, who brandished a hammer and a nail gun while also hiding under a face covering.
Larkham threatened a security guard with the syringe, saying she would stab him if he did not put his phone down.
Meanwhile, Eichmann headed for the pharmacy's back room, where he screamed at staff to open the safe and fill his bag with prescription medication.
He eventually returned to the main part of the store with a pharmacy assistant, who was ordered to continue filling the bag with more drugs.
When the Woolworths bag began to overflow, Eichmann told staff to load up one from the shop instead.
Eichmann also eventually ripped a couple of cash registers off the counter and handed one to Larkham, who took it outside.
She subsequently returned and again threatened the security guard with the needle, forcing him to back away and allowing her to escape with Eichmann in a stolen car.
Police, alerted to the incident, quickly spotted the vehicle and chased it along the Monaro Highway for 20 minutes as the driver, Eichmann, refused to stop.
By the time the pursuit eventually came to an end in Symonston, all four of the stolen car's tyres had disintegrated after police deployed devices to deflate them.
Larkham and Eichmann were both arrested and subsequently remanded in custody.
While she was behind bars at the Alexander Maconochie Centre, police paid her a visit after also identifying her and Eichmann as the offenders behind the theft of six jackets.
The pair had stolen the garments, which were worth nearly $2000 in total, from Anaconda in Fyshwick a few weeks before the pharmacy robbery.
Larkham spent nearly four months in custody before she was granted bail last November, having secured a place in a residential drug rehabilitation facility in Queensland.
On Thursday, defence barrister Katrina Musgrove told the court Larkham hoped to move permanently to that state, where she had successfully completed rehabilitation.
Ms Musgrove said that experience and the time spent behind bars had helped Larkham, who was "at a crossroads", to mature and develop insight into the way her life was going.
She said Larkham, who had chronic schizophrenia, had been "paranoid" at the time of her offending, when the 24-year-old had been "hearing voices and seeing things".
Ms Musgrove said Larkham now knew she needed to comply with her medication regime instead of "using drugs to a very large extent" in an attempt to "block out" those things.
Prosecutor Sam Bargwanna said Larkham should be commended for trying to rehabilitate, acknowledging a return to prison may "undo all the good work" she had done while on bail.
But Mr Bargwanna also drew attention to the "profound" impact of the offences on the victims, reading to the court a statement written by the pharmacy owner.
The owner described working hard to buy into the business, which had been forced to spend money on insurance claims and security upgrades as a result of the robbery.
She also wrote that an experienced pharmacist had left as a consequence of the incident, forcing her to work 26 straight days at one stage to fill the gap.
This had affected her plans to start a family and left her "worried, sad, anxious and angry".
Justice David Mossop indicated he would sentence Larkham on Friday morning.
Eichmann, who has pleaded guilty to seven charges, including aggravated robbery, possessing an offensive weapon and failing to stop for police, is yet to be sentenced.
