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Two more women have come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct by actor Craig McLachlan.
Key points:
- McLachlan's driver says she wrote to her bosses after an "uncomfortable" experience with the actor in 2008
- A salon worker says McLachlan grabbed her face and kissed her without her permission in 2004
- McLachlan strenuously denied earlier allegations of sexual harassment and indecent assault
One, a driver on a TV production, said the Logie winner made lewd remarks while she was driving him to an airport.
The second woman, a salon worker, said he kissed her without permission.
The new claims came after a joint ABC-Fairfax investigation revealed allegations the Logie winner indecently assaulted and sexually harassed three of his female co-stars during the 2014 tour of the Rocky Horror Show.
McLachlan has strenuously denied those allegations against him, describing them as baseless, vicious and outrageous.
He did not respond to the ABC's inquiries about the latest set of allegations.
'A really uncomfortable experience'
The new claims come from women who asked not to be identified but gave the ABC radio interviews.
They said the alleged incidents were not in the context of McLachlan being in character as Dr Frank-N-Furter in the Rocky Horror Show.
One woman was aged 22 and a runner on a TV drama when Mr McLachlan made a guest appearance in 2008.
She was asked to drive him to Melbourne airport and alleged McLachlan made her feel so uncomfortable that afterwards she wrote to her bosses to alert them to his behaviour.
"It was just a really uncomfortable experience for me," she said.
She said she did not think he was making a genuine sexual advance but said McLachlan did not seem to care if he made her uncomfortable.
She told the ABC at one point she noticed McLachlan turn the car's air-conditioning vents away from himself.
"I said, 'Oh I'll turn that down if you're feeling cold'... he said something along the lines of, 'Actually I was just pointing it at you. I was hoping to see your nipples go hard. Can you see my nipples getting hard?'"
When she told McLachlan her age, 22, she said he replied with "I love 22-year-olds".
"And then [he] proceeded to tell me about this lurid affair he had a with a 22-year-old," the woman said.
The driver wrote a letter to her bosses at the time, seen by the ABC, asking not to drive McLachlan and suggesting other young women not be assigned to drive him.
"It felt kind of creepy enough that yeah, I wanted them to know about it," she said.
"I've always remembered how uncomfortable he made me feel."
Unwanted kiss came with 'tongue included': salon worker
Another woman said she was 25 and working in a tanning salon in Adelaide in 2004 when McLachlan came in.
"He was extremely friendly and flirtatious straight away, asking me a lot of questions about myself, was I single, how long had I been working there, complimenting me on my tan, my smile," she said.
"He commented that he was amazed how many beautiful women there were in Adelaide."
She told the ABC McLachlan was very chatty "to the point where I had to push him along and try and get him to get onto the tanning bed".
She said she and McLachlan were the only two in the salon when he came to the reception desk afterwards.
"He continued to be extremely flirtatious and chatty, a lot of intense eye contact," the woman said.
"Then out of nowhere he said to me, 'I am very sorry but I just have to do this'.
"He walked around the reception desk to where I was sitting, he grabbed my face in both hands and passionately kissed me, tongue included."
She said she was "shocked" and "didn't know what to think".
"It was just such a bizarre situation," she said.
"It was so out of the blue, it was the middle of the day, I'm at work, you don't really expect that.
"I was shaking for the rest of the day, I felt uncomfortable, flustered and confused about what had happened."
She said McLachlan then called her later and asked her to meet him for a drink, which she declined.
"This was just a normal day, I was sitting there doing my job, there was no encouragement from my end," she said.
"For him to feel that's appropriate behaviour to someone he's only met 20 minutes ago … it certainly shows that his behaviour towards the other women that have come out, that it's not about the role he was playing, it's not about that he was just taking his character [in Rocky Horror] a little bit too far.
"Because he wasn't in character when I met him, he was Craig McLachlan."
Topics: arts-and-entertainment, television-broadcasting, australia
First posted