Victim details toll of rape as rising Canberra sports star waits to learn whether he will go to jail

The young woman gave a powerful victim impact statement in the ACT Supreme Court on Monday, as a judge weighed up whether to send the rapist to jail.

The promising sportsman faced a judge-alone trial earlier this year, and was found guilty by Justice David Mossop of two counts of sexual intercourse without consent and one count of committing an act of indecency without consent.

He cannot be identified and has been given the pseudonym John Smith by the court because he was under 18 at the time of the April 2018 offending.

Justice Mossop's judgment reveals that the victim, who was the same age, picked a drunken Smith up to drive him home from a party on the night in question.

The pair stopped at an oval, where they began what was initially consensual sexual activity in the car's back seat.

When Smith asked the victim if he could give her oral sex, she said no. He went to do it anyway and licked her thigh.

Smith subsequently penetrated the victim multiple times, despite her repeatedly telling him not to.

The victim eventually gave up protesting, turned her head and cried until Smith finally stopped and asked her: "What, were you being serious?"

On Monday, the victim stared down Smith in court and told him he had made her feel weak, worthless and disgusting.

"You left me with an indescribable sickness that no one should ever need to feel," the young woman said.

She detailed a range of consequences that had flowed from the incident, including anxiety, depression and regular breakdowns.

The victim said she had repeatedly self-harmed and been hospitalised three times.

"I had the mentality that my life was over," she told her rapist.

The victim's parents also read statements to the court, describing drastic changes in her personality and their horror at finding her after suicide attempts.

The young woman's mother told Smith she hoped he knew that he was to blame for these things.

"You ruined so many opportunities for her because your drunken pleasure was more important than her consent," she said.

The victim's father added: "You took away her innocence."

Smith's father also took the witness stand and claimed that despite the suppression of names, his son had "gone viral" and everyone who knew him was aware of the court case.

He said Smith had been forced to quit an apprenticeship because of "harassment", while he had become very introverted and now required "massive encouragement" to play sport.

The man told the court Smith had been raised to be "very respectful" of women.

Defence barrister Steven Whybrow conceded that a jail sentence was "almost certain", but he urged Justice Mossop to suspend the sentence or order that it be served in the community through an intensive correction order.

He pointed out that the judge's findings were of Smith committing the offences through recklessness, not necessarily with explicit knowledge that the victim was not consenting.

There were also indications, he said, that Smith had "ceased his behaviour" immediately upon realising the victim was crying.

Mr Whybrow reasoned that factors such as these, Smith's age and the "relatively short duration" of the incident placed the offending at the lower end of seriousness for such crimes.

But Crown prosecutor Soraya Saikal-Skea argued there was little before the court to reduce the rapist's "significant" moral culpability.

"There is no evidence of insight. There is no evidence of remorse. There is no evidence of victim empathy," she told Justice Mossop.

Ms Saikal-Skea said Smith's youth and rehabilitation should therefore not take priority over the need to denounce his conduct, recognise the harm done to the victim and deter him from reoffending.

The court heard Smith had been assessed as an "average" risk of sexual reoffending.

"The primary factor that led to this offending was a lack of respect for the victim," Ms Saikal-Skea said.

Justice Mossop said he would sentence Smith on Tuesday.