Ethan Mark Smith in court for burglary, wilful damage

A young mum was followed to the front door of her unit in a gated community by an ex-firefighter who ripped her screen door off its hinges and smashed his way inside while his armed accomplices waited outside. Here is what happened:

Ethan Mark Smith, 25, pleaded guilty to robbery while armed and in company, robbery and wilful damage when he faced Maryborough District Court on Wednesday.

A judge has told a man who led a terrifying home invasion against a young mother in a gated community on the Fraser Coast the details of what happened that day sent “shivers down my spine”.

Ethan Mark Smith, 25, pleaded guilty to burglary while armed and in company, burglary and wilful damage when he faced Maryborough District Court on Wednesday.

Crown prosecutor Farook Anoozer said Smith had a criminal history of dishonesty offences, including being banned from Bunnings for repeatedly stealing from the business.

But his offending had escalated when he led a home invasion at a unit complex.

The court heard there had been an exchange between the victim and Smith outside her apartment where she had told him to leave the gated community where she lived.

Instead he followed her to her unit, where she had locked the door.

First he pulled the screen door off its hinges, then tried to barge his way through the front door.

When he couldn’t, he broke into the home by smashing a window, grabbing the woman’s car keys and using her Holden Commodore to crash through the gate and leave the unit complex, causing extensive damage to the car and the gate.

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The court heard there were three other people involved in the incident and all were armed.

The victim saw a man armed with a rifle in another vehicle parked outside the complex and two women, one armed with a taser and the other with a bat, who were also part of the home invasion.

Police arrived at the unit complex a short time later, the court heard, and Smith was arrested a few days later.

The court heard he had become addicted to ice after a series of traumatic incidents in 2019, including the death of his mother, the breakdown of his relationship to the mother of his child and having to attend a double fatal car crash on the Bruce Highway in his capacity as a rural fire volunteer.

The distress caused by the loss of his mother and partner and attending the crash scene had contributed to him turning to ice, to which he had developed a “significant addiction”.

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He had previously worked as a concreter and at a piggery, the court heard.

Judge Ian Dearden said reading the facts of the matter had “sent shivers down my spine”.

He had also read the woman’s heartbreaking victim impact statement in which she detailed the impact the crime had on her life.

Mr Dearden described the incident as “mind-bogglingly terrifying and appalling”.

He said he couldn’t believe the person spoken of in numerous references given to the court was the same person who had acted so terribly on that night.

Judge Dearden said Smith wasn’t a monster, but he had “behaved like a monster on that day”.

Smith was sentenced to four and a half years in prison, with 103 days already spent in custody declared as time served.

A parole eligibility date was set for May 9, 2024.