Warning: This article contains information about sexual assault which may be distressing for some readers.
On Monday, actress and accomplished theatre performer Christie Whelan Browne finally told her story.
Alongside two other women – Erika Heynatz and Angela Scundi – Whelan Browne claimed former Neighbours star and her Rocky Horror Show co-star, Craig McLachlan, indecently assaulted, harassed and bullied her while they worked together in 2014.
As part of a joint investigation between Fairfax and ABC, the 35-year-old said she was once sexually assaulted by the 52-year-old live on stage, as unsuspecting audience members watched on.
The script required McLachlan’s character to kiss her neck and arm before disappearing beneath sheets on a vertical bed. But, Whelan Browne alleged, the kissing didn’t stop once he was out of view.
“As the tour went on he would always tell me he could see my vagina through my white underpants that were my costume. And he said that he could see the slit of my vagina and that he could smell it and that it smelled sweet,” she told 7.30.
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“And he would talk about this a lot and then one night, when he was down in the bed, he traced the outline of my vagina with his finger and I slapped his hand away.
“I didn’t know that it was sexual harassment. I didn’t know how inappropriate it was because it was always a joke. But, that’s not a joke.”