Actor Craig McLachlan allegedly touched a colleague’s breast throughout a rehearsal for the tv present Neighbours within the Eighties, a courtroom has been advised throughout a preliminary listening to in his defamation case.
McLachlan, 56, sued the ABC and The Sydney Morning Herald within the NSW Supreme Court docket in April 2018 after an investigation was revealed three months earlier which alleged he harassed feminine performers throughout the 2014 stage manufacturing of The Rocky Horror Present.
The actor argued the publications defamed him by suggesting he was responsible of assault, indecent assault and indecent publicity, and that he sexually harassed and bullied feminine solid members on the Rocky Horror Present.
The media organisations have argued the defences of reality and contextual reality, with a four-week jury trial set to start on Could 9 subsequent yr.
The case had been as a consequence of go to trial in February 2019, nevertheless it was postponed to permit Mr McLachlan to deal with associated prices in Victoria. In December 2020 he was discovered not responsible of all prices.
On Friday, barrister Lyndelle Barnett – representing the ABC and the Herald – utilized to amend the media organisations’ defence paperwork so as to add a number of contemporary allegations.
This included an allegation that Mr McLachlan sexually harassed a feminine actor on Neighbours in 1987, “together with by touching her breast”, whereas they had been going by a script learn or a rehearsal.
Ms Barnett stated it had been argued that the age of the incident, courting again to 1987, meant it was too distant to incorporate within the courtroom case.
Nevertheless, she stated, the truth that it occurred so way back suggests Mr McLachlan had engaged in behaviour “over a time frame”, which solely strengthened the media organisations’ argument that Mr McLachlan exhibited sure traits in his interactions with feminine colleagues.