Men jailed for forcing man to urinate on partner in terrifying home invasion

Two armed men who forced a man to urinate on his partner and walk her like a dog while their children slept during a terrifying home invasion have been jailed. 

WARNING: This story contains descriptions of violence and threats of sexual assault. 

Joshua Snow, 29, and Joshua Day, who is in his 30s, pleaded guilty to a raft of offences over the 2023 attack in which they barged into the Maryborough home of a couple, brandishing sawn-off shotguns, to confront the woman about an alleged $5,000 debt. 

During the violent attack, Snow ordered the man to tie an extension lead around his partner's neck and walk her like a dog, before forcing him to urinate on her. 

The court heard a child in an upstairs bedroom heard the commotion and messaged his father downstairs.

Snow then walked upstairs and forced the man to tell the child, "Dad's a bitch, he's f***ed up."

County Court judge John Kelly described the violence as "cartoonishly gratuitous".

"Four children were in their beds when you burst in with sawn-off shotguns and bad intentions,"

Judge Kelly said.

Snow was jailed for 11 years and four months, with a seven-year non-parole period, while Day was sentenced to nine years and four months' imprisonment with a non-parole period of six years and six months.  

Both men have already spent more than two and a half years in custody. 

Drug-fuelled attack

The court heard the two men had smoked methamphetamine before the attack on December 6, 2023.

The woman was punched in the face multiple times and forced to sign over ownership of her car. 

Snow hacked at the man's leg with a meat cleaver and stabbed him in the arm with a used syringe, the court heard. 

After taking power tools from a shed in the backyard, Snow threatened to "burn the kids alive in the house while you watch" if they went to police. 

The court heard another man, not related to the couple, was also home during the violent attack. 

During the attack, Snow threatened to have that man rape the female victim. 

Judge Kelly told the court two of the victims had since been diagnosed with PTSD and another had been admitted to a psychiatric ward after the crime. 

"The ripples of your crime spread to vulnerable children who were uprooted and forced to leave their homes,"

he said.

"Your offending was liberally festooned with aggravating features. You humiliated and degraded [the woman and her partner]."

Snow and Day pleaded guilty to charges including home invasion, extortion, false imprisonment, theft and assault. 

The woman and her partner fled with their children and entered crisis accommodation. 

Judge Kelly said Snow's conduct was worse than Day's.

"You instigated the dog walk, threatened to have [the man] rape [the female victim] and threatened to burn her children," he said. 

He said the conduct of both men was "appalling and inexcusable" and found their respective psychological conditions and difficult upbringings "negligibly" reduced their moral culpability.   

"Others in the community need to know invading another home with sawn-off shotguns will cost you your freedom," he said. 

Judge Kelly said both men had a history of "violent, anti-social offending" and described their prospects of rehabilitation as "dim". 

The court heard Day had appeared in court and been sentenced to jail every year from 2015 to 2023 on charges including false imprisonment, recklessly causing injury and firearm offences.

Snow was also sentenced over an armed robbery he carried out in Maryborough a few weeks after the home invasion. 

The court heard he swung a baseball bat with screws nailed in at a man who was not known to him and threatened to kill him if he did not empty his pockets, before taking his wallet and necklace during the attack. 

Judge Kelly credited the men for pleading guilty and sparing the victims giving evidence in a trial.