Actor Craig McLachlan to challenge inclusion of new evidence in defamation case

Actor Craig McLachlan is set to challenge the evidence of a new witness being used in a looming defamation trial over media allegations of sexual harassment.

McLachlan is suing the ABC, Nine and former colleague Christie Whelan Browne over claims he acted inappropriately while starring in a stage production of The Rocky Horror Show in 2014.

He claims to have been greatly injured by reports he says wrongly accused him of incidents including indecent assault, exposing himself to female cast members and bullying.

The media outlets deny they defamed the 56-year-old, but if that is unsuccessful, they will also rely on a defence of truth.

What is expected to be a four-week trial before a jury won’t start until at least April 2022, more than four years since the Gold Logie-winner first took action in the NSW Supreme Court.

The court was told on Friday the defendants had lodged a notice of motion to amend the defence case several years after it was first filed.

Defence barrister Lyndelle Barnett said Mr McLachlan’s legal team had consented to the additions aside from one aspect, revealed to be evidence from a new witness.

His barrister Kieran Smark SC told the court they would challenge whether it had been lodged too late in the proceedings and if it “should be allowed at all”.

“That person … is a new person,” he said.

Justice John Sackar set a date of October 22 for a hearing about the new evidence to determine whether it can be admitted in the trial.

Justice Sackar also told the court the jury trial would not take place before April 2022 due to its estimated length.

The proceedings launched in 2018 were stayed the following year when Mr McLachlan was charged in Victoria with assaulting and indecently assaulting four women during the stage production.

He pleaded not guilty to and was acquitted of all charges at Melbourne Magistrates Court in 2020 and promptly restarted the defamation proceedings.

The man who made his name as a heart-throb on Neighbours in the 1980s has always vehemently denied the allegations against him.

“Frankly, they seem to be simple inventions, perhaps made for financial reasons, perhaps to gain notoriety,” he said in a 2018 statement.

“In either event, they are to the best of my knowledge utterly and entirely false.”

In an interview with Channel 7’s Spotlight program this year, McLachlan claimed journalists had been keen to uncover Australia’s answer to Harvey Weinstein and said he had been pushed to consider suicide.