A rape victim has spoken in the ACT Supreme Court about how the event affected her livelihood and ability to work a full-time job.
This story contains details that may be confronting for some people.
Emily Campbell-Ross burst into tears as she read her victim impact statement to the court during the sentence hearing for her convicted rapist Thomas Earle.
Ms Campbell-Ross began her statement with: "I don't think there are words in the English language to fully encapsulate the extent to which this act has affected my life."
"From the pain I felt between my legs, to the blood stain on my sheets, I was reminded that I was assaulted.
"The physical impact didn't stop there. I was so terrorised by the idea that he was in me in the weeks following, that no matter what I did, I couldn't feel clean."
Ms Campbell-Ross spoke of scrubbing herself with bleach so thoroughly that she says she acquired eczema and bacterial vaginosis.
"I couldn't look at myself in the mirror without seeing the parts of me that he helped himself to so I washed myself so violently with chemicals," she said.
She said the rape continued to derail her financial "stability and independence" and had repeatedly missed work and moved back in with her parents.
Regular therapy appointments have meant she has been unable to work a nine-to-five job.
"This violent removal of the right to my own body has crept its way into every nook and cranny of my life, and obliterated every understanding I had of myself and the world," she said.
"I feel like I have been murdered, but my body has been left alive — my soul, my spirit, all the little things that make up Emily, have been crushed.
"I can still feel him now, I can feel the weight of him on me, I can feel his breathing.
"I can feel the tightness of my chest as I felt the fear of what was happening envelop me."
'Why should a man with a good education be sent to the AMC?'
A large contingent of Earle's family and friends entered the courtroom after the victim had read her statement.
In February of this year, Earle had been found guilty of rape and committing an act of indecency after pleading not guilty.
A jury in the ACT Supreme Court acquitted him of two counts of sexual intercourse without consent but convicted him of a third, as well as the act of indecency charge.
The two met up on a night in December 2021 at the victim's house where they ate dinner, smoked marijuana, and huffed jungle juice.
The victim said she woke up later to find Earle's hands in her pants where she said she then became frozen and "couldn't do anything with her body".
The court had previously heard he performed oral sex on her and then intercourse, but there were different accounts from the two about their movements in bed and how they were interpreted.
Prosecutor Beth Morrisroe previously told the court the victim could not have consented to the initial act of indecency because she was asleep and pointed to several messages Earle sent the victim after the night of the rape saying not a day went by without him thinking about the incident.
"There's no excuse for my awful behaviour, I'm so sorry," he said in one message.
"I want to make it right, I'm a stupid person who only considers what I want."
Today, Ms Morrisroe echoed the sentiments and particular details of Ms Campbell-Ross's impact statement, including reminding the court that she had washed herself with bleach in the weeks following the rape.
"Those are very significant impacts and harms as a result of what happened to her."
Ms Morrisoe asked the judge to consider more than Earle being from a "good home" and having had a "good education" when deciding his sentence.
"It cannot be the case that that mitigates against a full term in prison," she said.
"Why should a man who has had a good education be sent to the AMC [Canberra's jail] ... He is a vehicle for general deterrence."
The prosecutor added that she knew the defence had focused on the media attention that the case was receiving but she said it was a "result of Mr Earles's actions."
The defence had no formal objections to the content of the victim impact statement but asked the judge to consider a medical report presented to the court on Earle's mental health which said it had deteriorated since the event.
Earle will be sentenced on April 28.
