Beau Christenson, 39, of Shepparton, pleaded guilty in Shepparton Magistrates’ Court Drug Court to burglary, two counts of theft, wilful damage, obtaining property by deception and unlicensed driving.
Prosecutor Charles Moffatt told the court Christenson and another person broke into the Congupna Primary School at 12.10am on November 29 last year.
At the time, 30 students and eight teachers were having a sleepover at the school.
The court heard Christenson parked near the teachers’ cars and jumped a fence to get into the school grounds.
He did not go to the part of the school where the students were, instead stealing a laptop computer and an iPad from a different school building.
Later that day, police searched a property at Tallygaroopna after teachers received a ping from the stolen iPad there.
Christenson and the other person were arrested at the scene.
The stolen laptop was found at the house, while the iPad was found smashed in half in a dam on the property.
The court also heard Christenson “sold” an iPhone for $650 to a person on Facebook Marketplace on October 4, 2023, but the victim never received it, and when they contacted Christenson about it he became aggressive.
Mr Moffatt also told the court Christenson stole items from Woolworths supermarket in Cobram on November 16, 2024.
Mr Moffatt told the court Christenson was on a 16-month court Drug and Alcohol Treatment Order at the time of the burglary on the school and when he stole from the supermarket.
Christenson’s solicitor told the court his client instructed that he did not know children were at the school when he broke in and that he was ashamed of the way he acted.
The solicitor also said the offending was “consistent with someone with substance abuse issues”, and asked that these charges be subsumed as part of the Drug and Alcohol Treatment Order Christenson was already on.
He also said it was a “prime-time” for Christenson to re-engage with the order, as he had abstained from drugs for the 62 days he had spent in custody awaiting this matter to finalise in the court.
He submitted that Christenson could also be sentenced to the time already served in custody.
Speaking himself in court, Christenson said he was “extremely embarrassed” at the offending while on the Drug and Alcohol Treatment Order, and that he had used the drug GHB that night for the first time.
Magistrate David Faram sentenced Christenson to 62 days in jail, counted as time already served.
He must also pay $794 to Congupna Primary School for the iPad that was destroyed.
Mr Faram also ordered that the matters also be subsumed into the Drug and Alcohol Treatment Order Christenson is already doing.
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