Ballarat man accused of raping teenager at neighbour's home

Topic: Courts Prosecutors allege Lachlan Young raped the teenager in Sebastopol in February 2024. (Supplied: Anita Lester) Mr Young's trial is taking place in the County Court in Melbourne. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica ) The prosecutor said in the early hours of February 5, Mr Young sent a Snapchat message to the girl saying he wanted to "do things". "Come on please, just 5 minutes and I'll make it worth it," Mr Young is alleged to have said, when she told him she was 16. The girl agreed to meet Mr Young in the backyard where the pair engaged in consensual sexual touching, Mr Buckland said. However, the prosecutor said, Mr Young then forced the teenager to have sexual intercourse against her will. "[The complainant] states that when this occurred she just kind of froze and didn't know what to do," Mr Buckland said. "When the accused stopped he looked at [the complainant] and said, 'You should probably go back inside before people start looking for you'." Later on February 5, Mr Young is alleged to have messaged the girl, "We didn't do much anyway". Mr Buckland said the girl later disclosed allegations of the rape to a school counsellor and participated in a police interview on April 2, 2024. Defence questions complainant's honesty Defence barrister Glenn Casement said consensual sexual touching did occur between his client and the teenager, but denied it went any further. He said the complainant's credibility and reliability would be the key issue for the jury to assess. "Will you find her in this trial to be a witness of truth or someone telling unfortunate untruths and someone whose word you will only come to question and mistrust?" he said. Mr Casement told the jury to listen out for changes in the complainant's story, which he said may play out in pre-recorded evidence played in court. The defence barrister said the complainant found out about the existence of Mr Young's girlfriend and was "confronting him" about his honesty when she messaged him on February 11, 2024. "At the end of this trial are you going to be left with troubling concerns on your hands about the role that this has played in the case?" The trial, before Judge Caitlin English, continues.