Michael Jackson documentary details shocking sex abuse claims

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PARK CITY, Utah — The Sundance Film Festival was rocked Friday
by an explosive documentary detailing nearly a decade of Michael
Jackson’s alleged sexual abuse against two boys, who were just 5
and 10 years old, respectively, when they first met the late
singer.

Called “Leaving Neverland,” the film has been slammed by the
Jackson estate, which said it was “yet another lurid production in
an outrageous and pathetic attempt to exploit and cash in on
Michael Jackson.” A fan of the King of Pop was stationed outside
the Egyptian Theatre in Park City, passing out “Project Michael”
flyers giving “another perspective.”

In the lead-up to the film’s premiere, the festival took
extraordinary precautions, stationing at least seven police
officers on the theater’s premises after threats of violence.
Sundance also hired state health-care workers to tend to
audience members who might become triggered by the disturbing
material. Indeed, many viewers got up from their seats and walked
out during explicit descriptions of the abuse.

The four-hour documentary runs down, in vulgar terms,
Jackson’s alleged relationships with the two accusers —
Wade Robson and James Safechuck — which began around 1986.

Jackson died of an overdose of prescription drugs in 2009.

“He helped me with my career,” said Robson, who went on to
become a choreographer for N’SYNC and Britney Spears. “He also
sexually abused me for seven years.”

Robson was born and raised in Brisbane, Australia, and became
obsessed with Jackson after his mother brought home the music video
for “Thriller.” The 5-year-old perfectly mimicked the moves, and
went onto win a local dance competition in 1987 that gave him the
opportunity to meet Jackson while he was there on tour.

Later, on a trip to Disneyland with his family, Robson would
meet Jackson again, when the singer invited the boy and his family
to Neverland Ranch, his 2,700-acre estate. There, Robson claims he
and his sister played on the grounds — which included a zoo,
carnival and movie theater — and Jackson asked the family to stay
the weekend after meeting them just four hours prior.

“The trippy part is we felt like we knew him,” Robson says. He
was thrilled when Jackson invited him and his sister, who was 10,
to sleep in his bedroom that evening. The night before Robson and
his family were due to depart for the Grand Canyon, the boy woke up
to Jackson sobbing on the floor in the dark.

Modal Trigger Wade RobsonAFP/Getty Images ^[1]

“I’m just so sad you are going to leave,” he said. Jackson
convinced his mother Joy to let Robson stay five more days while
the rest of the family visited Arizona. She agreed, and that lapse
of judgement, allowing a 7-year-old boy to spend a week with a man
he barely knew, allowed Jackson’s alleged sexual abuse to
begin.

Robson claims the lewd acts started with mutual fondling, then
evolved to kissing, showering together, masturbation, nipple
squeezing and oral sex. He said Jackson told him, “You and I were
brought together by God. This is how we show our love.”

Jackson also sought to put a wedge between Robson and his
parents, calling him “son” and telling him, “Don’t trust
women.”

“Once the abuse started that first week, every night I was with
him there was abuse, with my mother in the next room,” Robson
said.

Safechuck was a California child actor, who in 1987 starred in a
Pepsi commercial featuring the King of Pop. Jackson took a liking
him, and called up the boy’s home, asking his mother, Stephanie, if
he could send a film crew to interview Safechuck. She
enthusiastically agreed, and the kid was filmed talking about
himself, laying in his bed, and then dancing.

“Now that I look back at it,” Safechuck said, “it was almost
like an audition for him.”

Jackson started spending time at Safechuck’s home, often
spending the night. Stephanie would even wash the wealthy singer’s
clothes. Jackson invited the family to join him on a trip to a
Pepsi convention in Hawaii, and he wanted 10-year-old Safechuck to
sleep in his room.

Modal Trigger James Safechuck
holding hands with Michael JacksonWireImage ^[2]

“I didn’t think it was appropriate for my son to go sleep with
him,” Stephanie said. “And that’s how it was the first trip.”

In an audio recording heard in the documentary, Safechuck asks
Jackson, “What was the best thing about Hawaii?” Creepily, he
responds, “Being with you.” And at just 10 years old, he spent his
entire summer with Jackson, who introduced him to celebrities such
as Tina Turner and Harrison Ford, and lavished him and his family
with presents and vacations.

“In Paris, he introduced me to masturbation,” Safechuck said.
“And that’s how it all started.”

As their relationship intensified, Jackson made the boy run
drills to get his clothes on quickly and quietly if he heard
somebody coming. He said Jackson warned him, “If people find out,
his life would be over and my life would be over.”

Safechuck says that he was the first visitor to the Neverland
Ranch, and claims to have had sexual relations with Jackson in its
game room, third floor attic, movie theater, pool, jacuzzi and
train station. “It happened every day,” he said.

Both Safechuck and Robson say they were in love with Jackson, an
affection that crippled them into adulthood. In one particularly
sick act, Safechuck claims the singer staged a mock wedding
ceremony between the two of them, complete with written vows and a
golden ring with a row of diamonds.

Back in Australia, Robson would have daily six- to seven-hour
phone calls with Jackson. Smitten, Jackson gave the boy a nickname,
“Little One,” and scrawled it on the many faxes he’d regularly send
him. He soon convinced Robson’s mother to move her son and daughter
to the US, abandoning her older son Shane and her husband, who
suffered from bipolar disorder. Caught up in the allure of fame,
she agreed.

But upon arrival, they were surprised to find that Jackson had
put them up in a shoddy apartment the family had to pay for. Gone
were the private cars, shopping sprees and Robson lost his promised
role in Jackson’s “Black and White” music video. He soon discovered
why: Macaulay Culkin.

The “Home Alone” actor has always denied being abused by
Jackson, but he nonetheless was the object of his affection,
spending much time at Neverland Ranch. Though the sexual acts
sporadically continued for Robson and Safechuck, they claim Jackson
replaced them with new, younger children.

By September 1992, “[Another] boy would sleep in Michael’s room
and I would sleep on the sofa,” Safechuck says.

Modal Trigger
Michael Jackson surrounded by multicultural children at JFK as
relief supplies are loaded onto a plane destined to aid besieged
Sarjevo.Getty Images ^[3]

Adds Stephanie: “Every 12 months there was a new boy in his
life.”

There were also women. Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley in
1994, and divorced in 1996, the same year he wedded Debbie
Rowe.

“I remember Michael saying to me he’s going to have these public
relationships with women,” Safechuck says.

When Jordy Chandler accused Jackson of sexual abuse in 1993,
Safechuck and Robson both took the stand and said they had never
been abused by Jackson.

‘Once the abuse started that first week, every night I was with
him there was abuse, with my mother in the next room’

 – Wade Robson

Jackson’s estate noted this in a statement: “Wade Robson and
James Safechuck have both testified under oath that Michael never
did anything inappropriate toward them.”

During the Chandler trial, Jackson’s team coached Robson and
Safechuck, the men claim, to say “no” to every single question.
That case was settled out of court for millions of dollars.

The two men finally told their stories in 2015, with Robson
coming clean on the “Today” show. Both are now married with young
children, having suffered from depression, anxiety and panic
attacks in the ensuing years. Robson said protecting his own son
was a major factor in his decision.

As the credits rolled at “Leaving Neverland” Friday, Safechuck
and Robson were announced as surprise guests by the director Dan
Reed. The Sundance audience gave them a long standing ovation.

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