Michael Jackson’s prosecutors on Friday were set to wrap up a week of explosive testimony in which jurors heard how the star allegedly performed oral sex on a young boy and fondled others.
The prosecution team at Jackson’s child sex trial planned to bring out more witnesses to Jackson’s alleged abuses of five boys about a decade ago, while the defence was certain to step up its attempts to discredit their credibility.
The so-called ”King of Pop” is on trial for allegedly fondling another 13-year-old boy at his Neverland ranch two years ago, but the prosecution hopes the prior cases will demonstrate a pattern of child abuse in his past.
Testimony in the prior cases could continue until next week, while the trial itself is expected to continue for several more months.
Among those still to testify in the five cases is the mother of a boy allegedly molested by Jackson at age 13 and who won an out-of-court settlement worth more than $20-million in a 1994 deal that ensured his silence and averted a criminal trial.
The new testimony could inflict more damage to Jackson’s defence, already reeling from this week’s graphic descriptions of alleged child abuse incidents in the early 1990s.
A former security guard told jurors he saw Jackson and the boy who won the 1994 deal naked in a bathroom at the star’s Neverland Ranch.
”I saw Mr. Jackson caressing the boy’s hair, he was kissing him on his head, on his face, his lips … sucking his nipples,” Ralph Chacon said on Thursday.
Jackson then ”put the little boy’s penis in his mouth,” Chacon said.
Former Jackson maid Adrian McManus also told jurors on Thursday she saw the pop icon kissing the boy and two others as he touched their rear ends or crotches.
She identified one of those boys as Home Alone movie star Macaulay Culkin, who has denied ever being abused by Jackson.
Earlier in the week, the court also heard emotional testimony from one of the boys Jackson allegedly abused.
The boy, who testified to three groping incidents when he was aged seven to 10, had won an out-of-court settlement worth a reported $2-million from Jackson in 1994.
His mother, who was Jackson’s personal maid for years, told jurors she once saw another young boy in the shower with Jackson, and that boys regularly slept with the star in his bed.
In most cases, the defence team has not addressed the claims themselves but sought to savage the credibility of the witnesses, suggesting they were out to extort money from Jackson.
Both McManus and Chacon were among several former Neverland employees who lost a wrongful job termination lawsuit against Jackson after jurors found they acted with malice toward the pop singer.
Jackson is not on trial for any of the five prior claims but Judge Rodney Melville told jurors they could weigh the testimony to determine whether it shows a pattern of behaviour.
The 46-year-old father of three has denied all 10 charges of fondling a 13 year-old-boy two years ago, serving him alcohol and conspiring to hold him and his family against their will.
If convicted, the fading pop idol could face as many as 20 years behind bars. — Sapa-AFP