Thread by @ozcrimenews

Melbourne SOUTH SUDANESE AGAIN - Home invader -
Wantirna South home invasion menace Edwin Okot jailed for storming house
An armed menace who terrorised parents and their two children after storming their Wantirna South home with a gang of thugs wanted his matter fast-tracked so

he could be sentenced before his 21st birthday in a bid to beat adult jail.

A drug-addled menace who stormed a Wantirna South home with a gang of armed thugs has lost his plea to serve youth justice detention.

#africansagain

Photos from his Facebook

Edwin Okot, 20, was sentenced in the County Court on Friday to a minimum three years’ jail after pleading guilty to aggravated home invasion and theft.

The court heard Okot and his cronies arrived in a stolen Volkswagen SUV and chose their target after “casing” the quiet

residential street for more than 10 minutes.

Okot, armed with a wooden stick, and four others armed with sticks and metal poles, smashed through their victims’ front door just after 5am on April 2 this year.

The thugs ransacked the house as their victims and two young children

slept upstairs.

The victims were woken by a “loud bang” but went back to sleep after the dad saw nothing outside nor on his CCTV app.

A second “bang” woke the dad and he said to his wife “we’re being robbed”.

In the meantime, Okot and his thug mates had stolen a Gucci wallet, a handbag, car keys and several bank cards and IDs. Okot jumped into the dad’s $100,000 Mercedes which was driven away by another offender. The dad tracked his Mercedes via an app and called police.

#apexgang

He gave the car’s location to police who “covertly” tracked the vehicle through Upper Beaconsfield.

The driver of the stolen car “inexplicably accelerated” through a red light and collided with a 25 tonne crane truck just before 6am.

The Mercedes was destroyed during the smash.

Okot, who was on two sets of bail at the time, was arrested after attempting to flee the scene on foot.

He spent two days in hospital before he was remanded.

The mum, in her victim impact statement, said the home invasion has left her “scared and anxious”. African gangs gang

“Over time, the number of panic attacks increased and started to include most things in my life,” she said.

“The stress of being in the house, we were in the middle of COVID lockdowns, so I felt stressed being at home and the constant reminders there were strangers in our home,

touching our belongings, our personal items …

“I should be able to feel comfortable and safe to sleep in my home with my kids.”

The dad, in his victim impact statement, said he feels like a “failure” for not being able to protect his family.

“I get so angry with myself for not doing more to ensure their safety and being ignorant for thinking we live in the best and safest country in the world,” he said.

“I feel at anytime, day or night that someone is going to come banging down my door and storm into my house.”

The victims said they spent a lot of money beefing up home security with extra cameras, alarms, shutters and a guard dog.

The court heard Okot, who appeared via videolink from Ravenhall, wanted to fast track his matter before turning 21 this Sunday. Okot, via his lawyer, claimed he regretted the offending which occurred after he took a cocktail of Xanax, MDMA, cannabis and alcohol.