A "terrified" woman felt trapped as a knife-wielding intruder threatened her and rummaged through her bed during an early morning crime spree that culminated in multiple car thefts and a police pursuit.
The startling events of April 30, 2021, are detailed in documents tendered to the ACT Supreme Court, where Mitchell John West is soon to be sentenced in the drug and alcohol list.
West, 25, is currently behind bars on remand, having pleaded guilty to two counts each of aggravated burglary and theft.
He has also admitted single charges of attempted aggravated robbery, failing to stop a motor vehicle for police, driving a motor vehicle without consent, and riding in a motor vehicle without consent.
An agreed statement of facts shows West and an unknown male initially broke into a Throsby home.
The disguised duo went into a female occupant's bedroom about 2am, carrying torches.
West was also armed with a curved knife, which he pointed at the victim as he demanded her wallet, money or keys.
"He also looked underneath her pillow and removed her blanket, ostensibly to see if she was hiding anything that they could steal," the agreed facts state.
"[The woman] was terrified and stayed on her bed during this time.
"She tried telling both males that she did not have any money or a wallet."
The intruders eventually went downstairs, where other occupants of the house heard them and called police.
West and his co-offender got away, however, stealing items that included a Honda CR-V and two laptops.
About two hours later, West, an unknown male and Bradley Caine Dawson took the car to a Casey home.
Their presence was detected by the homeowners' dog, which barked and woke the occupants.
The male occupant of the home looked down from his balcony and saw two of the offenders trying to steal vehicles that belonged to him and his partner.
He ran downstairs to find Dawson in his Peugeot, with the engine running, while West was beeping the horn of his partner's Suzuki Vitara.
Dawson ultimately fled the Peugeot on foot and got into the Suzuki, which West drove from the scene.
Police, who were also alerted to this incident, quickly spotted the stolen Suzuki and Honda in Nicholls.
Neither stopped when a senior constable activated his lights and sirens, and a police pursuit ensued.
Police chased the offenders to Lhotsky Street in Charnwood, where both vehicles stopped.
Dawson bolted from the Vitara and tried to hide under a bush, but police found and arrested him.
West also ran from the Suzuki but hopped into the stolen Honda, which the unknown man was driving.
This vehicle took off again, running red lights and driving on the wrong side of the road.
It eventually crashed into a wooden barrier, an unmarked police car and several shopping trolleys in the Belconnen town centre before West and the unknown man got out and ran.
Police apprehended West, who was subject to a suspended jail sentence and a good behaviour order at the time, near the back of the old Belconnen Fire Station. The other man managed to elude officers.
At the time of his arrest, a balaclava-clad West was in possession of items that included five knives, three torches and a bank card belonging to a person who lived at the burgled Throsby home.
West was due to be sentenced on Monday, but Acting Justice Richard Refshauge said he had not had time to complete the "complicated" exercise and would instead decide the 25-year-old's fate on March 2.
Associate Justice Verity McWilliam previously sentenced Dawson to three years and eight months in jail, with a non-parole period of 18 months, for his offending.
