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Champion equestrian Callum Buczak has split from his glamorous girlfriend Alexandra McDonough after a three-year ordeal that threatened to land them in jail.
Buczak confirmed to Daily Mail Australia that the couple split before the charges against them were sensationally dropped.
The respected cyclist was accused of rape in 2019, and McDonough was also accused of stalking his alleged victim.
The pair vehemently denied the claims, but were taken to court in a case that caught up with Australia’s tight-knit equestrian community.
The case was dropped by prosecutors in February.
Callum Buczak was an Olympic hopeful. Pictured here with her now ex-partner Alexandra McDonough
Charges against Callum Buczak and Alexandra McDonough have been dropped after a three-year ordeal.
Alexandra McDonough’s life was turned upside down after she was embroiled in a rape scandal that took years to be dismissed in court.
But the devastating number of that prosecution was enough to destroy the couple’s relationship.
“Alex and I broke up a while ago before our lawsuits were dropped,” Buczak told Daily Mail Australia.
Buczak was on his way to becoming a national hero when damning rape allegations shattered his dreams of competing in the Tokyo Olympics.
By the time the Victorian Director of Public Prosecutions dropped the case, it was too late.
Buczak’s lawyer, Damian Sheales, told Daily Mail Australia at the time that his client’s “denial of the charges had finally been vindicated through the rigors of the justice system.”
Alexandra McDonough and hopeful Olympic cyclist Callum Buczak in a photo posted on social media
Alexandra McDonough became involved with Callum Buczak shortly after he broke up with his alleged rape victim. She has had harassment charges against her dropped
Buczak and McDonough, a stunning young horseman who mingled in the same riding community, also faced harassment charges related to the alleged victim, both of which have been dropped.
The couple had long proclaimed their innocence, and Buczak previously took to social media to defend his reputation.
“The allegations against me are strongly denied and will be vehemently opposed,” he posted after his arrest in February 2019.
Buczak had been at the top of his sport and had his sights firmly set on Tokyo when the charges turned his life upside down.
He had hooked up with a young biker after briefly breaking up with his long-time girlfriend, McDonough.
She had only been in the new relationship for a few weeks when she decided to call it quits and rekindle her relationship with McDonough, who would be caught up in the ugly disaster that followed that fateful night on February 28, 2019.
Alexandra McDonough, 29, from Dromana, walks into a Melbourne court hand in hand in May last year with her then-boyfriend Callum Buczak, 28.
Police alleged that Buczak had gone to the woman’s Frankston address to break up with her, but raped her before leaving and returning to McDonough.
McDonough had faced a charge of harassment amid claims that he tried to intimidate and harass Buczak’s alleged victim in the weeks before and after the alleged sexual assault.
His alleged victim then fled the country amid allegations of a terrorist campaign carried out by Buczak and McDonough.
Buczak had pleaded not guilty in Melbourne Magistrate Court last year to raping the woman.
His Tokyo dream had already been shattered after the International Equestrian Sports Federation suspended both him and McDonough from all events until legal proceedings came to an end.
The court heard that Buczak’s alleged victim had recorded her entire encounter with him, including the alleged rape.
It is not clear why he had an audio recorder turned on that night, and his evidence was presented in court behind closed doors.
Alexandra McDonough was falsely accused of helping her boyfriend Callum Buczak intimidate a woman who she claimed raped her. All charges were dropped
Callum Buczak is fighting to get his life and career back on track in hopes of getting another Olympic shot.
Alexandra McDonough laughs with Callum Buczak as they approach Melbourne Magistrates Court in May last year.
It is a legal requirement made to protect victims of sexual assault from being identified to the community at large.
Buczak’s attorney had painted his client’s accuser as a jilted lover who set out to destroy the couple’s lives after Buczak unceremoniously dumped her and returned to McDonough’s arms.
“There was no rape, it was consensual,” Sheales said.
“He goes home to separate…the rape allegedly occurs that night.”
The court heard that Buczak immediately cut off all contact with his alleged victim, angering her.
“Obviously they haven’t broken up in their minds,” Sheales said.
‘He blocks her out of there and she’s texting him…and then it’s just a vendetta. We say it’s just revenge.
Sheales told the court that the alleged victim had taken measures calculated to destroy his client, including using the police and his father.
“Everybody’s calculated that she’s going to get back at him,” Sheales said.