Vanessa Scammell

And what of collusion and perjury?

Let me remind you now of the allegations made by C1.

that on May the 9th, 2014, during a performance of Rocky Horror, Craig had grabbed her face and thrown it, and that in the bows, he had clapped aggressively in her face.

As you will recall, C2 gave an exact account of this description of the assault, word for word, including having witnessed the clapping in the face moment during the bows.

But she wasn't even on stage.

How could two people have come up with exactly the same story if they had not in some way colluded or discussed their stories prior to entering court?

And what of the first understudy?

For she first claimed she had seen Craig kiss her best friend C2 in the going home scene and that C3 had told her about it on the night.

But that didn't happen.

In cross, she had to concede that she never saw any such kiss, let alone their lips ever touch.

Even the sound technician, who was a witness to the prosecution, conceded that she had discussed certain allegations with Craig's accusers before the court case.

There were literally dozens and dozens of emails and texts shared between these four complainants in the early days of allegations, each reminding each other of complaints and incidents.

Proof of this exists.

These same accusers even met up for a dinner in Melbourne before their stories were published.

The question has to be asked, did they compare notes?

Was there collusion?

Following the rulings, the magistrate ruled that Craig McLachlan could also claim costs against the Victorian police, the result being that the Victorian police had to pay Craig a record high amount of a half a million dollars.

There is nothing like that sort of money to indicate how wrong the police got it.

But how much coverage did Craig and his winning of costs get?

You can guess.