A substance-abusing "Superman" will spend the rest of the year behind bars after inciting a violent home invasion for what a judge has described as "purely gratuitous" reasons.
Marco Marzotto, 33, was sentenced in the ACT Supreme Court on Monday afternoon to a backdated two-year jail term, with a non-parole period of 16 months.
The Canberra carpenter had previously pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and property damage.
In sentencing, Justice John Burns said Marzotto only met his much younger co-offenders when they got talking at a Mitchell strip club on the night in question last July.
Upon hearing that a man who lived in Spence had apparently wronged some of his newfound friends, Marzotto suggested they pay him a visit.
The group subsequently travelled to the man's home, where five of them broke in and Marzotto shoved the man's pregnant sister aside.
He then "swung" at the victim and missed, but he eventually connected a big way when he smashed a decorative plate on the man's head.
Some of the others also assaulted the victim and stole from him two phones, which Marzotto later snapped.
Justice Burns noted that Marzotto had no way of knowing the truth of what he had been told about the victim, and no real reason to have concerned himself with it.
But the 33-year-old had nevertheless "instigated the idea [of] engaging in vigilante justice".
"If it were not for you, this incident would not have occurred," the judge told Marzotto.
"Your incitement of your co-offenders was purely gratuitous."
Justice Burns described Marzotto as having a "not insubstantial" criminal history, which suggested "a pattern of doing well in custody, followed by a falling back into [his] old ways".
He said Marzotto had longstanding drug and alcohol issues, and had been under the influence of both on the night in question despite having been subject to parole conditions that banned him from drinking.
Marzotto's barrister, James Sabharwal, last week suggested the 33-year-old had "probably thought he was Superman" while intoxicated.
Justice Burns' take on this issue was that Marzotto would continue to pose a high risk of reoffending until he realised there was "no safe level" of alcohol and that he needed to abstain completely.
MORE COVERAGE OF THE INCIDENT:
- Stickybeak vigilante 'probably thought he was Superman'
- Violent home invasion 'a form of self-help': judge
- 'I wish it never happened': Vigilante home invader's regret
- Judge denounces vigilantism as home invader sentenced
- Young woman sentenced over vigilante home invasion
The judge ultimately imposed the backdated jail sentence in recognition of the time Marzotto had already served on remand.
Marzotto will become eligible for parole in early January 2022.
The carpenter's co-offenders have already been sentenced, with none of them required to serve periods of actual imprisonment.
