"I know I've been a shit person," Alan John Matas tearfully told a court in April last year, professing a hypocritical desire to change his ways.
Days later, the prolific family violence abuser would film himself raping and attacking his on-and-off partner in conduct akin to torture.
The degrading home assault began when the woman, who has consented to being identifiable in media reporting, was unconscious and unresponsive.
"No woman deserves to be the subject of such appalling treatment," Justice Chrissa Loukas-Karlsson said directly to the rapist while handing down his sentence on Friday.
"It's absolutely critical that you understand you cannot treat a fellow human being in this way, you cannot," she judge said while Matas, 37, nodded along blankly.
"You cannot treat a fellow human being like a piece of meat."
Matas was sentenced in the ACT Supreme Court to about 13-years-and-three-months jail, for what was repeatedly described as "appalling" crimes.
Justice Loukas-Karlsson stated the sentencing was "very complex" due to a total of 25 family violence offences, but the man would effectively be eligible for parole in about seven years.
Matas previously admitted to 11 counts of aggravated sexual assault without consent, several counts of assault, and single counts of choking, capturing intimate visual data and non-consensual distribution of intimate images.
On Friday, Justice Loukas-Karlsson found that while Matas had pleaded guilty, the case against him was "overwhelmingly strong" thanks to the abuser filming his own crimes.
He had effectively handed self-incriminating video evidence to the victim, and in turn the prosecution, by using her phone to film the acts.
Without it, the case may never have made it to the courts or the woman could instead be facing intense cross-examination while being branded a liar.
When Matas took the witness box in February to explain his unconscionable conduct, the 37-year-old man wheeled out a familiar line: "Yeah, just feel like a piece of shit, really."
'Appalling treatment'
Matas' heinous crimes against the victim were detailed in documents tendered to the court earlier this year.
The man filmed himself raping the woman multiple ways over a period of about 25 minutes, while he continuously verbally and physically abused her.
While the drug-fuelled assault began when the victim was asleep, she eventually awoke and repeatedly pleaded with her partner to stop. Her obvious pain was met with callous apathy and her distress with anger.
"What the f--- is wrong with you ... why are you crying," Matas is recorded telling the victim.
For a portion of time, he painfully handcuffed her, and later sprayed her face with lemon juice, slapped her and punched her in the ribs.
"The offender treated the victim as if she were an object rather than a human being," prosecutor James Melloy told the court in February.
"It involved the destruction of her dignity."
In the days following the attack, Matas called the victim hundreds of times, repeatedly threatened the victim if she didn't answer his calls and told her to share her location to prove she was at home.
"The victim felt she was unable to leave her home," court documents state.
On Friday, Justice Loukas-Karlsson had a message for Matas: "I want you to work everyday in jail to become a better man."
He will be eligible for parole in 2031.
- Support is available for those who may be distressed. Phone Lifeline 13 11 14; 1800-RESPECT 1800 737 732; Canberra Rape Crisis Centre 6247 2525; ACT Domestic Violence Crisis Service 6280 0900.
