Last July, Brendan Leigh Tierney went to the Spring Gully home of a woman and attacked CCTV cameras with an axe, while wearing what the victim described as a "devil mask".

Tierney also yelled for the woman to let him in and hit the door with the axe.

The woman was home with her two young children at the time.

From an enclosed space at the front of the home, he stole motorbike helmets, a remote-controlled helicopter, car stereos, a car charger and premixed alcohol drinks.

Nine days later, police searched a Bendigo home where Tierney was and found a pipe bomb made from sparklers and rifle cartridges, which triggered the evacuation of the home while the bomb squad was called.

Police also found nine firearms, some of which were high-powered, and ammunition.

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Tierney was arrested and told police he accompanied another person to the property where he damaged the CCTV cameras, which he said he did by smashing them with a sledgehammer.

He acknowledged stealing items from the property.

Tierney said he had the firearms to protect his family from bikies, and he was going to throw the pipe bomb throw a "paedophile's window".

While suffering delusions, he held a belief there was a link between the woman's home where he damaged the cameras, bikies, paedophilia, and drug-dealing.

The following day, while in custody and being taken to Melbourne, Tierney started yelling at the two custody officers through the Perspex window that separated them, saying he would kill them and the officers who arrested him.

He began kicking the Perspex window so hard that the officers feared it would break.

Tierney pleaded guilty in the County Court last month to criminal damage, aggravated burglary, theft, possession of a traffickable quantity of firearms, two counts of intimidation of a law enforcement officer, possessing ammunition without a licence, and manufacturing or storing an explosive without approval.

Judge David Sexton noted that the woman subjected to the aggravated burglary had given a victim impact statement, which outlined her fears for her safety and the distrust she now felt towards others.

Tierney had used cannabis, OxyContin, alcohol and ice on the day of the burglary.

At the time of his offending, he believed bikies were involved in drugging and harming children, and they posed a threat to him.

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Judge Sexton said experts found Tierney had suffered paranoid psychosis, but his mental health appeared to have stabilised while in custody.

Tierney was prepared to take medication for his mental illness, he said, and acknowledged his need to avoid the Bendigo area.

Judge Sexton said he was satisfied that Tierney's firearms offence was linked to his delusional disorder, and that reduced his moral culpability.

He also said a period of imprisonment would be harder for Tierney than other people without his condition.

Tierney had no prior history for such offending, he said, and the impact of COVID-19 on prisoners was also to be taken into account.

"I am satisfied therefore that your offending is essentially out of character," Judge Sexton said.

He said Tierney's prospects of rehabilitation were best fostered by an extended period of supervision upon his release from custody,

Judge Sexton sentenced Tierney to two years and 10 months' imprisonment, with a non-parole period of one year and eight months.

Tierney had already served 385 days at the time of sentencing.

He was also fined $700.

Had he not pleaded guilty, he would have faced up to three years and 10 months in prison, with a minimum term of two and a half years.