Craig McLachlan receives hefty payout after Rocky Horror Picture Show actor ... trends now
Former Neighbours star Craig McLachlan has been handed a $500,000 payout after he was acquitted of his assault charges.
McLachlan, 57, was charged with assault and indecent assault over complaints from female co-stars in a stage production of the Rocky Horror Picture Show in Melbourne in 2014, during which he played the role of Frank-N-Furter.
He strongly denied the allegations against him.
Magistrate Belinda Wallington found him not guilty of 13 charges following a four-week contested hearing in the Victorian Melbourne Magistrates Court in December 2020.
In her 105-page judgement, the magistrate said she found the incidents to have happened - but that McLachlan believed he had consent.
She said it was his 'egotistical self entitled sense of humour' that led him to believe others would either not mind or find his behaviour funny, and ordered Victoria Police to cover his legal fees.
Craig McLachlan was charged with assault and indecent assault over complaints from female co-stars in a 2014 stage production of the Rocky Horror Picture Show (pictured)
McLachlan is pictured with his partner, Vanessa Scammell, outside the Supreme Court of NSW in May
McLachlan was represented by top criminal lawyer Stuart Littlemore, KC and his legal fees were estimated to hit at least $1million, the Daily Telegraph reported.
The amount he was seeking is not known, nor is the amount police offered to cough up, but the three-time Logie winner launched a case in the Supreme Court in June last year because police failed to pay.
In January, the Supreme Court heard the parties had failed to reach an agreement during mediation last year.
The actor's lawyer told the court his client was prepared to continue with mediation, but police said its position would not change.
He was tried under old consent laws because the alleged crimes occurred before they were changed.
Victorian laws were updated in 2015 to make a defendant guilty of sexual or indecent assault if their incorrect belief they had consent was 'unreasonable'.
McLachlan by contrast had to prove he believed he had consent, regardless of whether his belief was unreasonable.
Magistrate Wallington said in her judgement: 'I can not dismiss the reasonable possibility that in his egocentric state of mind, amongst some amount of adulation from sections of the cast and management, in combination with a lack of checks and balances on
