Couple had 'primary purpose of causing harm' in home invasion, court finds

CONTENT WARNING: This story contains material that may be distressing for some readers.

The hammer-wielding couple behind a home invasion that left a woman hospitalised with serious injuries will spend several years behind bars.

Jeremy Adam Gilbey, 49, and Melissa Jane Goodwin, 41, were recently sentenced in the ACT Supreme Court over an aggravated robbery by joint commission.

In her recently released sentencing remarks, Justice Louise Taylor said the co-offenders’ behaviour during the home invasion had the goal of causing physical and emotional harm.

“The victim was alone in her own home, a place that should have afforded her safety and security,” she said.

“The victim was trapped in the home by virtue of the conduct, unable to flee to escape the attack until the co-offenders left.”

About 1:30 pm on 18 March, 2023, the victim was sitting in her unit when the offenders arrived.

Goodwin pulled open the external screen door to the unit, breaking the lock, before Gilbey used a hammer to smash open the internal door.

He walked in holding a hammer and raised it towards the woman before Goodwin yelled something like, “No, Jeremy, don’t”.

Gilbey grabbed at the woman’s throat, pushed her backwards onto the ground, and then hit her with either his hand or the hammer. He then knelt on top of the victim, hitting her several more times and searching under her clothes.

“The injuries sustained by the victim were assessed as being the result of blunt force trauma,” Justice Taylor said.

During the attack, Goodwin took $21 in gold coins from the coffee table and $500 from the victim’s handbag.

Justice Taylor found the theft of money “appeared largely opportunistic”, with the co-offenders instead focused on carrying out a violent attack on the victim.

“The circumstances of this offence differ somewhat from a typical robbery offence in that the offending appeared to have the primary purpose of causing harm to the victim,” she said.

The couple left after one of the offenders threw the woman’s mobile phone into her face with enough force to smash the screen.

After the attack, the victim sought help from two neighbours.

An ambulance was called and the victim was taken to hospital, where her injuries were found to include a deep laceration, bruising across her face and chest, and fractures to her nose. She spent three days in hospital.

Both Goodwin and Gilbey were arrested shortly before 6 o’clock that evening in Queanbeyan, NSW.

Sentencing the pair, Justice Taylor said the attack had “severely and negatively affected the victim’s capacity to function” and had a “dramatic and long-lasting effect” on her, including her mental health.

She noted the victim had sinus and breathing issues in the aftermath of the assault, and had experienced flashbacks to the home invasion.

Though she had moved, the victim was worried Gilbey would find her at her new address.

Gilbey was sentenced to a total of four years, one month and five days’ imprisonment, with a non-parole period lasting until 18 October, 2025.

For her role in the robbery, Goodwin was sentenced to three years, one month and 24 days’ jail, which will be suspended after about one year and two months.

Justice Taylor accepted that while Goodwin was “primarily confined to taking property”, she still “contributed to the environment of threat and fear” during the offending.

Both the co-offenders entered guilty pleas 10 days before a trial was set to begin, resulting in a 10 per cent discount on sentencing. They also had their sentences backdated to account for time in custody solely for that offending.