Updated
A male crew member on the 2014 tour of the Rocky Horror Show has told police that the show's star, Craig McLachlan, indecently assaulted him.
The man, who asked not to be identified, told the ABC that the alleged incident happened backstage when the show was in Melbourne.
The man also alleges he witnessed McLachlan grope the breasts of a female crew member several times.
"I never talked to her about it. It's just one of those things. Sometimes it's not talked about. It happened more than three times," the man said.
He told the ABC there was "a general toxicity" backstage.
"Craig made everyone feel extremely uncomfortable, cast and crew," he said.
The man also described a ritual when cast members went on stage to do a microphone check.
"Craig McLachlan's twist on that was to do these lewd limericks," he said.
"Sometimes they were funny and witty, but it started to get quite disgusting.
"It got to the point where it got a bit too repulsive for some of the others around.
"He crossed a further line when he used names of people standing around in the limericks. He talked about their body parts and things that they did.
"The feeling was that everyone was laughing along because they were supposed to, but it was too much, taking it too far.
"That to me was a form of bullying or verbal abuse."
A female crew member who worked on the production told the ABC she had also spoken to police this week.
She said McLachlan sexually harassed her and she witnessed him behaving inappropriately towards actress Erika Heynatz.
"It was just a lot of comments and because I had to go into his room a lot, there were times when he was just naked," she said.
"I'd go in there, super uncomfortable and he had little or no clothing on. I saw him doing this to other girls as well.
"I witnessed a lot of that."
On Monday, Heynatz told the ABC's 7.30 program that McLachlan made a sexual advance towards her when the show was playing in Melbourne.
"I was sitting downstairs in the green room on the couch, facing the kitchen, and he walked down the stairs, through the kitchen and straddled me on the couch, knee either side, and started kissing my neck, and then leant back and said, 'Too much?' And I said, 'Yes'," Heynatz said.
"And he climbed off and just walked away. There were other people around.
"That's not normal workplace behaviour, that's not OK."
McLachlan said he has no recollection of such an event.
But the female crew member said she witnessed the incident.
"One time, in the green room, she was on the couch. He was sitting on top of her and she looked terrified. It looked awful," the crew member said.
"He was just a general creep, just unwanted comments all the time and you just had to laugh them off.
"It started off as a bit of fun, but then it was, 'No, this is really wrong'."
McLachlan did not respond to requests for comment on the new allegations.
But he has previously denied allegations revealed in a joint ABC/Fairfax investigation that he indecently assaulted, sexually harassed and bullied three of his female co-stars, Heynatz, Christie Whelan Browne and Angela Scundi, on the 2014 production.
Topics: arts-and-entertainment, television, australia
First posted