Alleged Sebastopol home invasion 'lookout' bailed, co-accused remain in custody

At a February 22 bail hearing for one of the accused, Maryborough woman Jamie-Lee Harrison, a Western Region Crime Squad detective gave evidence about the investigation.

Detective Senior Constable Danny Blake said the victims of the four home invasions - at Carisbrook, Sebastopol, Clunes and Golden Square - were all known to the alleged offenders.

"These incidents are not random. They're targeted on people they know," he said.

However, the animosity towards the "targets" was not Harrison's but co-accused Matthew Tonga Henry's or Rachel Bristow's, he acknowledged.

The court heard Harrison and Henry, who are both 26, were partners, and part of the evidence against her was a phone registered in her name that both of them used.

Harrison, whose Maryborough address was the scene of Tuesday's arrest, has been charged with three of the four aggravated home invasions and with armed robbery, kidnap, possession of a firearm without a licence, possession of an imitation firearm and the theft of several cars.

However, Detective Blake acknowledged police believe she had a lesser role in the offences than her co-accused and wasn't alleged to have entered any of the properties.

Rather, she had been "complicit and acting as a lookout," he said.

The court heard that on February 7 this year at about 7pm two men were having a drink in a unit in Green Street, Carisbrook when they heard a male voice saying, "This is the one," before Henry allegedly appeared with a machete and exclaimed, "Just the guy we're looking for!" and began to ask one of them about money.

Henry allegedly struck the man in the face with the back of the machete and continued to threaten him with it and ask him for money.

According to police, a pillow case was put over the victim's head and he was put in the back of a Range Rover and driven away.

But the kidnappers returned to the original address, where the man got out of the car and escaped to a nearby supermarket.

The victim was allegedly chased down and stabbed in the chest, after which he clung to a drainpipe.

According to the detective, CCTV footage showed two men and a woman chasing the man.

The woman in the vision had been identified as Harrison's co-accused, 34-year-old Ms Bristow, who is 37 weeks pregnant and remains in custody.

According to police, the second home invasion occurred at around 6am on February 10 at Vale Street Sebastopol, when a woman who had been asleep on her couch was awoken by the sound of her front windows being smashed.

She immediately got up and got her baseball bat for protection, Detective Blake said, and heard male voices yelled, "Get the f*** out!"

She retreated to the bathroom and three men armed with a long gun threatened her from the other side of the door.

In another home invasion, at Smeaton Road, Clunes on February 19, the offenders forced entry to a home with a firearm, demanding to know where one of the residents was and prompting a tenant to lock herself in the bedroom then jump out the window, Detective Blake said.

A witness who called the police reported seeing three men chasing a woman who was on the roof of a car.

Shortly after that incident, the police air wing picked up and tracked a dark coloured Toyota Camry in which Harrison had allegedly been keeping lookout.

When the car stopped at the Strathdale APCO, Harrsion was captured on CCTV getting out and going into the service station.

So too was Henry and the 17-year-old who has been charged for the home invasions.

Harrison wasn't accused of being involved in the fourth home invasion, on February 9 at Poplar Street, Golden Square.

In terms of evidence against Harrison, she had made admissions to police about being present in cars, the detective said.

She was also mentioned a number of times in a 17-minute telephone call police intercepted between Henry and Bristow during one of the home invasions, in which Henry allegedly told her, "Don't come in, you don't know what you're doing".

"They task Jamie-Lee with sitting in the Camry," Detective Blake said.

Henry was also heard saying, 'Oh f**** I dropped the bullets', and 'Help me with my mask'," on the recording, according to the police.

At Harrison's house, where three of the four were arrested on February 20, police found a large machete in the kitchen, a large black double-sided sword in the lounge room, an iphone hidden in the main bedroom, a black balaclava, the keys to a stolen Kia and clothes fitting the description of offenders captured in CCTV footage of some of the offences.

Among items found in the back yard were the allegedly stolen Kia fitted with false registration plates, a bolt action rifle allegedly stolen in a theft at Elmore, an orange-handled axe and gloves.

Detective Blake said more evidence, including DNA evidence, was still to be finalised.

Harrison's mother, who gave evidence at the bail hearing, described her daughter, a mother of two young children, as "a beautiful girl" who had "had some traumas and sad things" and described the relationship with Henry as "scary and toxic".

The court heard drug use had been an issue for the young woman since her early teens but had escalated in recent months.

The family had become aware of her offending after she failed to show up to her own birthday celebration, her mother said.

Defence lawyer Kathleen Lawn argued that all Harrison's alleged offending occurred during the course of her relationship with Henry and said that it was her first time in custody, which was "terrifying" for her.

Magistrate Trieu Huynh, noting that Harrison had an Aboriginal background, no recent convictions, was in custody for the first time, would likely experience a delay in having the matter heard, had support form her mother and a stable address, found that exceptional circumstances required for her bail had been met.

He granted bail with stringent conditions, including a curfew, an order against using drugs, associating with her co-accused or visiting any of the houses involved in the crimes.

Harrison was also ordered to undergo assessment for the community-based Court Integrated Services Program (CISP).

She and her three co-accused, who remain in custody, are due back in court on May 29.