A MAN is standing trial for the alleged rape of a woman in Rochester in 1967, after a child conceived as a result of the encounter told the mother to take the matter to police.

Opening remarks in the rape trial of John Thomas O’Connell, 69, were heard in the Bendigo County Court on Wednesday.

The court heard the woman gave birth to her son as a result of the one-time encounter, with DNA evidence proving O’Connell is the man’s father.

The son was given up for adoption and had no contact with his mother until he tracked her down in 2000.

His mother told him of the alleged rape and a police investigation started in 2013.

The prosecution told the court the woman did not consent to the incident in January 1967, during which O’Connell – aged 20 at the time – allegedly dragged the then 16-year-old victim into bush land and raped her.

Crown Prosecutor Timothy Hoare told the court the victim was walking with a friend early in the evening when O’Connell and another man approached them in a car on the Campaspe Bridge.

After 10 minutes her friend got in the car, but the victim was reluctant. She was eventually convinced to climb in.

They drove out of Rochester and stopped after the victim complained they were going in the wrong direction.

The prosecution alleges O’Connell dragged the victim from the car and raped her 100 metres away.

She did not know she was pregnant until five months later when she underwent a medical assessment while living in a convent in Melbourne.

Nuns took her to police, whose response was “negative” and the matter was not investigated.

The woman later saw O’Connell at a dance in Moama and pointed him out to a friend. The friend made a statement to police, but it has never been found.

She will give evidence to the trial.

The alleged victim gave birth in Bendigo in October and gave her son up for adoption at six months.

Her son tracked her down in 2000, when he was aged 33, and heard the story of his conception.

In October 2013, the alleged victim, her son and O’Connell provided DNA samples as part of the police investigation, which proved the sexual encounter took place.

The alleged victim gave evidence on Wednesday.

Defence counsel Michael Pena-Rees said O’Connell’s fatherhood was not in dispute.

“It is a simple matter of consent,” he told the jury.

The trial continues on Thursday.