The elderly victim of a southside burglary was hospitalised with a heart condition after wrestling with the intruder, a court has heard.
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The couple returned from church to find Marshall James Steen, 51, looting their Farrer home about 10.45am on June 8.
A struggled ensued when the 78-year-old woman attempted to grab a bag of property Steen had collected.
But the offender managed to break free and escape with items worth about $2000, mostly jewellery.
The woman suffered a cut finger and was hospitalised for cardiomyopathy after the incident.
Steen appeared in the ACT Supreme Court on Tuesday for sentencing on charges of burglary and theft.
The court heard he had gained access to the home after smashing the kitchen window.
But he cut himself in the process and was identified by police through DNA collected from blood left around the house.
Steen was arrested soon after and has been in custody since.
The court on Tuesday heard Steen had a long criminal history which had seen him spend about 28 years of his life behind bars in Queensland, NSW, and the ACT.
He spent 11 years in Brisbane's notorious Boggo Road jail, which included a 28-month stint in solitary confinement in an underground cell.
Justice Hilary Penfold said the fact Steen had spent much of his adult life locked up had left him "seriously institutionalised" and incapable of "independent living".
The court heard Steen had a long-term heroin addiction, but had recently completed a drug rehabilitation program while in jail and worked as a peer support leader.
The court heard Steen had been granted parole in May and given a flat.
But he was evicted from the unit and breached his bail by failing to report, failing to engage with Corrections, and not residing as directed.
He assumed police were looking for him as a result so stopped collecting methadone to avoid arrest and returned to heroin.
The court heard Steen had accepted the offence would have scared the victims.
However, he claimed he could not remember the burglary as he had been drug affected at the time.
He was assessed as a medium-to-high risk of reoffending.
The court heard the breach of parole meant Steen was liable to serve more than five years jail for other unrelated crimes.
Justice Penfold sentenced Steen to three years jail for the burglary and theft.
She ordered the jail term be accumulative on other sentences for 18 months.
The judge set a non-parole period of four-years-and-nine-months, backdated to take into account time served.
He will be eligible for release on July 24, 2017.
Justice Penfold said Steen had taken the "easy option" of returning to crime and then made excuses for his failure to overcome his addiction.
The judge said Steen would always find obstacles in his way and needed "full commitment" to achieve rehabilitation.