Melanie Elizabeth Warren, 32, of Bendigo, pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary, perverting the course of justice and a minor driving offence in the Bendigo County Court on Friday.

The charges stem back to an incident in March last year, in which Warren and co-accused Joseph Colin Campbell, 35, of Eaglehawk, went to a Marong house to collect a drug debt.

Campbell also pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary.

The court heard the pair attended the Marong house at 2.10am on March 9 last year as a man owed them $340 for drugs.

The man was not home, but his wife was in the front yard and four children were asleep inside.

Warren and Campbell entered the house, with Warren yelling loudly while acting paranoid, erratic and ice affected.

When told there were children sleeping in the house, Warren yelled “I don’t give a f***, I’ll kill you and the kids”. She later threatened the woman with a taser, making it spark in her direction.

One of the children hid under a bed, while another heard the mother pleading with Warren.

The man did not return home and the pair left with a few items when they were told by another witness via text message that police were on the way.

Warren also contacted a witness to the crime regularly and convinced him to tell police he did not remember the night.

Defence counsel Anthony Brand said Warren had a “chronic and acute” ice addiction, which had turned her into a different person since her time in the army.

She was described as a “highly intelligent” person who had failed to deal with personal problems after she returned to Australia.

Warren served in the army for six years.

The situations she faced in East Timor were believed to have contributed to her ice addiction, the court heard.

Mr Brand said jail “was not in the community’s” interest as it was very poor for helping ice users rehabilitate.

“We can lock her up, like we lock others up, but until we stop people from starting on this drug the problem is never going to be fixed,” he said.

“I understand there are more rehab beds in Canberra than there are in the whole of Victoria.”

Defence counsel Louis Richter said Campbell had only been a “minor player” in the aggravated burglary and had told the mother he would stop Warren from hurting anybody.

Judge John Carmody said having served Australia overseas, it was sad to see Warren “cutting at the heart” of the country’s justice system.

“She has seen the ravages of an occupying army in Timor, she would have taken the images in her mind back home. But then she goes out and terrorises people in their own home,” he said.

“How do you put that together? She’s done the reverse of what she did when she was in the army.”

The prosecution argued for prison sentences for both involved.

Judge Carmody said Warren needed urgent help to address her ice problem.

“I bet when you were coming down the hill in Rosalind Park as a BSSC student, you never thought you’d be where you are now,” he said to Warren.

She shook her head in response.

Warren and Campbell were assessed for a community corrections order and will be sentenced on Monday.