Darren Brian Cutmore had his hands in his pockets and stood in the dock of Armidale District Court as he admitted his involvement in the 2015 home invasion in MacDonald Dr – just days after he was due to stand trial.

“I’m guilty,” he said in front of several family members, and the very detectives who charged him.

Cutmore was armed with a large knife, and part of a gang of four who robbed the resident armed with a .410 shotgun and a .22-calibre rifle, while three children were in the home.

The Crown maintains Cutmore was part of a joint criminal enterprise and in company with an unnamed party when he robbed the occupant of $5,000 in cash, approximately $12,000 worth of assorted jewellery and three mobile phones.

The court heard Cutmore was on the run from police at the time he carried out the home invasion. He was found guilty at trial of a violent armed robbery on the coast and is awaiting sentence.

“They are serious matters that will carry a substantial term [in prison],” his barrister told the court, adding he was getting a psychiatric report for his client before the sentence was adjourned.

Cutmore has been in custody since September, 2015, when he was pulled from the boot of a car that was stopped by Armidale detectives on Waterfall Way at Hillgrove. 

According to a signed statement of facts, Cutmore admitted to storming the home about 3am on September 5, 2015, with knife with a six-inch silver blade.

The offenders threatened the victim inside the house before one of the intruders “picked up a baseball bat and forced it into [the victim’s mouth] causing a tooth to chip”.

One of the intruders then shouted “cops, boys” and they fled, after one of the children rang Triple Zero while they were hiding in a bedroom.

Aliethea Cutmore, Cutmore’s sister, was seated in a Tarago in Cookes Rd, and was stopped by police.

She then picked him up less than two hours later approximately 5km out of Armidale before driving him to Ebor, where he admitted to being inside the house.

He also asked “why the **** were there guns and kids there”. Stolen items from the house were found inside his car as well as the knife.

Aliethea, who the court was told was five-months pregnant, admitted to being an accessory after the robbery that she “did receive, harbour, maintain and assist Darren Cutmore” between September 4 and 7, including helping to dispose of the stolen items including jewellery in Newcastle to receive a share of the proceeds.

"I'm guilty of the offence after the fact of assisting my brother,” she said, before hugging and kissing her brother goodbye. 

She sobbed in the dock of court where Judge Deborah Payne handed her a 14-month suspended jail sentence.

A second co-offender, Kara Symington, remains in prison after she was sentenced for being an accessory after the fact to the MacDonald Dr robbery.

Darren Cutmore will be sentenced at a later date and remains behind bars.