A JURY has found two men guilty of raping a woman at a 21st birthday party in 2016 at a rural property in Victoria.
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The case, which was dogged by several mistrials, was part-heard in Bendigo earlier this year before being abandoned due to juror misconduct.
On Tuesday afternoon a Melbourne jury found Shaun Phillip Bloomfield, aged 27, and Luke John Merryfull, also 27, guilty on all charges.
The court was told the two men and their victim had been guests at a party and that the young woman had been invited to stay overnight in a caravan at the Balmoral property on April 3, 2016.
The court was told that the two men had entered the caravan and had sexual intercourse with her. Mr Bloomfield was charged with two counts of rape and one count of sexual assault. Mr Merryfull was charged with one count of rape.
Barristers for the men had tried to argue that they had thought the woman had agreed to the sexual intercourse. However, that defence was rejected by jurors.
Merryfull and Bloomfield were found guilty of intercourse in circumstances where jurors did not reasonably believe the woman had consented.
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