ACT Supreme Court sentences home invader Trinity Hagen to partially suspended jail term

Trinity Lee Hagen, 40, was sentenced in the ACT Supreme Court on Thursday to 16 months in jail.

Justice Belinda Baker backdated the sentence to reflect the roughly seven-and-a-half months Hagen had already served behind bars, and suspended the rest of it in favour of a good behaviour order.

Hagen had previously pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated burglary and assault occasioning actual bodily harm, following an early morning home invasion that occurred in July 2021.

Justice Baker said Hagen and four co-offenders, including son Bailey, had attended the Hawker home of convicted criminal Samantha Chatfield to collect items belonging to a member of their family.

Chatfield had previously dated another of the 40-year-old's sons, Jordan, who could not get his things from the victim's apartment himself because he was in jail at the time.

The group of five offenders arrived at Chatfield's home about 2am on the morning in question and outnumbered the convicted arsonist, who was there with two other people.

During what Hagen described in a subsequent email as "a commotion", Chatfield was dragged outside and viciously assaulted by members of the group who punched and kicked her in the head.

One of the offenders, Mikaela Engeler, also burnt Chatfield's hair with a "jet lighter".

Justice Baker said there was no evidence Hagen participated in the assault or even saw it occurring, but she was still liable for it on the basis of joint commission.

While Chatfield was being attacked on the verandah, Hagen was inside "ransacking" her bedroom.

Hagen packed a number of items into bags and left with them before emailing her son Jordan, telling him she had just visited "that evil fkn slut ex of urs".

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"F--- me wow wat a commotion that was ay," she wrote, adding that she had called the police after the home invasion to say she had merely picked up his clothes and jewellery to stop Chatfield selling them.

Following her subsequent arrest, Hagen spent 229 days behind bars before being granted bail in March.

She was released from custody after the case took what Justice Michael Elkaim described at the time as "somewhat of an unusual turn", with Chatfield being jailed over an unrelated matter.

In sentencing on Thursday, Justice Baker said she had been impressed with Hagen's rehabilitation, compliance with bail conditions, acceptance of responsibility and desire to make a fresh start.

The judge also noted Hagen had returned personal items, including life insurance documents, to Chatfield after taking them "by mistake" during the home invasion.

Justice Baker said Hagen had acknowledged she "could have taken a different course of action" and organised a time to collect her son's belongings without her co-offenders being present.

The judge was concerned by Hagen's apparently limited insight into the impact of her crimes on Chatfield, and an assessment that stated the 40-year-old posed a medium to high risk of reoffending.

But she ultimately found Hagen still had some prospects of rehabilitation, adding the offender's moral culpability for her crimes was reduced by her disadvantaged upbringing.

Justice Baker said Hagen's relationship with her parents had been marred by their substance abuse and disruption wrought by them spending time behind bars when she was a child.

In that context, she said it seemed Hagen, who had claimed to be "doing the right thing by her son", had offended in "a dysfunctional expression of the parental protection the offender missed out on as a child".

Bailey Hagen was previously sentenced by Justice Geoffrey Kennett to a partially suspended jail term after pleading guilty to the same charges as his mother.

Engeler and Rebecca Eade, who both admitted assaulting Chatfield during the incident, were given fully suspended jail sentences by the ACT Magistrates Court.

The prosecution of the fifth member of the offending group, a child, has been discontinued.

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