Wayne Jeffrey Smith was found guilty of the incident, which occurred in Dereel on May 6, 2017.

He was also found guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice by attempting to dissuade a witness from giving evidence.

The 12-member jury delivered its verdict on Tuesday afternoon after just over three and a half hours of deliberations, having heard evidence from the complainant, and witnesses relevant to the perversion of justice charge, in a closed court. 

The jury also found Debra Yvonne Warren guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice by attempting to dissuade a witness from giving evidence.

Crown prosecutor Andrew Grant told the court that the victim testified that Smith had taken her on a buggy ride at a Dereel property, but instead of going on a pre-designated track, he went out the front gate and took her into a paddock alone. 

The prosecutor said when the man and the victim reached the location, he “demanded they were going to have sex”.

When the victim refused, according to her testimony, Smith grabbed her and put her on the ground, before using “one hand to hold her arms above her head” and forcing himself inside her for around 30 seconds. 

The court also heard in June 2017 Smith and Warren made arrangements to recruit and pay two people $50 each to intimidate and assault a witness, to deter them from giving evidence in a subsequent prosecution. 

The jury retired at 11.50am after Judge Paul Lacava gave his directions, stating they must “consider all the evidence in the case, use what you believe is true” and put anything they believed was false to one side. 

He said the jury must judge the credibility and reliability of the six witnesses in relation to the intimidation and perversion of justice charges, saying it was for them “to consider if the witnesses told the truth ... there is no special skill involved – you just have to use your common sense.”

Defence counsel Julien Lowy previously told the court that the complainant’s “evidence is unclear” surrounding the rape.

Mr Lowy said that you “can’t reason backwards”, and jurors should not rely on witness statements around the charge of intimidation as evidence of Smith’s alleged rape and threat to kill.

Warren’s defence counsel Shane Kennedy said the six witnesses called to give testimony on the charges of attempting to pervert justice had a “huge amount of discrepancies”, while his client did not prevaricate when questioned by police.

But prosecutor Mr Grant told the court the alleged rape was a “very serious and very violent offence”, and the complainant couldn’t recall what Smith was wearing at the time because she was “distressed” and was not focusing on the “more mundane things”. 

Warren will return to the Ballarat court for a plea hearing on Wednesday. 

Smith was remanded in custody, with a plea hearing to be held in Ballarat in front of Judge Lacava in February.