SA woman tells of suffering after attack

A woman who was savagely beaten with a pole by her stepdaughter's boyfriend had to sell her beloved home out of fear, a court has heard.

Nanette Clarke suffered severe head lacerations, a broken arm and permanent damage to her senses of hearing, taste and smell at the hands of a masked attacker at her Port Lincoln home in August 2003.

Nicholas Wayne Lowe, a convicted fraudster, was found guilty of attempted murder after DNA found at the scene was linked to him in 2012.

Ms Clarke says she was overwhelmed by betrayal upon discovering, a decade later, that it was her stepdaughter's partner who had tried to kill her.

"I was shocked. (He) was someone I knew, trusted, had spent family time with and welcomed into my home," she told the Supreme Court during sentencing submissions on Friday.

"This has become the most overwhelming sense of betrayal I could imagine."

On the day of the attack, Ms Clarke's partner, professional fisherman Neil Evans, fortunately came home early because the wind had changed.

He found his wife being taken away by the attacker who then fled the scene, the court heard.

Ms Clarke spent months in rehabilitation learning how to walk and talk again.

When she returned home she felt a constant sense of fear living in the place she was attacked and eventually sold the property.

"I was deeply sad to do this," she said.

Ms Clarke told Lowe the suffering he had caused her was immeasurable.

"I will carry it forever," she said.