Nathan Debnam found not guilty in Latrobe Valley court for two rape charges

The trial of a 20-year-old man charged over allegedly raping a woman twice in a locked laundry at Warragul has come to a close.

An Ellinbank man who was accused of raping a woman twice in a laundry while party-goers slept after an Australia Day party has been found not guilty.

Nathan Debnam, who was 20 at the time, was on trial at Latrobe Valley County charged with two counts of rape.

The jury returned a not guilty verdict after a week of hearing evidence.

Debnam was accused of raping the woman, in her 20s, twice in a laundry at a party at Warragul in 2019.

Debnam denied the allegations from the beginning and said it “never” happened.

The court heard the woman and Debnam had been drinking at a party, attended by about 30 people, before the event took place.

Crown prosecutor Sandra MacDougall told the court Debnam pushed the woman backwards into a cabinet and forced her legs apart before he allegedly attacked her.

Ms MacDougall told the court the woman was “in pain” and was trying to remind the accused he “had a girlfriend”.

She said the woman had several large bruises and scratches to her body and eventually reported the incident to Warragul police.

David Brustman, for Debnam, argued while most rape defences were built on an absence of consent, this was a matter of it “never” happening “at all”.

Mr Brustman said while there was an “interaction” it was “nothing to do with sex”.