Gold Logie winning actor Craig McLachlan has filed defamation proceedings against Fairfax Media and the ABC after they reported on allegations he sexually harassed several former colleagues.
One of McLachlan’s accusers, former co-star Christie Whelan Browne, is also named in the defamation suit, according to media reports.
The Seven Network says McLachlan’s statement of claim was lodged in the NSW Supreme Court on Thursday afternoon and principally targets Browne.
The claim states Browne was “herself a notoriously foul-mouthed person who publicly distributed offensive matter and had expressed interest in deviant sexual practices,” according to Seven.
McLachlan has engaged prominent barrister Stuart Littlemore QC to run the case, News Corp Australia reports.
A Fairfax Media and ABC joint investigation in early January reported several cast members of the 2014 run of The Rocky Horror Picture Show accused 52-year-old McLachlan of touching them or exposing himself to them.
A woman and a man who worked as part of the crew have also gone to Victorian police who are investigating the allegations.
McLachlan previously described the allegations by Whelan Browne, Erika Heynatz and Angela Scundi as “baseless” insisting they were “all made up”.
He also vowed to fight the allegations.
“By God, I will fight this,” he told News Corp Australia.
Browne said that during Rocky Horror in 2014, McLachlan, who played transvestite Frank N Furter to her character Janet, indecently assaulted her on stage during a sex scene.