Six men jailed after storming into a home

Six men who stormed into a Kialla home have been sentenced to prison, but are already out after having done the time while waiting for the matter to be finalised in court.

Kuok Bol, 28, Maluk Thou, 24, Deng Chol, 28, Mohamed Elnour, 30, Joseph Gar, 31, and Kenadi Ramadan, 31, pleaded guilty in the County Court to aggravated burglary and affray.

Thou also pleaded guilty to assault; Ramadan and Bol to damaging property; and Elnour, Ramadan and Bol to the summary offence of committing an indictable offence while on bail.

The group had gone to a Kialla home about 11pm on January 11 after they spotted a green Holden Commodore in the driveway that was the subject of a dispute between Elnour and a man who was at the house.

The man having the dispute over the car jumped the back fence and left when the men arrived, leaving two women and another man at the house.

The court heard a number of the men punched and kicked the second man outside the house before forcing their way inside.

While yelling for the man who left, Elnour threatened to break every window if he did not come outside the house.

Bol threw a bottle at a window, smashing it, and Ramadan smashed another window by throwing a rock at it.

Five of the men — with the exception of Gar — forced their way inside in search of the other man and the keys to the Commodore.

Several of the men armed themselves with knives from the kitchen.

Thou then punched one of the women in the face and she momentarily lost consciousness.

The second woman managed to escape from the house.

When police arrived, Gar went running in to the others inside the house, yelling “police, police”, before all six of them jumped a fence into a nearby retirement village.

In sentencing the men, Judge Michael O’Connell spoke of watching CCTV of parts of the incident.

He said the assault on the woman by Thou was “gratuitous”, and he said he considered the burglary as being carried out by all of the men “acting in combination” with each other.

He did note that Gar did not go inside the house until the police arrived, but said the fact he had breached a community corrections order by being involved was an aggravating factor in deciding his sentence.

“Clearly it is serious offending,” Judge O’Connell said.

The judge also noted all the men, except Bol, had a criminal history.

He also noted that they were all born in Sudan, before eventually moving to Australia.

Thou was sentenced to seven months’ prison, with the 287 days he has spent in pre-sentence detention reckoned as having already been served.

Bol was sentenced to 45 days in prison, with all those days reckoned as having been served in pre-sentence detention.

Chol was sentenced to six months in prison, with the 212 days of pre-sentence detention reckoned as having already been served.

Elnour, who is from the Shepparton area, was sentenced to six months in prison, with 205 days of pre-sentence detention reckoned as having already been served.

Gar was sentenced to six months in prison, with 324 days of pre-sentence detention reckoned as having already been served.

Ramadan was sentenced to six months and seven days in prison, with his 234 days of pre-sentence detention also reckoned as having already been served.

All six of the men were also placed on community corrections order for 18 months, to start on their release from jail.