Former Neighbors star Craig McLachlan has been awarded a $500,000 payout after being cleared of his assault charges.
McLachlan, 57, was charged with assault and indecent assault following complaints from female co-stars in a stage production of Melbourne’s Rocky Horror Picture Show in 2014, playing the role of Frank-N-Furter.
He vehemently denied the allegations against him.
Magistrate Belinda Wallington found him not guilty of 13 charges following a four-week disputed hearing at Victorian Melbourne Magistrates Court in December 2020.
In her 105-page verdict, the magistrate said she felt the incidents had happened — but that McLachlan believed he had permission.
She said it was his “selfish sense of humour” that led him to believe others wouldn’t mind or find his behavior funny, and ordered Victoria Police to cover his legal costs.
Craig McLachlan was charged with sexual assault and indecent assault following complaints from female co-stars in a 2014 stage production of the Rocky Horror Picture Show (pictured)
McLachlan is pictured in May with his partner, Vanessa Scammell, outside the NSW High Court
McLachlan was represented by criminal defense attorney Stuart Littlemore, KC and his legal fees were estimated to be at least $1 million, the Daily telegram reported.
The amount he sought is not known, nor is the amount the police offered to cough up, but the three-time Logie winner launched a case in the Supreme Court in June last year because the police did not pay.
In January, the Supreme Court heard that the parties had failed to reach an agreement during mediation last year.
The actor’s lawyer told the court his client was willing to proceed with mediation, but police said her position would not change.
He was tried under old consent laws because the alleged crimes happened before they were changed.
Victorian laws were updated in 2015 to make a defendant guilty of sexual or indecent assault if their erroneous belief that they had consent was ‘unreasonable’.
McLachlan, on the other hand, had to prove that he believed he had consent, whether or not his beliefs were unreasonable.
Magistrate Wallington said in her verdict: “I cannot exclude the reasonable possibility that in his egocentric state of mind, despite some admiration from parts of the cast and management, coupled with a lack of checks and balances on his lewd conduct, of which he was not was aware [the complainant’s] lack of permission.’
On another charge, she said: “I cannot rule out the possibility that a selfish, self-professed sense of humor led the defendant to honestly think that [the complainant] consented to his actions.’
Magistrate Wallington said on several occasions that she found the complainants “credible” and that she “accepted” [their] full proof’.
She also pointed out that her verdict would likely have been different if the case had been tried under post-2015 laws.
Referring to an allegation that McLachlan kissed a co-star on the neck without permission on stage, she said: “An objective view of his behavior would lead to a strong conclusion that he did not reasonably believe that [the complainant] agreed.
“It seems counterintuitive not to hold a suspect criminally liable for such sexual harassment and, as I said, this is no longer the law.”
Magistrate Wallington criticized the old law for “rewarding the sex offender for their self-righteousness” and “misguided honesty.”
Christie Whelan Browne, one of four women who accused him of indecent assault, claimed she “felt a fingermark about 2cm down her labia” during a scene where she was partially hidden by a sheet.
The sex scene involved McLachlan’s character Dr. Frank-N-Furter who disappeared under a sheet to simulate sexual acts with Janet, whose lower half was also under the sheet.
Photographed out of court in May, McLachlan had not had an acting gig since the allegations first came to light in 2018
“Welan was lying in bed one night … he traced the outline of my vagina with his finger and I knocked his hand away,” Whelan told the 7:30 am report in 2018.
“The scene stopped when he went down and the rest was for me to perform. That wasn’t a character choice, that was just that he was completely inappropriate.”
Magistrate Wallington said it could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt that McLachlan thought he had clearance until his hand was struck away.
McLachlan sued Whelan for defamation, along with several media outlets, following his acquittal, but dropped the $3 million lawsuit last year.
He dropped the libel suit in May this year on the day the first of 11 women was due to testify, citing the toll it had taken on his mental health and family.
Whelan said she was so afraid of rape and death threats after coming out that she moved out and slept with a knife under her bed.
During the case, McLachlan underwent months of scrutiny, forcing him and his partner Vanessa Scammell to sift through media packages outside a Melbourne court.
McLachlan hadn’t had an acting gig since the allegations first came to light in 2018, but it was announced last week that he would appear on SAS Australia – where celebrities undergo grueling tests by ex-special forces.
His co-stars include Anthony Mundine, Peter Bol, Stephanie Rice and ‘Cocaine Cassie’ Sainsbury.