Chiefs 'a big bunch of dicks' if they assaulted stripper

A dancer known as Scarlette has accused members of the Chiefs rugby team of assaulting her (Getty)
A dancer known as Scarlette has accused members of the Chiefs rugby team of assaulting her (Getty)

Rugby club parties are one of the most dangerous situations a stripper can find herself in, especially if she's alone, says the owner of one of New Zealand's leading stripper agencies.

A dancer known as Scarlette has accused members of the Chiefs rugby team of assaulting her, including grabbing her between the legs, at a 'Mad Monday' party in Matamata. She says she had to fight them off, putting one in a chokehold and punching him in the groin.

The Chiefs' management are investigating the allegations. If they're true, it proves how "fraught with danger" parties full of drunk rugby players can be, says ex-stripper and head of All-Star Strippers Ryan Marston.

"Ninety-five percent of what we do would be stag parties. As a rule, people don't want to look like a dick in front of their friends, so stags are very well-behaved - even though the perception is [the opposite]," he told Paul Henry on Friday.

"They are loud but they tend to be pretty well-behaved, otherwise you'd see it in the media. That 5 percent that's left though is rugby clubs, 21st birthdays, 18ths. These things are fraught with danger.

"Clearly the Chiefs are a big bunch of dicks at the end of the day."

Chiefs sponsor Gallagher defended the players, though spokesperson Margaret Comer told Fairfax Media hiring a stripper was a "stupid damn thing to do".

Mr Marston says it's premature to blame the organisation as a whole, as it only takes one person to book a stripper.

"Nobody would have known until the minute she walked in," he told Paul Henry. "I could have a midget here in half-an-hour, and he could be on set here and your producers wouldn't know."

While totally agreeing that no means no, Mr Marston says Scarlette broke a few "cardinal rules" that put her own safety at risk.

Firstly, she went alone.

"The presence of another guy in the room who's not part of their team, 99.9 percent keeps people in line… When you send a girl into a changing room or a hot pool when a team has got a skinful of booze in them, on her own, I mean, it could have been much worse."

Secondly, she shouldn't have accepted $50 to let one of the players lick her "b***hole". Scarlette says after letting one player do it, four more did without her permission.

"[She] let them step beyond the bound of what was in the proprietary rules of what my company does. Pretty much any other club in the country would not let anyone lick them for a $50 note."

Mr Marston hopes one of the men who was there comes forward with the other side of the story, if there is one.

"If they get in trouble, they deserve what they get. If it is as Scarlette says and they held her down and did these things to her, then essentially it's tantamount to assault or something worse perhaps - sexual assault.

"If though they were invited to do that for money, then that's a different story - I do feel sorry for the guys, because then it's one possibly angry girl who could ruin a number of lives and careers."

It's believed the incident happened on the same night that lock Michael Allardice shouted homophobic slurs at a pub patron, which also made headlines.

Mr Marston isn't the first in the industry to speak out against the Chiefs. Brian Le Gros, who runs Auckland strip bar The White House, called their alleged actions an insult to Scarlette's dignity.

"I've seen girls touched, and it really does affect them… Just like you get one or two dancers who are of not good character, you get one or two rugby players that are of not good character and away they go - they start assuming they can do things that really are illegal."

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