Armed home invader jailed in Sydney

A masked intruder who broke into a Sydney home as a 12-year-old slept inside has been jailed for at least two years and nine months.

Scott James Gray, 26, and two other men armed themselves with knives before kicking down the door to a Hornsby unit in the early hours of August 24, 2014.

As the trio burst into the home and demanded money from a man sleeping on the couch, a man who had been sleeping beside his 12-year-old son in a bedroom next door tried desperately to shut the door against them.

But Gray and the other intruders forced it open, as the father shouted: "My son's here, my son's here, I have my son here!", Judge Kate Traill told Sydney District Court on Friday.

Once inside the bedroom, Gray demanded money, telling the father: "I know you've got cash here. Open the drawer."

Judge Traill said: "It would have been a very frightening experience for a 12-year-old to be confronted while sleeping by offenders, some with knives."

She said the offenders made off with a mobile phone and cash but ran straight into police, who had been called to the unit block to investigate an earlier complaint about knocking on doors.

Gray, an asphalter and concreter who was expelled from school as a teenager before eventually leaving in Year 10, had been subject to an intensive corrections order at the time of the offence.

That order was revoked and he was taken back into custody in August 2014.

Gray blew a kiss to the large number of supporters who filled the courtroom on Friday - many of them weeping - as Judge Traill sentenced him to a total term of three years and nine months.

He will be eligible for parole in July 2017.