There are two ways this could be achieved.
DateTimeFormat
DateTimeFormat.forPattern("dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss").parseDateTime("04/02/2011 20:27:05");
SimpleDateFormat
String dateValue = "04/02/2011 20:27:05";
SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss"); // 04/02/2011 20:27:05
Date date = sdf.parse(dateValue); // returns date object
System.out.println(date); // outputs: Fri Feb 04 20:27:05 IST 2011