A victim of Warren John McCorriston says her attacker was a "predator" who preyed on her and took her freedom away as a young woman.
In a victim impact statement tendered to Newcastle District Court during McCorriston's sentencing hearing on Thursday, the woman wrote that the now-60-year-old's actions had left an "immeasurable mark on my life".
McCorriston stalked the woman when she was a teenager - grabbing her on one occasion at Redhead beach, causing her top to come off.
"The physical confrontations and the relentless stalking contributed to me withdrawing from life and my friends, then and even now," the woman wrote in the statement.
"I never talked about it to anyone, not my family nor my friends. I tried to block it out forever.
"Something always triggers the memory. The sight of a single red rose is one. If I hear footsteps behind me I go into a blind panic. If I see a car drive past me slowly, I become anxious. If I get a phone call and no-one speaks, I feel pure fear."
McCorriston will be sentenced later this month after pleading guilty in December to five charges related to offences against three women at Lake Macquarie and on the Central Coast between 1979 and 1997.
The charges include inflicting actual bodily harm with intent to have sexual intercourse, recklessly inflicting actual bodily harm with intent to have sexual intercourse, sexual intercourse without consent, maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm and assault.
The former Lake Macquarie man raped and assaulted two young women between the mid-1980s and late 1990s, according to court documents.
During the sentencing hearing on Thursday, McCorriston sat in the witness box and apologised to his victims.
He described his past self as "a very immature man, very much a delinquent who was on a path to nowhere".
"I regret my actions, I am remorseful - I am remorseful more so for the fact [the crimes have] impacted on them and they did not deserve to be treated in such a manner," he told the court.
McCorriston was extradited to NSW in January 2020 after Strike Force Arapaima detectives charged him with the historical offences.
Strike Force Arapaima was established in 2019 to investigate the disappearance of 20-year-old Leanne Goodall in 1978; 18-year-old Robyn Hickie and 14-year-old Amanda Robinson in 1979 as well as Gordana Kotevski, 16, who was last seen in 1994.
No one has been charged in relation to their disappearances and suspected murders.
McCorriston will be sentence on June 25.
