Craig McLachlan charged with indecent assault by Victorian Police
Prominent actor and the former lead actor of Seven’s Doctor Blake Mysteries, Craig McLachlan, has been charged by Victoria Police for a number of indecent assault offences, the ABC is reporting.
Victoria Police confirmed to Mumbrella that a 53-year-old New South Wales man has been charged with eight counts of indecent assault, one count of attempted indecent assault and one count of common law assault.
McLachlan has been charged with multiple counts of indecent assault, the ABC alleges
In January last year McLachlan – who also appeared in the stage play of The Rocky Horror Show – was accused of indecent assault and sexual harassment. The actor was also accused of bullying some of his female co-stars.
That same month, McLachlan was ousted from The Rocky Horrow Show with producers The Gordon Frost Organisation announcing it is “not appropriate” for him to continue in light of the sexual assault and harassment allegations against him.
Three months later, Seven dropped McLachlan from the Doctor Blake Mysteries series.
Following the accusations, McLachlan launched defamation proceedings against the ABC, Fairfax Media and one of his accusers, Christie Whelan Browne, with the actor reportedly claiming $6.5m in damages.
The defamation case is due to be heard before the NSW Supreme Court on February 4.
McLachlan’s management have been approached for comment.
Abigail Dawson was Mumbrella's senior content journalist covering event content. She left Mumbrella to move into an agency role in 2020.
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Sad that “trial by media” trumps trial by jury. Certainly he should be sacked if it is proven that he did illegal things on the job. But until a court determines these things, it is just an allegation. My big worry is that nowadays anyone can concoct some spurious “sex allegations” and ruin someone’s career. Then the onus of proof is (wrongly) on the defendant to *prove* that they didn’t do it. It is almost impossible to prove a negative: that something didn’t happen. I seem to remember some lies told about Cliff Richard which did big damage to his career by the media in the UK. I’m not a big fan of Craig, but my personal opinions (or those of any others) should have nothing to do with his right to a fair trial, otherwise we regress back to the witch hunts of the dark ages in which nobody is safe.
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William, stumbled across your comment …..the most precise and fair summation I’ve observed. Keep it up.
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If women who make these kind of complaints were taken more seriously to begin with, then there would be no need for them to go to the media. When the do go to the media, it is almost always the case that other women come forward (as has occurred with this case).
So, while I don’t agree with trial by media either, if the legal system was more supportive of women by treating them as innocent until proven guilty (ie: telling the truth, as opposed to exaggeration, then the problem would go away.
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Unfortunately, too many women make complaints after they were complicit in the activity. Happens more often than most women will admit. Statistically at least 10% of the accusations fall into this category. These women did not complain at all or to appropriate people in a timely fashion. Most men stop when told to. The constant media attacks directed at Mr. McLachlan and for that matter Mr. Rush seems to be an orchestrated push for the media to try to be relevant on this issue. From the very beginning something has seemed very off about this investigation. Somewhere in the background is someone trying to make a name for his or herself at the expense of people he or she considered vulnerable?. It almost seems that these women were talked into feeling abused by someone out for revenge or for notoriety. In the end the truth will come out–at the expense of many lives. Sexual assault and abuse are horrible. From the comments in the beginning, Mr. McLachlan was assaulted also. One of the accusers had obscenities on her snapchat. Was any of this investigated? The timing of the charges makes one wonder what else is going on. Innocent until proven guilty is the rule of law. Not trial and conviction by media on unproven allegations.
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Women who make these complaints are generally taken seriously, that’s how men end up in court, charged with the alleged offense/offenses.
What you refer to as “the need to go to the media,” is the suggestion of another topic altogether; generally, it is the media who need the story, and the more well known the accused, the better it is for the media.
Your final statement makes no sense at all, as anyone bringing a criminal case to court must prove the accusation, whatever the charge; if the court were to believe the accuser on hearsay, then the verdict would be cut and dried, and there would be no need to hold a trial.
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Now that the prosecution admitted that it did not have enough evidence for sexual assault, but will allow the magistrate to decide if it was simple assault, the charges should be dropped. It is obvious they do not think of him as a sexual predator. We need to find the real reason he was charged. Conversely, why have not the women who attacked him been charged?
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