Chiefs stripper allegations prompt investigation
An executive for one of the Chiefs' major sponsors has suggested a stripper who claimed players touched her inappropriately should have expected it.
The Chiefs have come under fire over an end-of-season celebration on Monday evening which also saw a player accused of making anti-gay slurs against a member of the public.
Margaret Comer, corporate services executive for sponsor Gallagher, told Fairfax she is hesitant to say team members who touched Scarlette were acting inappropriately.
"If a woman takes her clothes off and walks around in a group of men, what are we supposed to do if one of them tries to touch her," Ms Comer said.
"It's not nice and perhaps the stripper shouldn't have been hired, but I'm reluctant to say that the boys were out of line."
Ms Comer said she believed booking a stripper for the celebrations was a "stupid damn thing to do".
Chiefs CEO Andrew Flexman says the allegations are being investigated by the club's management and New Zealand Rugby.
"If any of these allegations are substantiated we will be taking the appropriate action," he said at a media conference on Thursday afternoon.
"In the last 24 hours some really serious allegations have surfaced about conduct in respect to our players and we are taking, as an organisation, those allegations seriously," said Mr Flexman.
"It would be fair to say we're really, really disappointed in the actions of our players in engaging the services of a performer to attend a post-season celebration that took place on Monday."
The stripper, known as Scarlette, says players touched her against her wishes and taunted her.
Mr Flexman wouldn't confirm if senior players, including All Blacks, were involved in the incident.
"We don't know who's allegedly involved," he said.
"We've made no assumptions about anything, because we haven't yet conducted an investigation."
Mr Flexman said he regrets his earlier comments he made to media that the stripper's "standing in the community and culpability was not beyond reproach".
"In retrospect I probably regret the way that that was expressed. In no way… as a person and the values that I have, given the vocation that this particular woman is involved, do I cast aspersions on her as a person as a result of that vocation."
Mr Flexman said that to the best of his knowledge it's not usual for players to hire strippers for their functions.
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