A GROUP of Wodonga men involved in two terrifying home invasions involving cable ties, guns, balaclavas, violence and rape threats have been given lengthy jail terms.
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Judge Michael Bourke on Friday described the incidents as “appalling and brutal” in sentencing Mac Sikoulabout, Kia Toumngeun and Stephen White.
The offenders targeted migrant farm workers at Tol Tol and Robinvale, near Mildura, on February 5 and April 17 last year.
The County Court heard Sikoulabout was motivated by anger towards his ex-partner, who he thought had ripped him off and was living in the region.
While he did not physically take part in the brutal home invasions, he planned them during a meeting at Toumngeun’s Wodonga house on Trudewind Road.
The pair and two others met at the property in January last year and hatched a plan involving guns, gloves, tape and balaclavas.
The four drove from Wodonga to Tol Tol on February 4 last year and went to the property about 1 or 2am the next morning.
Toumngeun armed himself with a sawn-off rifle with a knife as a bayonet, White had a sawn-off rifle, and a third man had a sawn-off shotgun.
The group menaced a Thai couple with the guns before bounding them with tape and cable ties on their wrists and ankles and gagging them with electrical tape.
The wife was hit in the head with a mallet and punched in the face.
A third man was hogtied and smashed in the head with a gun.
Despite Sikoulabout suggesting there could be up to $20,000 at the home, they left with about $420 and a few household items like phones and a TV.
The victims were left tied and bound on the floor.
The second incident involved similar offending against five victims, including an elderly Asian couple who were tied on a bed next to their son.
The woman had a gun pointed at her head and was threatened with rape, with the victims hit with firearms and Tasered.
Many of the items linking the offenders to the orimes were found during raids in Wodonga, which also found meth lab chemicals and drugs.
Justice Bourke said Sikoulabout and Toumngeun had struggled when they migrated to Australia, but had themselves terrified the migrant victims.
“It was at night, there were disguises and weapons," he said.
“People were without doubt terrified and cruelly assaulted.
“I see the victims here as very vulnerable.”
Sikoulabout was jailed a minimum eight years, Toumngeun eight-and-a-half years and White six-and-a-half years, while others have matters pending.
