- In the last few weeks a large amount
of ugly, malicious information
has been released into the media about me,
- This investigation regarding Mister Jackson
involves allegations of child molestation,
288-A of the California penal code,
- And I will not be a silent collaborator of his crimes,
- [Interviewer] Were you ever accused
of having sexually molested Brett Barnes?
- [Man] Don't answer that,
- The strain of the ongoing investigation
is clearly taking its toll,
- I'm behind my son,
I don't believe any of this stuff
that has been written about him,
- We support our brother wholeheartedly,
- The the felony complaint involves nine counts,
- [News Reporter] So has the star simply buckled under pressure?
Is the strain too much of seeing his accuser in court?
- But in the end he simply couldn't afford
to live in a fantasy,
- Breaking news for you tonight,
The singer, Michael Jackson,
is reported to have died from a heart attack,
- Daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine,
- Intense sexual abuse,
Being heard is a powerful thing,
We can't control what people believe,
- The information is disgusting and false,
- My name is Mike Smallcombe,
I'm a journalist based in the UK,
and I've written a book on the career
and the life of Michael Jackson,
Right after Michael Jackson passed away,
being a journalist, I read a few of his biographies,
and being interested in his life and career,
and all of them were focused on his personal life,
Here we've got probably the biggest music superstar ever,
and there's not really any literature, any books out there
that cover his career,
so loving research, being a journalist,
and Michael Jackson being a topic I was interested in,
I thought there's a real gap in the market there,
Why can't I be the person who writes something like that?
- I'm Mark Lester,
longtime friend of Michael's,
So I've known Michael since about 1978,
When Michael was touring with The Jacksons,
he came over to the UK,
and his manager phoned me up,
and said Mike would like to meet me,
so we met,
When I was waiting on the other side of the door
before I met him for the first time,
I didn't know what to expect,
I thought he was going to answer the door in a spacesuit, or he would be levitating,
or something like weird,
But he wasn't, he was just a completely normal guy,
We're both the same age, within a month,
Michael was born in August, I was born in July of '58,
Michael showed me all these magazines, pop magazines,
"Tiger Beat," "Teen" magazine,
which were big in the States,
Whenever there was an article with Michael was in it,
usually I would be somewhere in the magazine as well,
so there was some kind of association with that,
that Michael picked up on,
- My name's Lucy Lester,
Michael is my godfather,
I was 12 when I first met him,
He flew us over to Las Vegas,
and that's where we had the naming ceremony,
I never grew up listening to his music, or anything,
so to me it wasn't Michael, like pop star,
it was just Michael, my dad's best friend,
- My name's Matt Fiddes,
I was Michael Jackson's friend and bodyguard,
for a number of years,
People have to understand,
I wasn't with him 24 hours a day,
I think when people try and say, were you close to him?
Or, are you friends with him?
This guy's the biggest superstar on Earth,
- When Michael was onstage, he owned it,
It was an incredible transformation,
["Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" by Michael Jackson]
♪ I said you wanna be startin' somethin' ♪
♪ You got to be startin' somethin' ♪
♪ I said you wanna be startin' somethin' ♪
♪ You got to be startin' somethin' ♪
- Being onstage at the age of five,
it's all he ever knew,
He was in the Jackson 5 of course,
and tremendously successful,
That had led him to be
one of the richest people in entertainment ever,
and be adored by millions of fans around the world,
So that's a great, great privilege,
Of course, we know the flip side to that,
with Michael Jackson, and the burden of that,
- I always liken him to being a member of the royal family,
He was born into it,
He didn't know any different,
So his perception of the world
was completely different from my reality, your reality,
- He would say it was
the greatest thing that happened to him,
but also he would like to have been given a choice
to be a superstar,
Because he can't remember not being Michael Jackson,
the famous guy who couldn't go anywhere,
- There was one story in particular that he would say,
and he was recording with Motown,
and he was in the studio with his brothers,
and they could hear children playing
in a playground opposite,
And he just wished that he could just go over there,
and be himself, be a child,
But he couldn't, because he was recording,
And there was a time when brothers
were due to go to South America to tour,
And, in the car on the way to the airport,
he was just crying, because he didn't want to go,
He just wanted to stay,
and be a child, play,
He couldn't do that,
And it had a massive impact on him as an adult,
Obviously, this obsession with childhood,
and building Neverland Ranch,
wanting to be with children,
Always trying to compensate for that childhood
that he never had,
[children playing]
- I think the way to describe him,
he was the biggest media
manipulator there is in the world,
where he could control the media, in certain ways,
And at the same time, it would backfire on occasions,
And no one wanted to tell him,
Is this the wrong thing to do?
This may look the wrong way from the public point of view,
- He told me that he was an illusionist,
so if he wanted to create a stir with the press,
all he had to do was go out of the hotel in a wheelchair,
and then all of a sudden,
the whole of the world's press,
was, oh Michael Jackson's in a wheelchair,
And then he'd just get out the wheelchair
and get in the car,
One of his favorites was a surgical mask,
He'd walk around with that,
and they were like, what's going on here?
Why is he wearing a surgical mask?
It was for illusion,
So he knew kind of a little bit how to play,
and then to toy with the press,
But in other ways he was incredibly naive,
- We have stories about Michael Jackson's soul,
The fact the Michael was a bit eccentric, helped that,
So this mystery persona,
I mean wow, he sleeps in an oxygen chamber,
He lives on a theme park,
His skin color's changed,
You name it,
- [Mark] Sadly, it kind of came around
and it bit him on the backside a bit,
- Unfortunately, it was partly Michael's fault,
the mysterious aspect of his life,
and the weird stuff coming out in the 80's,
That was slightly his fault with his PR campaign,
But, that was quite innocent stuff, really,
The chamber, Bubbles the monkey,
elephant man bones,
It just got really, really vicious,
and negative, and totally backfired unfortunately,
The team around Michael,
stopped having his best interests at heart,
In 1995,
so from '97 until 2009,
Michael had [muffled], I had to get my head around this,
10 different managers, different accountants,
different lawyers,
It was a mess, complete and utter mess,
Partly Michael's fault,
but they have a duty representing him
to have his best interests at heart, and they didn't,
They had their own interests at heart,
In '93, the civil lawsuit filed
by the Jordan Chandler family,
and the police report, that was simultaneous,
Once Michael Jackson had settled that civil lawsuit,
the reasons being, not because he wanted
to hush the Chandler family,
The reasons actually are quite incredible,
- I can't speak for Michael,
but I know one thing,
Michael is not guilty, I've talked to him before,
I think he'll be fine,
because he had nothing to be ashamed of,
- [Man] He's strong,
- [Katharine] So he's very strong,
He'll just come out of it,
- A judge ruled that the civil lawsuit
would be heard first,
Because it was a minor,
I think he thought that okay,
we're gonna have to hear this within 120 days,
from this day,
Michael's lawyers are like,
hey, we want the criminal trial first,
because a civil lawsuit,
that can really prejudice a criminal trial,
Why?
Because we have a court hearing,
between the Chandlers and Michael's defense,
in a civil lawsuit,
the Chandlers and their attorneys will know
what Michael's defense is going to be,
That's massively prejudicial
for any criminal trial,
He wouldn't get a fair criminal trial,
because he had this civil thing going on before,
The important one was the criminal one,
because he could end up in jail,
The civil one is just about money,
If you're hearing the civil one first,
and that could help get you in jail,
Michael's team was like, the only option we've got,
because the judge ruled the civil one
is going to be heard first, to get rid of it,
How do you get rid of it?
You have to settle,
That made Michael look guilty,
What is he hiding?
Why is he paying off this family?
- If this really went on,
do you think the father would accept money,
that that would make it okay,
that that would make everything all right?
It doesn't make any sense,
I know that if that were my son, I'm sorry,
I don't care if he gave me a billion dollars,
I want to see you either behind bars or dead,
for the rest of your life,
for doing that to my son,
or my daughter,
It's crazy, the guy was after money is what he wanted,
- I totally disagreed with him doing that,
He should not have given him anything,
But if there had been any criminal activity,
you can't pay off the cops
or the legal system,
They will go after you,
You can't just say, I'll pay the fine,
because it didn't work like that,
If they pursued it through the criminal courts,
they didn't,
- We have concluded that because the young boy,
who was a catalyst,
for this investigation,
has recently informed us,
that he does not wish to participate
in any criminal proceeding,
where he is named as a victim,
that we must decline prosecution involving Mister Jackson,
- People don't know the ins and outs
of why he was forced to make that settlement,
He didn't want to, he wanted to fight them both,
So, that was '93, gone,
- I think he got over that quite quickly
and just pushed that one aside,
The second time, with the Arvizo case,
now that was around 2003,
At that time I'd seen quite a lot of Michael,
and going backwards and forwards to the States,
spending a lot of time at Neverland,
and I was at Neverland,
a great deal of the time when the Arvizo family were there,
and they were awful,
- When we heard that police were at Neverland,
me and Mark spoke, and we knew exactly,
we're talking Gavin Arvizo and his family,
And out at the fours even,
we'd been told, or the media
had even announced that we knew,
because they were just called in havoc,
- Basically, the boy was recovering from cancer,
and Michael had said to him in the hospital
that if he ever wanted to come to Neverland,
be my guest, come,
And of course, the mother had overheard this,
and like yeah, we're going,
Okay, so they turn up at Neverland,
It was just initially the boy and his mom,
They were made to feel very welcome,
and put up in one of the guest lodges,
But they stayed for like three months,
And then all of a sudden all these cousins appeared,
And at one time there was like 15 of these like kids,
and they were running riot around Neverland,
- Anyone could clearly see
that they were taking advantage of Michael,
because he had such a big heart,
and he wanted people to come to Neverland,
He wanted them to have this amazing experience,
and I think it's quite sad that people
must portray that as, if you're being kind,
you must be preying on people,
There must be something sinister behind it,
when all he wanted to do was just make people happy,
- They were just like hooligans,
and then it came to a time
when they were asked to leave,
The next day is when I think the mother turned really nasty,
and then made all these allegations about Michael,
- Years ago, I allowed a family
to visit and spend some time at Neverland,
Neverland is my home,
I allowed this family into my home
because they told me their son was ill with cancer,
and needed my help,
Through the years I have helped thousands of children
who were ill or in distress,
These events have caused a nightmare for my family,
my children, and me,
I never intend to place myself
in so vulnerable a position ever again,
- The service of the warrant
was part of an ongoing investigation,
alleging criminal misconduct on the part of Michael Jackson,
The basis for this investigation regarding Mister Jackson,
involves allegations of child molestation,
288-A of the California penal code,
Additionally, an arrest warrant for Mister Jackson
has been issued,
on multiple counts of child molestation,
The bail amount on the warrant has been set
at three million dollars,
At this point in time, Mister Jackson's
been given an opportunity to surrender himself
to the custody of the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Department,
within a specified period of time,
We are currently working with Mister Jackson's
legal representation on this matter,
- Sham of a trial, again about money,
because Arvizo's mom
first went to a civil lawyer,
to try and get a settlement of some sort,
But the civil lawyer said,
you need a conviction first,
And that's the only reason why
there was a criminal trial first,
- This case is about one thing only,
it's about the dignity, the integrity,
the decency, the honor,
the charity, the innocence,
and the complete vindication
of a wonderful human being named Michael Jackson,
- I would like to thank the fans around the world,
- [News Reporter] Could you speak up please?
- I would like to thank the fans around the world,
for your loving support,
from every corner of the Earth,
my family who has been very supportive,
my brother Randy, who's been incredible,
I want to thank the community of Santa Maria,
I want you to know that
I love the community of Santa Maria very much,
it's my community,
I love the people,
I will always love the people,
My children were born in this community,
my home is in this community,
I will always love this community
from the bottom of my heart,
That's why I moved here,
Thank you very much,
- The first thing wasn't going to the police
and saying, this is what happened,
The first step was civil lawyer, money,
- But the media wanted that clash, bang,
The guy who has come from nothing,
and then you see him in the handcuffs,
The money would have been in
if he was found guilty for the media,
And the media outside was just unbelievable,
You have never seen anything like it,
- In America, the coverage of the trial was horrid,
Certain things would be said in court,
and then a completely different thing
would be reported in the media,
There's no wonder that non-fans,
members of the public were
outraged that Michael Jackson was found not guilty,
because they'd read this coverage
of Michael for five months,
thinking that this was the coverage in the court,
when it wasn't,
- The reason publicity about these settlements
is unfair and damaging to him, his family,
and his dedication to the world's children,
The charges he faces are false,
and will be battled in a court of law
within our justice system,
He is innocent and will be vindicated,
- It was a disgrace,
The media was spreading around this narrative
that Michael Jackson was guilty,
How can a jury find him not guilty,
given what's happened in that courtroom?
But that wasn't the case,
In fact, what was heard in the courtroom
was highly in Michael's favor,
After the prosecution case was put forward,
the defense were thinking,
are we even gonna bother here?
Because the jury was ready
to declare Michael Jackson not guilty,
after the prosecution case,
But the defense decided
we're gonna hammer the nail in the coffin
of all of this,
- [Thomas] The only people that really mattered
were 12 jurors and one judge, 13 people,
The rest were just extraneous
as far as we were concerned,
You had to drown out the media,
They were just a distraction,
They had their own agenda,
which was ratings and revenue, not justice,
and you had to just focus on the evidence,
focus on the courtroom,
and stay away from them,
- [Susan] I think Michael is one of those rare clients,
where lawyers really don't have to prep a lot,
You don't even have to coach him,
in terms of how he should behave in the courtroom,
He was just so well-behaved naturally,
without even having to tell him
to do anything other than just be himself,
- [David] How he survived two years,
where you're possibly going to live
the rest of your life behind bars,
I don't know, I would have taken a gun and shot myself,
But he was very strong and he was someone who
knew he had done nothing wrong,
And he just believed in his conviction, so I hand it to him,
But it was tough,
- The image and persona the tabloid press saw of Michael,
is not the man,
not the true Michael Jackson,
And I think because he was different,
he didn't conform to the norm,
people didn't like that,
There was this kind of witch hunt about
getting this man,
because he just didn't conform to how
they wanted him to,
- In the UK, there seem to be these top-down agreements
since the late '80's,
that Michael Jackson was to be smeared,
Reporters would be told,
all we're gonna report on
is negative Michael Jackson stories, to sell papers,
So the red tops, they all agreed on that,
You still see that today,
So that's the dirtier thing in the UK,
Michael Jacko, all the newspapers,
And now again, two accusers, 2013,
going to a civil lawyer, and saying,
I want to sue Michael Jackson's estate,
- Yeah, you know, there's been different times
where it would just be me and Michael,
Then there'd be other times where he has
other friends over too,
That's what Albert Brett said,
It's just a slumber party,
we'd just have a lot of fun,
We just have a lot of fun,
- Intense sexual abuse,
That had to be clear,
- I can just say for decades,
Jackson put up this smokescreen,
which was reinforced by his family,
and the media as well,
- The allegations are nothing new,
Obviously I didn't know there was gonna be a film,
but I knew about the allegations,
because Wade Robson and James Safechuck
sued the Michael Jackson estate
all the way back in 2013,
This is something that's very much under the radar,
rumbled on and on,
How that all started,
Wade Robson tried to get a job
with the Michael Jackson estate,
being the lead choreographer on the Cirque du Soleil show,
- I'm starting on Cirque du Soleil, Michael Jackson show,
So it's the equivalent of
The Beatles Love Show that they have,
or the Elvis show, but for Michael,
- Didn't get the job,
Was at a crossroads in his career,
lacking finances, not really knowing where to turn,
He was desperate to get this job,
been praising Michael ever since Michael died,
went to his memorial service at the Staples Center,
saying in interviews how Michael
is this great friend of his,
- Michael's such a hug part of my career, and life,
We were friends for 20 years before he passed,
since I was seven,
So it's an opportunity for me
to give back a little bit to his legacy,
it's such a big part of his legacy,
and to make sure as much as I can,
that it's done right,
and that it really represents his essence,
- Didn't get the job,
Didn't know what to do,
He was having this sort of breakdown,
and he started to write a book about Michael,
and tried to shop that book around,
and in it, claimed that Michael Jackson had abused him,
No one would have it,
so that was when Wade Robson went to a civil lawyer,
and looked at his options,
and eventually filed a creditor's claim
against the Michael Jackson estate,
It was initially at 1,5 billion dollars,
I don't have an intrinsic knowledge
of the ins and outs of how much it eventually was,
but it's hundreds of millions of dollars,
He actually filed that lawsuit, initially under seal,
So if you file something under seal,
it doesn't become public record,
He was hoping that the estate would go,
oh, here's X amount of money,
Let's keep this quiet,
Here's your money, go away,
But the estate was like, no chance,
We're gonna fight this,
That's when it became public,
I'll go back to James Safechuck,
He was watching Wade Robson,
and this is May 2013, watching Wade Robson on TV,
one of the TV shows in America,
where Wade Robson says I was abused,
and all this stuff happened to me,
and James Safechuck said, in his sworn declaration,
that was what triggered something in his mind,
made him realize, I've been abused by Michael Jackson, too,
There have been so many inconsistencies
in terms of, when they knew about this alleged abuse,
Wade Robson is saying that in 2005,
I testified in Michael's defense
because I saw his children,
Michael was a friend,
I didn't want him to go to jail,
That's why I did it,
And yet, then he's saying that he only realized
that he was abused in 2012-13,
you've got that inconsistency,
It's the same with Safechuck,
2005, claiming that he was asked to testify
in Michael Jackson's trial, which is not true,
Early on in the trial, a judge ruled that
any evidence as per James Safechuck would not be admitted,
would not be allowed in the trial,
Yet in the documentary we see Safechuck saying,
that Michael called me, Michael's lawyers called me,
but I refused to testify,
He's saying that he knew about the abuse in 2005,
Michael was a bad man,
I'm not gonna testify,
Then he says that the Wade Robson TV show
is what triggered him into realizing that he was abused,
So you've got them saying,
okay we suddenly realized in 2012-13,
that hey we knew, in 2005,
because Wade Robson, I was protecting Michael,
Safechuck, I wasn't gonna testify because he's a bad man,
That's when James Safechuck filed a copycat lawsuit,
So from 2013, till 2017,
you've got this ongoing litigation with the estate,
Eventually a judge threw out the lawsuit,
because of a thing called statute of limitations,
They just basically filed it too late,
A year later, you've got the documentary film being made,
- I watched it, and I was saddened by the show,
Victims of child abuse is a very, very serious matter,
but it didn't really push anything about
the child abuse thing,
I don't know,
I watched it and all it was was like,
watching a court case where you heard
the prosecution and no defense,
It was so totally unbalanced,
and I don't know,
I just, it made me feel sick,
- That was, for them, the obvious route,
Let's make this thing public,
let's make this a worldwide issue,
Can this help our appeal?
Which isn't mentioned in the documentary,
against the decision by a judge to throw out the case,
- It's like I don't feel like they want justice,
If that was me, that would be above anything,
That is why I would want,
but we don't want to be going in front of a camera,
talking about my experience to people that don't know me,
The first I would do is, go to the police,
I wouldn't be thinking like how,
let's turn this into a book,
Let's go and sue the family,
Because, who does that?
- I couldn't speak the truth any earlier than I did,
I wish I could have,
I wish I was emotionally
and mentally capable earlier, than I was,
- I think being heard is
probably one of the number one wants of a victim,
But also,
when all this goes away,
and the interest goes away,
we're still left with being abused,
- So much silence, and so much isolation,
which I experienced, James experienced,
and most survivors experience,
So being heard is a powerful thing,
We can't control what people believe,
That's up to people's own journey,
- All of Michael's accusers, it's always been about money,
- It's never because there's evidence
that he's done this or done that,
It's always money, always going for the money first,
Or they wait until he dies, and goes for the money,
because they know a criminal trial won't work,
so it's always financial,
- Let's start at the beginning,
So when there's money involved,
that automatically should make people wary,
What are their intentions here?
And then you've got previous behavior in court,
Wade Robson and Jimmy Safechuck are perjurers,
because they testified under oath,
So Safechuck back in '93, and Robson,
Michael Jackson never did anything, sworn declaration,
signed, under penalty of perjury,
2005, Wade Robson testified in court,
under oath, under penalty of perjury,
nothing ever happened,
- What I find odd is the fact that
Mesereau, Michael's lawyer,
who is an extremely high-powered lawyer,
who would have obviously interviewed this kid,
in depth, and you're talking about one of the top
lawyers in America,
and if he was convinced that
he was safe to put on the stand,
I don't know,
it baffles me,
- So already you've got credibility issues there,
You've got the financial aspect,
and you've got the credibility,
due to previous statements,
If there was a court case,
if Michael Jackson was alive,
Michael's defense would try and impeach
those witnesses by bringing into evidence
previous inconsistent statements,
and that would include Michael Jackson never did anything,
under oath, under penalty of perjury,
That alone is enough
to make all the allegations highly not credible,
The first time that Wade Robson alleges
that he was abused by Michael Jackson, was in January 1990,
The Robson family went to Record One Studios,
while Michael was working
on the album that became, "Dangerous,"
Michael said, why don't you come up
to Neverland for the weekend?
To the whole family, the whole Robson family,
So that was Wade, Chantal, his sister,
her mother, Joy, and her parents, so Wade's grandparents,
All whisked up to Neverland for the weekend,
They stayed for two nights, the whole family,
And both Wade, and Joy Robson,
said under oath, that those first two nights,
Wade and Chantal slept with Michael, in Michael's bedroom,
Nothing happened,
Wade said in the documentary, nothing happened,
- And I've slept in the same bed as Michael,
He says, you watch cartoons, you fall asleep,
You know, it's just a friendship,
and I know he would never do anything to hurt my brother,
He's the nicest guy you've ever met,
- I've been there when these kids
have been in Michael's room,
I've been there with them,
It's just party time,
They watch videos,
they eat junk food,
they play video games,
They play so hard,
they fall asleep, they're exhausted, they fall asleep,
There's nothing more to it than that,
- [Interviewer] From your standpoint
does it seem unusual for a 34-year-old man
to have kids sleeping over?
- Not when you know Michael's background,
Under normal circumstances, possibly yes,
But Michael, everybody knows he didn't have a childhood,
- Then, the rest of Robson's family
went away to the Grand Canyon,
Wade says that after the first couple of nights,
he saw Michael hunched in a corner, crying,
that he didn't want to Robson family to leave him,
But the Robson family was touring America at the time,
So the story goes that
Wade stayed at Neverland,
and the rest of the family went away to the Grand Canyon,
leaving little seven-year-old Wade Robson
alone at Neverland,
He says that slowly, as those days went on,
he was abused by Michael Jackson, for the first time,
and goes into real livid detail about that,
His whole story that it happened that first time,
that first weekend,
So I had a source who could provide me
with some court transcripts,
Joy Robson, in a deposition from '93,
and I discovered that during that deposition,
Joy Robson said that,
yeah we went to Neverland for the weekend, the whole family,
and stayed a couple of nights,
and then the whole family then went off to the Grand Canyon,
So they didn't leave Wade behind,
She then said that again, in 2016, in a deposition,
for the civil lawsuit, which is very odd,
because Wade's whole story is,
I was left behind while my family
went off to the Grand Canyon,
But Joy Robson says that the whole family went,
naming Wade as having gone with them,
And Joy has also previously testified under oath,
that the first time Wade was alone with Michael
at Neverland was '93,
And then in a different, totally different case,
Wade Robson, in 2005 also says,
the last time I was alone with Michael was in 1993,
So you've got these statements made
by both Joy and Wade, under oath,
on three or four occasions,
where that story is, we stayed two nights,
we went off to the Grand Canyon, all of us,
Wade Robson has never been at Neverland alone until 1993,
- He's not just getting dates mixed up,
because Joy Robson was an adult, in the early 90's,
and she gave this deposition two years
after the first Neverland trip,
She would have remembered then,
that first weekend at Neverland,
Wade came with us to the Grand Canyon,
It's not 15 years later, did he, didn't he?
No, they said Wade came with us to the Grand Canyon,
Why would you then lie about that?
In the "Leaving Neverland" documentary,
James Safechuck gives this detailed story about how
he was abused in different places
around Neverland by Michael Jackson,
including the grand train station,
which people will know because of the floral clock
in front, it's quite an iconic piece,
So he goes into this detail about how he was abused
in a room upstairs, and pictures appear on the screen,
so it's definitely that train station,
and he says it happened every day,
and he says of the how,
it's something that happens when you first
get into a relationship and things are exciting,
That to me would indicate that he's talking about the stars,
when he was abused by Michael Jackson allegedly,
So his time period where he alleges he was abused,
began, signed two sworn declarations,
under penalty of perjury that
he was abused between 1988 and 1992,
until he was 14,
The narrative of the whole thing is that,
"I got too big, I got too old, Michael moved on,"
He started phasing me out,
and replaced me essentially,
So if we've got that time line of,
I was abused between 1988 and '92,
the train station abuse must have happened
during that time period,
And then a fan pointed out that the train station
didn't open until 1994,
by which time Safechuck was 16,
They got a couple of pictures,
a couple of Associated Press Getty Images pictures
of footage of Neverland from 1991,
Elizabeth Taylor's wedding,
footage above Neverland, from a helicopter,
no train station,
So the fans had established that,
that prompted me to use my source
to try and narrow this down,
Let's prove that this train station didn't exist until '94,
So I managed to get hold of the construction permits,
which showed that the train station
was not approved for construction until September, 1993,
There was an image taken by a press photographer
on the 25th of August, '93, from a helicopter,
His name is Steven Starr,
so he was working in an office in LA,
The reason he was flying over Neverland on that day,
was because of the allegations,
which itself was two days earlier,
So Steve, get yourself in a helicopter,
take some pictures of Neverland from above,
Those pictures show no train station,
And I contacted Steve Starr personally,
and he confirmed that 25th of August, '93,
is the correct day for when he took that picture,
no train station,
and then you've got the permits approved a month later,
So you've got real solid evidence
that there was no train station until,
the building didn't begin until late '93,
opened in 1994,
Michael Jackson in '94, was living in New York,
to record the "History" album, a couple of reasons,
to get out of California because of the DA going after him,
There was an earthquake in LA in early '94,
and he was a bit scared about that,
so he wanted to move the entire operation to New York,
Michael Jackson wasn't in LA in '94,
but the point being,
you've got a two-year discrepancy there,
Safechuck saying, the abuse stopped, I was 14,
It was 1992, going into vivid detail
about abuse happening in the train station,
in an upstairs room,
That's a massive discrepancy,
Those are the two main ones,
Wade Robson and the Grand Canyon,
and Jimmy Safechuck in the train station,
Then we go back to Wade Robson's behavior
in the civil lawsuit,
Wade Robson files his lawsuits
in I believe it was March, 2013,
He's saying that he realized he was abused in May, 2012,
Under US law you've got 60 days
from the period of knowing that you've been abused,
or realizing you've been abused,
to file a creditor's claim,
but Wade Robson filed that 10 months too late,
To get around that,
he claimed, I didn't know that the Michael Jackson estate
was open for administration,
So I didn't know who to sue,
But then, evidence came out in that case,
that Wade Robson was aware of the Michael Jackson estate,
because in 2011, he'd met with John Branca,
the co-executor of the estate,
but this had [mumbles],
so the judge ruled that Wade Robson
had lied in his sworn declaration,
Lying under oath, under penalty of perjury,
just to be able to sue,
[light instrumental music]
- Neverland was built as, A, a safety boho,
where no one could get in,
It was a big property,
it was the size of Hyde Park, the whole area of it,
Then he had his movie theater built,
which was like a 100-seater movie theater,
beautifully done, like a small cinema with a big screen,
Then he had his fairgrounds built,
for his own entertainment,
then he had his zoo,
so that he had kind of everything,
- But Neverland was not really a home for him,
That was somewhere he would return to go back,
and to show himself,
and it was built really for sick children,
He would have Make A Wish Foundation,
coachloads of kids, thousands and thousands
would go through there every year,
And then he would make sure, he would try and show his face,
and come out to the kids, and so on,
He would fly in from wherever he is,
Because being in Neverland,
it's in the middle of nowhere,
He used to hate the drive from Neverland to Los Angeles,
He had a permanent suite,
and an apartment at one stage, in Los Angeles,
He had a permanent place at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel,
called the Michael Jackson Suite, too in the end,
because he used to rent it out full-time,
He needed to be in the city, and do business,
not up in the valley,
He was rarely there,
A lot of people make this big deal about an alarm,
that when you walk up to Michael Jackson's bedroom,
you go down the corridor, and an alarm goes off,
That's completely true,
Now, not only is that in Michael Jackson's house,
since Michael died I've gone on to work
for a lot of big superstars,
they have alarms too,
It's just the same thing,
It's just a sensor, walks along,
just in case there's an intruder in the night,
they can get to their escape route,
Michael made sure that was already in place,
a security team,
So whenever you walk, alarm bells would go off
in Michael's room,
to say someone is approaching,
And that was for him to wake up,
everything's okay, it's the middle of the night, and so on,
They also go on about this abuse room,
the sexual secret room,
Now that angers me a lot,
because for a start, let's talk about Michael's bedroom,
it's two stories, it's massive,
it's the normal size of a house, basically,
and he does have a secret room, if you want to call it that,
Now that room was built before he bought Neverland,
He recorded a video called, "Say, Say, Say,"
with Paul McCartney there,
it was called Sycamore Valley then,
and he liked the property so much, he liked the ranch,
he wanted to buy it,
And it's quite standard for houses of that magnitude,
to have panic rooms,
and it had a panic room already built in there,
And that's what we're talking about here,
we're not talking about
an abuse room, a sex abuse room, anything like that,
That was where Michael went when the alarms went off,
or when head of security,
or someone at Neverland alerting us
that something had gone awry,
he would run to, and shut himself in,
and he would have stuff in there that would entertain him,
because he would be in there for some hours
waiting for the police to turn up, and so on,
Because Neverland is in the middle of nowhere,
So he would have, watched Disney films,
and what may not be normal to normal people,
but he ain't normal, he's Michael Jackson,
He'd been raised differently,
Michael was guarded as much as the President literally,
He's the most famous man on Earth,
So from a bodyguard's point of view,
it's very hard to understand
how these allegations could be true,
Because he was the most protected man on Earth,
He had security like the President,
So if we talk about along the road,
you would have, you would get there the day before,
You'd go directly to the hotel,
You'd go through the fire exits, and so on,
You'd put security sensor mats outside his door,
or any entrance to wherever his suite is,
You'd put a camera up top of his bedroom door,
a camera outside the hallway door,
A camera at the front, a camera at the hallway,
There'd be nobody coming on either side,
There'll be nighttime security,
which is actually my brother-in-law, believe it or not,
who would stand outside his door all night, too,
So it was unbelievable,
Child abuse is a serious thing,
it's a huge, serious matter,
I'm not here to discredit that in any way at all,
I'm here to just prove, from my side,
from a bodyguard's point of view,
and a friend who'd been around Michael,
how difficult it would have been
for Wade and James to go unnoticed at any time,
and for them to have what they said done to them,
by Michael, when there's so many staff around,
I mean it's unbelievable,
- I think people have always had in their minds,
like one way or the other,
whether they believe he's innocent or guilty,
I think once they have that idea in their head
no matter how much evidence is put forward,
I don't think anyone's mind ever gets swayed,
And I do think once you've got that image in your head,
if you think that he's guilty,
it doesn't matter how much evidence comes forward,
or how many people speak out
and give their version of events,
there's an image that the media I think
want you to have of him,
and it's almost like any evidence that comes out,
disproving what they've said,
it's like they don't want to know,
If you consider what there is out there,
that actually shows him in an innocent light,
Versus what doesn't,
I mean it completely is like, staggering,
how much evidence there is to support the fact
that he is an innocent man,
and people don't want to hear it, they really don't,
And he went to court, he was acquitted,
His Neverland home was raided,
The FBI investigated him for 10 years,
and people forget about that, and when it's brought up,
it's like they don't care, they don't want to hear that,
I could make a claim that something's happened to me,
and people would believe it,
- I don't think this is a deliberate hijacking
or piggybacking on to #MeToo,
These allegations were first made way before that, 2013,
What I do believe,
is that #MeToo protects the documentary,
The media are very, very scared,
very wary, of doing any investigation work,
or questioning this documentary whatsoever,
because of #MeToo,
Because we cannot challenge any more,
we cannot question alleged victims,
which goes against all journalism,
Journalism is about seeking the truth,
If you upset some people, then so be it,
So #MeToo really protects "Leaving Neverland,"
really protects Safechuck, Robson, and Dan Reed,
because the media will not challenge the allegations,
For example, the work I've done in the media,
I know that people will probably look at that as
victim-shaming, or be on the side of this alleged pedophile,
but for me that's not the case,
If people see me in a negative light
because of the research I'm doing, so be it,
because I want to seek the truth,
I want to put this under a microscope,
and do my job as a journalist,
and try and seek the truth,
The coverage in the media has been, again, so one-sided,
and no journalist can be bothered to do their job,
It's all copy and paste,
copy and paste each article,
and all this, Michael Jackson needs to be counseled,
No challenge made whatsoever because
journalists are scared of the damage to their reputations,
People think I'm defending Michael Jackson,
Directly I guess, yes I am,
but what I'm trying to do is balance
what didn't happen from the beginning,
So from the beginning, Dan Reed, the director,
not investigating the claims,
not making a balanced, 50-50 documentary where
we interview Robson and Safechuck,
and then we challenge them
about all the different inconsistencies,
about the lawsuit, about the financial motive,
#MeToo is at its core,
a great cause, for people to be able to speak out,
that's fantastic, that's great,
The core values of #MeToo are incredibly positive,
but when that gags the media,
that's incredibly dangerous,
[soft piano music]
While it can't be completely ruled out,
that Michael Jackson abused Safechuck and Robson,
you just never know,
I can't sit here and say,
Michael Jackson's innocent, this definitely didn't happen,
But what I can say,
is that at least half a dozen things,
they're inconsistent,
they're lying in court,
so if I'm sitting on the jury,
and I hear that those two have lied under oath,
to be able to sue for money,
and just lying in general,
and their stories are not adding up,
just so they can sue the Michael Jackson estate,
I'll think to myself,
they've lied about that,
what about the rest?
Because all of it is testimony,
There's no physical evidence,
There's no forensic evidence,
The only evidence that they've got,
is their oral testimony,
and in that oral testimony they've lied several times,
So what about the rest of the whole testimony?
Can you convict, can you be sure,
that Michael Jackson is guilty,
when part of that whole testimony is irrefutably false,
That's what you'd have to ask yourself,
if you had to try Michael Jackson,
That's what it comes down to,
Can you be sure that Robson and Safechuck
are telling the truth, about the whole thing?
You know that 10-20-30% of it is provably a lie,
or incredibly inconsistent,
What about the rest?
That's the bottom line,
- I will be acquitted, and vindicated,
when the truth is told,
Thank you,
Prince, that was for you,
to learn about perseverance, and confidence,
and the true meaning of success with just love,
and to know that you can reach any goal
that your heart desires,
It's totally up to you,
you can do anything you want to be,
and I love you,
- He was the most amazing father
that you could ever witness,
- Michael's kids adored him,
they would follow him like little ducklings
following their mother duck,
He was just great,
but he had boundaries with his children,
They had to go to bed at a certain time,
They had a tutor,
they had to have four hours, minimum,
every day, of schooling,
When I took my kids to see Michael at any time,
they were always whisked off to do their schooling,
and my kids were like, oh, do we have to do that?
I said, oh no no, it's fine, you're on holiday,
- I think one thing that really stood out
was how well-brought-up the children were,
These were children that could probably
like have anything that they wanted,
But they were just so polite
and respectful to everyone,
- [Michael] Are you ready for this?
Here we go,
Good move,
- Daddy?
- [Michael] Yes?
- This is a real game,
- [Michael] Now you move that, your turn,
Good move, apple head, very good,
- Daddy, we should live in a castle like this,
- [Michael] I know, I love that castle,
- My kids absolutely adored Michael,
I mean I took my two younger daughters to Neverland,
and we spent about a week there,
And they had access to everything,
At the end of the week I was with Michael,
and I'm prompted, and I'm talking about
they would have been about seven, eight, nine years old,
and I said to him at the end of the week,
I said what was the best thing that you liked about Neverland?
And they both turned around and said,
the best thing about Neverland, was being with Michael,
- Daddy, thank you for my birthday cake,
and I love you so much,
I love my daddy so much,
You're the best daddy in the whole world,
- I think before "Leaving Neverland,"
the allegation had almost been forgotten,
After Michael died people were willing to celebrate
his music again, who he was,
there's a saying isn't it,
that you appreciate something really when it's gone,
And after Michael died,
no one was really talking about that anymore,
the allegations,
the plastic surgery,
It was being spoken about,
but ultimately it was back
to Michael Jackson, the performer,
That has totally changed now,
with the movie, "Neverland,"
obviously, you've got the fans who still adore him
they're never gonna turn their back on him,
You've got many people, normal members of the public,
who still don't believe the allegations,
But you've also got these people
who are sort of in the middle,
who have now gone to the other side,
They're not listening to him anymore,
Or they say they're not,
So it has had an effect on his legacy, for sure,
I think again, because of how
the allegations made on him
have backfired slightly now,
People are starting to challenge them now,
So I think slowly but surely,
we will cover the situation where we'll cover,
but I think it's a testament to Michael Jackson,
that he can be accused of these horrendous crimes,
on three occasions, and yet we're still
talking about him in musical terms,
[crowd cheering]
- This is it, I mean, this is really it,
This is the final,
this is the final curtain call,
- I just remember Michael as just being a very generous,
very kind, he'd always listen to what you were saying,
It wasn't always about him,
or what he was doing,
in fact, very little,
he'd listen an awful lot,
and he used to listen to my children,
He used to ask them how they were doing at school,
what their favorite subjects were,
what they wanted to do when they grew up,
and he took a lot of time
finding out about what other people,
and what their interests were,
He was a very, very good father,
to the point where it used to annoy me,
the fact that how good a father he was,
'cause it used to make me look not such a good dad,
Just a free spirit really,
He was a free bird,
I miss Michael a lot,
I miss him a lot and my kids miss him,
They miss his kids,
and it's just such a shame
that the man isn't around with us,
- I mean just how caring
and how loving he was,
he had so much love to give,
And I would give anything if he was to be still around,
but in a way, because of his name
being drug through the mud, as sad as it sounds,
I'm kind of glad he's not here to see this,
because he would be heartbroken, he really would,
When it all first came out, he was obviously devastated,
He just couldn't comprehend how people
could think that about him,
To be honest, he couldn't comprehend how
anyone could even do that to a child, let alone him,
So then, for those accusations
to be made towards him,
he was heartbroken,
I don't think he was really the same, after,
I think he was just like,
he was just a broken man really, to be honest,
- He was an intelligent, smart guy,
not some comic figure that people seem to think he is,
He was an intelligent man,
And intelligence is not shown,
and I think that may be his biggest mistake,
Had he shown the businessman Michael Jackson,
which he did a little bit with the Beatles catalog decision,
and a few other wise moves he made,
then they would understand him more,
But yeah, he's misunderstood,
and it's a shame that we're not celebrating
his music and dance now,
on his 10th year anniversary of his passing,
and having to deal with stuff that's been done with,
but he never really recovered from that,
It broke his heart,
[Michael singing]
♪ Counting your blessings
♪ Biding your time
♪ Then you lay me down sleeping ♪
♪ My heart is bleeding
♪ You go down sleeping
♪ And pray for all
♪ Do the work for all
[muffled]
- Where's you guys' rhythm?
[man laughing]
♪ You're changing well
♪ And wishing them all
- We know what Peter Pan represents,
never growing up,
staying childlike forever,
Michael, in adulthood, sees himself as Peter Pan,
and remaining childlike forever,
Michael never wanted to grow up,
Whenever anyone mentioned it to him,
he would just cry, because he
really believed that,
and he deeply believed that,
In the Bashir interview as well, he says,
because she asks him the question you're asking me now,
about Peter Pan, and he says, "I am Peter Pan,"
Bashir says, "No you're not, you're Michael Jackson,"
And Michael Jackson says, "I'm Peter Pan in my heart,"
♪ Have you seen my childhood
♪ I'm searching for the world that I come from ♪
♪ 'Cause I've been looking around ♪
♪ In the lost and found of my heart ♪
- When Michael talks about the song, "Childhood,"
from the "History" album,
he says, "Our personal history begins in childhood,
"and the song 'Childhood' is a reflection of my life,
"It's about the pain, some of the joys,
"some of the dreaming,
"some of the mental adventures that I took,
"because of the different lifestyle that I had,
"in being a child performer,
"I was born onstage,
"and 'Childhood,' it's my mirror, it's my story,"
♪ Before you judge me
♪ Try hard to love me
♪ The painful youth
♪ I've had
♪ Have you seen my Childhood
[dramatic instrumental music]