Craig McLachlan accuser Christie Whelan Browne a ‘hypocrite’

A woman accusing actor Craig McLachlan of sexual harassment made a “dishonest claim to be offended”, a court has heard.

Craig McLachlan, right, and his partner Vanessa Scammell. Picture: Christian Gilles.

A woman accusing veteran actor Craig McLachlan of sexual harassment was a hypocrite and making a “dishonest claim to be offended”, the NSW Supreme Court has been told.

In the first day of hearings in a defamation case brought by Mr McLachlan against the ABC and Fairfax Media, prominent barrister Stuart Littlemore QC said actress Christie Whelan Browne, who co-starred in play The Rocky Horror Show, had regularly been sexually inappropriate with Mr McLachlan and her action was “hypocritical”.

Ms Whelan Browne had made a “dishonest claim to be offended”, Mr Littlemore told the court.

In January Fairfax Media and the ABC reported allegations from several cast members of the 2014 run of The Rocky Horror Show that Mr McLachlan, 52, had touched them or exposed himself to them.

Ms Whelan Browne told the ABC and Fairfax Media that on set Mr McLachlan would “always tell me he could see my vagina through my white underpants that were my costume.”

“He said that he could see the slit of my vagina,” Ms Whelan Browne is quoted as saying.

However in his defamation claim McLachlan alleges Ms Whelan Browne said: “D’ya reckon the audience’ll see my vag” and “Maybe just the slit”.

The court heard Ms Whelan Browne used the word “c...” and Mr McLachlan’s defamation claim alleges the actress had given him “wedgies” and had grabbed at his boxer shorts while commenting about genitalia.

Lawyers for Ms Whelan Browne said her alleged use of the word “c...” and sexually suggestive posts she had made to social media platform Instagram in no way inferred culpability for her alleged sexual harassment and to infer they did amounted to “victim blaming”.

In documents filed with the court, Mr McLachlan claims Ms Whelan was “a notoriously foul-mouthed person who publicly distributed offensive matter”.

The hearings before Justice Lucy McCallum continue.