Vanessa Scammell

Why did they not question her credibility, her changing police statements, her varied and exaggerated stories with journalists?

Even if they had, with the pressure of hashtag MeToo and Believe All Women, would the DPP have been brave enough not to charge Craig McLachlan?

It seemed that the optics of prosecuting Craig and laying as many charges as possible was the objective of the Victorian Police and the DPP back in 2018 when the frenzied Me Too movement was in freefall.

I will now focus on some other claims and accusations C2 made against Craig McLaughlin to further evaluate the credibility of this complainant and the seeming neglect by Victorian police to properly investigate her allegations before charges were laid.

Terry Goldsworthy, former detective inspector and academic in the field of criminal justice, said...

The ensemble member known as C2, having performed in the 2014 production and having decided not to partake in the 2015 tour due to failure to secure a principal role, her desire to perform in the Rocky Horror Show was not yet over.

In 2017, it was announced that another tour was going to take place, a third tour of the Rocky Horror Show, to start in 2018.

Craig's TV show, The Dr Blake Mysteries by now, had cemented itself into the hearts of Australian audiences and it was winning its time slot each and every week.

When producers approached Craig to do this third consecutive tour of Rocky, it was a juggling act to fit it in between filming of the Blake show.

But Craig's love of Rocky meant that he had decided that one more lap in Lippy was what he wanted to do.

So they made it work.

A number of previous cast members applied to return.

They applied with full knowledge that Craig had already been cast in the leading role of Frankenfurter.

During these auditions, C2 messaged an actor who had been a cast member in previous productions who was also re-auditioning for his role in the show.

In court, this cast member had given evidence that not long after the 2014 tour had ended, C2 had told him that a kiss had taken place on stage with Craig that she felt had taken a little longer than it was meant to

but that it hadn't been serious enough to make a complaint about.

This cast member noted that the kiss was part of the direction of the scene.

After the auditions were completed, C2 texted her cast mate again and said that she was in hope of getting a role in the show and said it would be a blast to do it again.

A short time later, when C2 discovered that she hadn't been successful in being cast in the show, she happened to run into this same castmate again on a Melbourne street.

Between them, the casting decisions were discussed.