Melbourne's County Court heard how Mohammad Zakeri tricked the woman's boyfriend to get his key to the couple's Dandenong unit, which he then had copied.

Prosecutor Charlotte Dockett had told the court that Zakeri lied to his friend and workmate about being away on September 13, 2013, and after his friend left home for work that day he used the key to enter the unit where the victim, then 20, was alone.

Ms Dockett said that at 8.15pm the woman, who was in her bedroom, was so alarmed when she heard noises she rang her boyfriend and while still on the phone saw a pair of black shoes in the hallway.

She then saw a man in a mask but when she tried to turn the bedroom light on Zakeri grabbed her and put a hand over her mouth and another around her waist.

Still on the phone with her boyfriend, who could hear her screams, said Ms Dockett, the woman again tried to turn on a light, but Zakeri picked her "up off the ground" and dragged her struggling down the hallway.

He dragged her through the open front door and security screen and onto the driveway and almost to the footpath before she bit his hand and he released his hold. She ran to a neighbour and he escaped.

Zakeri, now 25, pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary and attempted kidnap.

The woman spoke in her victim impact statement of emotional issues and anxiety and her difficulties in getting on with her life.

"I constantly think about how I will cope with this fear for the rest of my life," she wrote.

Judge Richard Maidment had heard that Zakeri, a refugee who arrived in Australia in 2010, and his family had lived in fear in the war-torn regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan, where his father was killed by the Taliban and his mother also died.

In his sentencing remarks on Thursday, Judge Maidment accepted that Zakeri, who has not previously offended, was genuinely remorseful and that his mental health issues and concern for his pregnant wife would make prison harder for him.

He found, however, that while Zakeri's offences were unsophisticated, they had an element of planning and there should be no reduction in his moral culpability for his mental impairments.

The offences were also too serious, he said, for the imposition alone of a community corrections order (CCO), for which Zakeri was assessed as suitable.

He was jailed for 20 months and on release will start a four-year CCO with conditions that he do 250 hours of unpaid work and undergo assessment and, if necessary, treatment for alcohol, mental health issues and offending behaviour.