While watching TV, a father heard a commotion after his young daughter answered an early morning knock on the door.
Joshua Thomas Mann and two co-offenders had entered the family home demanding drugs and keys to a safe, with one saying: “We’re here to collect”.
“‘What?” the father replied as the mother sent their children – aged nine and 11 – to their rooms.
In what Judge Anthony Rafter said sounded like a mistake, the offenders had targeted the residence in a “premeditated home invasion”.
The traumatic attack ended when the parents fought back, with the father arming himself with a meat cleaver and chasing them out of the house.
There had been a degree of planning for the violent home invasion in November 2021, Brisbane District Court was told.
One of the co-offenders had a picture of the Runcorn house in Brisbane’s south on their phone that had been taken the day before while a hire car with a “getaway driver” was used.
The offenders were wearing clothing to conceal their identities when they knocked on the front door at 7am.
After the young daughter let them in, they demanded keys to a safe and drugs from the shocked parents.
However, there was no evidence that suggested the family had “any knowledge or any involvement” with drugs, the court was told.
They also had no link with the offenders.
“Is it a situation that these premises were targeted by mistake?”Judge Rafter asked.
“If it is accepted that the complainant had no involvement in drugs it is starting to sound like a mistake in the place being targeted.”
The parents said the attack that ensued soon after the intruders entered had a “catastrophic effect” on the family.
Mann had wrapped a chain around his fist before punching the father who slammed into a glass sliding door.
As the father tried to open the sliding door to lure the offenders away from his family, Mann and a co-offender kicked and punched the 42-year-old multiple times.
Another co-offender punched the 44-year-old mother during a struggle.
She fought back after the intruder tried to grab her handbag.
The father ultimately grabbed a meat cleaver and pursued the trio who ran out of the house with a phone, a gold chain, as well as the family’s car and house keys.
In a victim impact statement, the parents said their children could not sleep in their own rooms for a year after the home invasion and are still having nightmares.
“I no longer feel safe in my own home,” the mother said in her statement.
Mann was on parole and affected by drugs at the time.
His mental health deteriorated after being stabbed and requiring surgery before relapsing into drug use, the court heard.
Mann, 23, on Wednesday pleaded guilty to charges including robbery in company with violence.
He was sentenced to three years in jail and will be eligible for parole in six months.