A Canberra woman confronted the man who burgled and stole from her in court on Friday, telling him if he had any "decency or regrets at all" he would tell the police where her jewellery was.
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Adam Peter Coogan, 30, broke into the woman's home on February 12 last year while on drugs and stole more than $25,000 worth of electronics and jewellery, most of which have not been recovered.
He appeared at a sentencing hearing on Friday in the ACT Supreme Court, where the woman spoke to him directly from the witness box.
"How dare you invade the sanctity of my home, my privacy and take from me all the things that meant a great deal to me and nothing to you," she said, reading from a victim impact statement.
She said he had taken away her ability to feel safe in her home.
"If I could have walked away from that house and never gone back I would have. That's right it became a house not a home because of what you did."
She described how she had to wash every item of clothing and it took a month to put her clothes away after he ransacked the house.
"The thought of you doing that still makes me sick to this day," she said, "I could not sleep in my own bedroom because it made me feel so sick knowing someone like you had been in there."
She said he took her mother's engagement ring, which she could never replace. She said he took a ring and pearl necklace and earrings her grandmother had given her before she passed away.
"You took jewellery that my son and other family members gave me to show their love for me ... these can never be replaced.
"You have made sure I now have nothing left to hand down to anyone."
Insurance did not cover what he took, the woman said.
Coogan is due to be sentenced for two sets of offences.
One is the burglary and theft from the woman.
The second set surrounds an apparent abduction attempt in Red Hill after which the man was charged with forcible confinement, assault and using a carriage service to menace and harass. The incident had been captured on surveillance footage, which was released by police in an effort to track down the people involved.
Coogan has pleaded guilty to all charges.
The man's counsel Jacob Robertson addressed the Red Hill incident, telling the court it was a pre-arranged meeting with the woman when they started fighting and the argument quickly escalated.
He suggested a limited degree of planning had gone into the burglary and theft, which his client did not remember because he had been using drugs. In mitigation, Mr Robertson said the man had completed drug and alcohol programs at the prison and asked the court to consider the man's ongoing chances of rehabilitation.
But prosecutor James Walker said there were several records over the past 10 years that showed Coogan had been ordered by the court to complete drug-related counselling. He called for a "guarded" assessment of Coogan's prospects of rehabiltation.
Justice Hilary Penfold will sentence Coogan at a later date.
