Adelaide Hills knife-wielding hotel intruder jailed for five years
An intruder who stabbed a man several times in a bungled robbery attempt in the Adelaide Hills has been jailed for five years.
The District Court heard Amy Robinson was sleeping at the Terminus Hotel at Strathalbyn in February 2013 when Nigel Thomas Meldrum burst into her room with a knife at about 3:30 am (ACDT).
Meldrum's face was covered and he demanded that she roll over and put her hands behind her back.
Publican and Ms Robinson's father Dean Robinson then burst into the room with a knife and pulled the would-be thief from the room.
Mr Robinson suffered several stab wounds and now has a 15-centimetre scar across his stomach.
"I take my hat off to the guys at the Royal Adelaide Hospital," he said.
"They stitched me up brilliantly. They did a good job."
Meldrum escaped the hotel but was arrested a short time later and had remained in custody.
Both victims said they still suffered psychological trauma.
"I don't think anyone can really understand the depth of what it does to you," Ms Robinson said.
Judge Beazley said Meldrum had not expected anyone to be at the Terminus Hotel.
"Once you observed Ms A in her bed - in her bedroom - you should have left," he said.
"But you stayed and thereafter engaged in that violent behaviour."
Victim 'feared' for her father
Judge Beazley said Ms Robinson had feared her father would bleed to death after the robbery attempt and she no longer worked at the hotel because of the trauma.
Meldrum, 37, told the court he carried out the crimes because his family had recently moved to Strathalbyn and had no money, an argument the judge rejected.
"I have no doubt that you committed the offences because you needed drugs. After all, that's what you told your victims," Justice Beazley said.
"You didn't know them. They'd done nothing to you. It was violent conduct against entirely innocent individuals.
"Your behaviour was erratic, irrational and extremely dangerous."
Meldrum's sentencing also included another break-in eight days earlier at the Greenman Inn in the adjacent town of Ashbourne.
On that occasion, Meldrum was armed with a loaded sawn-off rifle but the hotel was closed and he fled empty-handed when the alarm sounded.
Justice Beazley sentenced Meldrum to eight years jail with a non-parole period of five years.
The sentence was backdated to the time of his arrest two years ago.
Meldrum blew kisses to supporters as he was escorted from the dock.
