A FORMER decorated soldier who threatened a woman in a Marong house over a drug debt will spend the next 23 months in jail.
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Melanie Elizabeth Warren, of Bendigo, had pleaded guilty to single counts of aggravated burglary, perverting the course of justice and driving while unlicensed in the Bendigo County Court on Friday. The 32 year-old was sentenced on Monday.
A co-accused, Joseph Colin Campbell, 35, of Eaglehawk, also pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary.
He was placed on a thre-year community corrections order.
The charges related to an incident in March last year.
The court heard Warren and Campbell went to the house at 2.10am on March 9 to collect a drug debt of $340 from a Marong man.
The man was not home, but his partner was in the front yard and four children were asleep inside.
Warren and Campbell entered the house, with Warren, who was under the influence of drugs, yelling loudly at the woman before threatening her.
After an exchange of text messages with the man they were seeking, pair eventually left the house after being told by another witness that police were on their way.
The court heard Warren was in regular contact with another, who had since been imprisoned, and convinced him to tell police that he did not remember the night of the offences.
In late 2014, Warren was caught driving while her licence was disqualified, while visiting the witness in prison.
Warren, who was already serving a jail sentence for drugs offences, was sentenced to 18 months for the aggravated burglary and three and a half months - two and a half non-parole - for perverting the course of justice.
Judge John Carmody said Warren’s early guilty pleas were evidence of remorse.
He said Warren had been a “succcessful soldier” during her posting in East Timor and on her return with the Australian Federation Guard, but had turned to drugs, including ice, after her honourable discharge in 2008.
She was eventually diagnosed with post-traumatic stress and entered drug rehabilitation before relapsing in 2013 when her drug use rapidly expanded.
Judge Carmody told Warren her life was "right on the knife edge".
"You can choose to go back to a successful life, like the army days, or a life that is going to be hell for you," he said.