Rape trial of south-west man starts in Warrnambool County Court

The 29-year-old man appeared in the Warrnambool County Court this week where a jury of eight men and four women was empanelled and the trial started.

He pleaded not guilty to recklessly causing injury, contravening a family violence intervention order, making threats to kill and two counts each of rape, common law assault and intentionally causing injury.

The man pleaded guilty to a single charge of theft.

Crown prosecutor Andrew Moore said the charges arose from three separate alleged incidents in February and April 2019.

He said the man and the victim were formerly in an "up and down" relationship.

Mr Moore said on the first occasion, the man and the complainant had an argument about car troubles while stopping for a toilet break just after midnight on February 5, 2019.

He claimed the man became angry, slammed the victim's head into the window of the vehicle and punched her to the left side of the face.

Mr Moore alleged the victim tried to run away but was chased down by the accused, who threw her onto the road and kicked her to the legs.

The victim allegedly ran to a nearby house, was extremely distressed and bleeding, and asked a witness to contact triple-0 which they did.

Mr Moore said on the second occasion in April, the couple were at the victim's house when they began arguing.

He claimed the victim threw a glass pipe used to smoke ice at the accused, who lost his temper and began choking her.

The court heard the victim lost consciousness.

Mr Moore said when the victim tried to get her shoes to leave the house, the man allegedly took a brown leather belt and tied it around her neck, tightening it in order to choke her and telling her to crawl.

The prosecutor alleged the man said: "If you want to act like a dog, I'll treat you like a dog."

He said the accused man made the victim crawl around the lounge room before raping her.

Mr Moore claimed the man assaulted the woman again the following day by jumping on her and holding her head down in grass.

He said the man later allegedly stole the victim's car.

Mr Moore said the man told police he was in a different town at the time of the alleged April offences but that CCTV and DNA evidence proved otherwise.

Barrister Con Mylonas told the jury that it was a "case of a relationship going bad".

"It's in its terminal days, it's dying," he said.

Mr Mylonas said it was a word-against-word case and the complainant had motives to lie.

The trial before Judge Greg Lyon will continue on Thursday.

If you have personal concerns about sexual assault, you can contact the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service, available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, on 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) or on web chat at 1800respect.org.au.

In an emergency, call 000.

For mental health support, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.

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