Two brothers will learn their fate this month after a bungled burglary involving a cricket bat and taser in Black Hill.
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The O'Reilly pair - Joseph, 19, and Ajay, 20 - appeared together at the County Court in Ballarat on Tuesday to plead guilty to charges of aggravated burglary, assault and property damage after the violent episode in November 2022.
The court heard the brothers broke into a Black Hill home at about 1.15pm on November 7, 2022, believing the house's occupant had attempted to steal a car belonging to them.
One of the occupants, a 15-year-old male, attempted to lock the house's security door when he saw the two approach.
Another of the house's occupants, a 39-year-old man, was asleep on a couch in the loungeroom when the two arrived.
The brothers entered into the loungeroom of the house. Joseph was armed with a cricket bat and Ajay was armed with a taser.
The pair began threatening the 15-year-old with the weapons, before Joseph hit the 39-year-old man in the head with the bat.
The man had lacerations to the back of his head as a result of the hit.
The pair then chased the occupants down the hall of the house. During the confrontation, Joseph broke a fish tank and a window with the cricket bat.
Both left the house soon after, with the occupants chasing the brothers as they left.
The 15-year-old threw a glass jar at Ajay outside of the house, who tasered him.
The brothers got into a nearby Toyota Hilux, with Joseph driving and Ajay in the ute's tray.
The 39-year-old occupant threw a brick at the car, smashing a window.
As the brothers attempted to speed off, the ute hit a skip bin on the nature strip, the impact of which threw Ajay from the tray, breaking his elbow.
Joseph then manoeuvred the car, with the house's two occupants having to jump out of the way.
The court heard Ajay crawled towards the occupants and apologised.
A victim impact statement from the 39-year-old man was read aloud in court as part of the brothers' plea hearing.
In the statement, the man said he was still suffering from the lingering effects of the blow to the head he had taken during the incident.
"Since the incident I wake up to nothing at night, if I do get to sleep," the man said in the statement.
"I have taken a hard whack to the head and have paid for it ever since."
Joseph's lawyer tendered several documents to the court, including a psychiatrists report, and spoke on Joseph's "compelling personal circumstances".
The court heard of the brothers' disadvantaged background and lack of a male role model growing up.
The lawyer also spoke on Joseph's post traumatic stress disorder from an early age, as the result of a traumatic brain injury.
Ajay's lawyer said his client had opted to bring a taser to the house to avoid having to use a potentially fatal weapon.
He also argued the burglary lacked any premeditation, and that the two brothers handed themselves in soon after, pleading guilty at an early opportunity.
Both lawyers said imprisonment would be detrimental to the brothers' rehabilitation and instead sought for the pair to be placed on strict community correction orders. The office of public prosecutions agreed.
The pair will reappear in court on May 12.
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