Alleged rape victim launched a ‘vendetta’ to destroy Olympic hopeful, court told.

The career of an Olympic hopeful was destroyed after a jilted lover accused him of rape in an extraordinary vendetta, a court has heard. 

Melbourne Equestrian champion Callum Buczak, 28, had been destined for Tokyo when he ditched the young rider and hooked-up with another one – Alexandra McDonough. 

Ms McDonough, 29, of Dromana, is also facing a series of charges amid claims she tried to intimidate and stalk Buczak’s alleged victim in the weeks before and following the alleged sex attack. 

Alexandra McDonough, 29, of Dromana, walks hand-in-hand into a Melbourne court in May last year with her long-time boyfriend Callum Buczak, 28, who is an accused rapist

Alexandra McDonough and would-be Olympian rider Callum Buczak in a photo posted on social media 

In an explosive preliminary hearing on Monday, Buczak’s barrister Damian Sheales accused both Victoria Police and the victim’s father of helping the woman carry out her vendetta. 

‘I’m not convinced that the father, you know, sets out to be untruthful and the like – he just seems to do his daughter’s bidding at the drop of a hat and he seems to do it, as you’ve seen. in a very, very emotional way,’ Mr Sheales said. 

The experienced barrister  – who is already subject to an official complaint from the victim’s father to the Victorian judicial watchdog – further accused the lead detective of ‘doing her bidding’.  

The court heard Senior-Constable Bryon Smith had charged his client with stalking and attempting to have his victim commit suicide after he accessed a university website to confirm her graduation ceremony. 

Mr Sheales said his client had done so on his asking as the woman had attempted to put off the preliminary hearing using its date as an excuse – an attempt that failed in court. 

‘I tell my client to check … turns out it’s on (that night) … so it didn’t clash at all,’ Mr Sheales said. 

‘One of the charges here is stalking with my client looking up that website for that purpose. And the informant knows it’s for that purpose and my client did it with the intent to induce suicide.’

Alexandra McDonough is accused of helping her boyfriend Callum Buczak intimidate a woman who alleges he raped her 

Alexandra McDonough laughs with Callum Buczak as they approach the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court in May

The court heard Buczak maintains he had consensual sex with his alleged victim, who turned on him when he broke up with her that very same night. 

‘There was no rape, it was consensual,’ Mr Sheales said.

‘He goes to her place to split up … the rape allegedly occurs that night.’

The court heard Buczak immediately cut-off all contact with his alleged victim, which infuriated her. 

‘They haven’t split-up obviously in her mind,’ Mr Sheales said. ‘He blocks her on leaving there and she’s texting him … and then it’s just a vendetta. We say it’s just vengeance.’

Mr Sheales told the court the alleged victim had made calculated steps to destroy his client, including using both police and her father to ‘do her bidding’. 

‘They’re all calculated of her taking her revenge on him,’ Mr Sheales said. 

The woman’s father faced off with Mr Sheales in a heated cross-examination in which he was accused of using his supposed media influence to ‘blackmail’ Equestrian Australia and other media outlets. 

The court heard the protective father had threatened Equestrian Australia that he could drum up negative publicity against it if they did not allow his daughter to act as a volunteer on the same day Buczak was due to compete. 

Mr Sheales suggested the woman had put herself in a situation to breach an intervention order she had against Buczak at the time. 

‘She contacts Equestrian Australia and says – for the first time in her life – “I would like to volunteer at equestrian events just because it’s good for me learning something about horses”,’ he said.  

Mr Sheales said the woman then contacted Equestrian Australia to tell them she had an intervention order out against Buczak.

‘When they suggest that maybe she shouldn’t attend that day, she goes into a frenzy,’ he said. ‘She’s turned it into World War III and her life will be over.’

The court heard the alleged victim’s father later threatened to expose Equestrian Australia with adverse publicity if it allowed Buczak to compete. 

‘It’s a soap opera … It’s just absurd,’ Mr Sheales said.

Alexandra McDonough and Callum Buczak are accused of trying to drive his alleged rape victim to self-harm 

Callum Buczak is a champion equestrian rider and an accused rapist 

Court documents reveal police claim the rape happened on a property at Frankston on February 28, 2019 with Buczak charged after a five-month Victoria Police sex crimes investigation.  

During a hearing in May last year, Mr Sheales claimed the alleged rape victim had been suspected of ‘waging war’ against his client. 

The barrister continued his attack on the alleged victim and her father on Monday. 

‘The thrust of the case is this and it’s a significant part of the defence. (The victim) manipulates regulatory authorities to achieve effectively ill-got outcomes,’ Mr Sheales said. 

‘We say she’s done the same in her communications with Victoria Police.  We say it’s a pattern of behaviour. This is just not credit, she’s done the same in communications with legal professional regulatory bodies. 

‘Her and her father have a pattern of behaviour that is disclosed on the brief in relation to the father subsequently intimidating people.’

Police allege between February 14 and March 2, McDonough stalked the victim by using several Instagram profiles to ‘surreptitiously trace (her) online activity’. 

Police further claimed Buczak’s girlfriend sent the information she had compiled back to him ‘with the intention of causing mental harm to the victim including self-harm, or of arousing apprehension or fear in the victim for her own safety or safety of another person’.

McDonough, who denies the offending, faces a swag of charges for allegations she perverted the course of justice and stalked the victim. 

Alexandra McDonough remains committed to Callum Buczak, who has been accused of raping a woman last year 

Among the allegations is a claim she provided a magistrate with false information during an intervention order application taken out against her by the woman. 

Police also claim McDonough dishonestly reported that she had been assaulted by the victim and interfered with a civil proceeding against her boyfriend. 

Detectives claim Buczak was behind his girlfriend’s alleged offending and had encouraged her to do his bidding. 

Court documents state McDonough sent Buczak screen shots of his alleged victim’s online activity and he encouraged her to send him information on the woman’s travel plans.

At one stage, he allegedly asked her to provide intelligence on his victim’s graduation schedule under the intention of causing her to self harm, police claimed. 

The alleged victim’s father is also alleged to have been harassed by the couple. 

Both remain free in the community on bail and appeared on Monday via videolink.

While the alleged rape is not claimed to have happened at an official equestrian event, Buczak’s 2019 charge has reportedly prompted calls for him to be barred from the competitive sport until the matter has been resolved. 

In January,  the International Federation for Equestrian Sports suspended McDonough from all events until the legal proceedings come to their conclusion. 

Buczak has previously taken to social media to proclaim his innocence. 

‘The allegations made against me are strongly denied and shall be vehemently opposed,’ he posted at the time.  

The hearing continues.