A woman raped at gunpoint in 1981 died just before her attacker - released on the eve of his trial and on the run for 34 years - was finally re-arrested, a Sydney court has been told.

Wayne Andrew Rae Duck, 64, fled the state ahead of his 1984 trial and spent decades living under false names in Victoria, Queensland and the Northern Territory before he was finally brought back before a NSW court in 2018 to answer for his Anzac Day 1981 attack.

Before he was jailed for 14 years and eight months in the NSW District Court on Thursday, the court heard the victim died in December 2017.

"She no doubt had not been able to obtain any closure," Judge Nicole Noman said.

"She would not have known when and if the offender would be located and arrested."

The victim was aged 22 when, as she was bring driven home by Duck after meeting him that day, he pulled out a pistol and forced her to perform a sex act on him.

After stopping the ute on Qantas Drive near Sydney Airport, he ripped the underwear off the crying woman, raped her and told her he wanted to keep going "for a long time".

"This would have been terrifying," Judge Noman said.

Duck only stopped when she convinced him to open the door for her to go to the toilet and she managed to escape his grasp and alert a passing taxi.

The taxi took the woman to the police station while Duck drove back to her Arncliffe unit, introduced himself as "Steve" to her male housemate, and spent hours drinking wine in the unit.

He left sometime the next morning as the woman was showing police the Qantas Drive crime scene.

Despite being identified days after the attack, Duck evaded custody until December 1982, when he was arrested in Mackay in Queensland.

He went through a committal hearing, had a magistrate note the strong case against him, but was bailed by the NSW Supreme Court the day before his trial and fled.

Known as Louis in Darwin, Robert across Victoria and Craig throughout Queensland, Duck built up a long criminal record for petty crimes but continued to evade detection for the NSW rape.

States didn't share a fingerprint database at the time, the court was told on Friday.

Even once he was arrested in Shepparton he didn't admit his guilt until May 2019, when a new trial had been scheduled.

Duck later told a forensic psychologist he couldn't remember the incident.

He tried, through his legal counsel, to tender on Friday a signed affidavit to the court that stated he felt shame after reading the brief of evidence.

But being informed that the Crown would be allowed to cross-examine Duck, his lawyer then tendered the document as a letter.

Judge Noman said she wasn't satisfied the "untested assertion of remorse" was genuine, unqualified or showed Duck accepted responsibility for his acts.

With a minimum term of seven years and seven months, he will be eligible for parole in 2025.