Smiling rapist jailed for 10 years

A woman viciously assaulted in the Adelaide parklands has told her attacker in court how demeaned, degraded and humiliated she felt, saying: "You smiled at me as you raped me."

In a victim impact statement read to the District Court, the woman described NSW man Benjamin Joshua Heldon as a "truly worthless, disgusting excuse for a person".

Heldon was found guilty earlier this month of two counts of rape over the attack at Victoria Park in December 2013.

District Court Judge Peter Brebner jailed him for 10 years on Wednesday, describing Heldon's version of the events as a "carefully tailored fabrication" and was rightly rejected by the jury.

"You were plainly intent on opportunistic sexual gratification," the judge said.

The attack came as the victim was walking to her boyfriend's home just before midnight.

She was on her phone at the time, with her boyfriend hearing her scream.

The woman said she felt demeaned, degraded and humiliated by the attack and felt a terror she had never felt before.

"I want you to know how much anger and hatred I have toward you," she told Heldon in her statement.

"I screamed at you to stop and you smiled.

"You knew exactly what you were doing and you did not care if you hurt me or not.

"You smiled at me as you raped me."

But the woman also said she was determined not to let her ordeal ruin all she had worked so hard for.

Heldon was linked to the crime by a dreadlock the woman pulled from his head during the incident and was extradited from NSW in December 2016.

In sentencing submissions, prosecutor Emily Telfer said the rape was vicious and accompanied by violence.

Defence counsel said Heldon's offending was out of character and he remained a good candidate for rehabilitation.

Judge Brebner ordered Heldon serve a non-parole period of seven years.