Craig McLachlan defamation trial: 11 women expected to allege misconduct by actor, court hears | Defamation law

Eleven women are expected to allege misconduct by Craig McLachlan during a Rocky Horror Show production, and other television and theatre shows, the court in the defamation trial brought by the actor has been told.

The Gold Logie winner is suing Fairfax Media, the ABC and actor Christie Whelan Browne for defamation over claims made in 2018 reports that he allegedly indecently assaulted, harassed, bullied and exposed himself to female cast members during the 2014 production. McLachlan denies the claims.

The 56-year-old is also suing over claims about his conduct in workplaces beyond the Rocky Horror Show.

The media outlets are defending the claims on the basis of truth.

On Tuesday, defence barrister Michael Hodge QC told the New South Wales supreme court that McLachlan behaved inappropriately to six women who worked on a 2014 Rocky Horror Show production, with five of those women being performers and one a crew member.

Hodge said the defence planned to call those women as witnesses as well as another five women who worked with McLachlan on televisions shows Neighbours, City Homicide and the Doctor Blake Mysteries, and a 2018 Rocky Horror Show production.

The barrister said there would be evidence from three women who played Janet in the 2014 Rocky Horror Show production, with their testimony expected to include that he would “kiss down the body” of actors during “the bed scene” while hidden from view.

The court was told that the defence case included that McLachlan, in the scene, on one occasion “traced down” part of Whelan Browne’s vagina with his finger after telling her earlier that he could see through her stage underpants.

McLachlan, on another occasion during the same scene, pulled her stage underpants to the side and kissed her on the buttock, the barrister said.

“That was not something that he had agreed to with the actress playing Janet,” Hodge told the court.

There would also be evidence from Whelan Browne that she was “frightened and upset” after McLachlan grabbed her jaw and aggressively threw her face to one side during the rock musical’s “I’m going home” scene.

Hodge told the jury that Whelan Browne had a “pretty filthy” sense of humour and they would probably hear of communications, including text messages, between her and McLachlan of the pair “joking around”.

Two other actors who played Janet, one of whom cannot be identified, would also tell of “uncomfortable” encounters with McLachlan during the musical, the court was told.

The court heard that their evidence would include the actor running his hand up an actress’s leg when she was standing on a hidden platform, and forced kissing in a dressing room.

Another woman from the 2014 production, who played Magenta, would testify that McLachlan would enter her dressing room when she was alone, partially undressed.

“He would come in and want to hug her, and hug her,” Hodge said.

On Monday, McLachlan’s barrister, Kieran Smark SC, told the court the case was about a “double-pronged attack made on him by two powerful media organisations”.

In his opening address to the jury, Smark said hundreds of thousands of people in Australia saw the attack on McLachlan via the ABC’s 730 program and on the Sydney Morning Herald’s front page, as well as online.

“This case has come to court because this court … is the place where Mr McLachlan can respond to the strong attack that those publications made on him and made on his reputation,” Smark said.

The barrister told the court that McLachlan, prior to playing The Rocky Horror Show’s Frank N Furter in Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne in 2014, was a successful theatre and television actor.

The jury was shown on Monday a short promotional video from the 2014 Rocky Horror Show production as well as excerpts from important “onstage” parts of the show, including the opening scene of Act Two referred to as the “Janet bed scene”.

“It’s a story about sex, comedically told,” Smark said.

The court was also told of photos from the production – which concerned cross-dressing and sexual themes – showing McLachlan in “female gear” like high-heeled shoes, fish net stockings, female underwear, a garter belt and a corset.

Whelan Browne, as shown in photos, performed at times in a white outfit, white bra, and white headband and at others in a “state of undress” in a red-and-black costume with a feather boa, the court was told.

“That’s just how the show was,” Mr Smark said, describing the production as “high energy” and its costumes as “skimpy” and “risque”.

He said there would be evidence from McLachlan about how he got on with Whelan Browne and others in the cast of the musical, which he described as unfolding each night in the same fashion according to rehearsals and choreography.

The actor is expected to testify later on Tuesday.