Jackson painted as a sexual predator
JOHN INNES
MICHAEL Jackson was a sexual predator presiding over "a world of the forbidden"
in his bedroom, with young boys as his prey, a prosecutor said last night.
In closing argument in the pop star's child molestation trial, senior deputy
district attorney Ron Zonen berated Jackson's defence team and used charts and
graphics to show what he said was a pattern of criminal behaviour.
The jury could be deliberating its verdict as soon as this afternoon. Zonen
argued for nearly two hours before bringing up child molestation, focusing first
on a conspiracy alleging that Jackson sought to hold the accuser's family
against their will.
He said it was towards the end of a period in which a 13-year-old cancer
survivor and his family stayed at Neverland that "the behaviour had turned to
something terribly illegal".
Zonen said Jackson began giving the boy alcohol and even though his mother at
that time was unaware of any molestation, she insisted that her family leave
Neverland.
"For all her shortcomings, [the mother], after learning Michael Jackson was
giving her son alcohol, in 36 hours she had her children out of there," Zonen
said. He depicted Neverland, Jackson's fantasy estate and amusement park, as a
place with no rules, no schooling and no discipline for children.
"They rode rides, went to the zoo, ate whatever they wanted - candy, ice cream,
soda pop. There was only fun. ... And at night they entered into the world of
the forbidden.
"Michael Jackson's room was a veritable fortress with locks and codes which the
boys were given ... They learned about sexuality from someone only too willing
to be their teacher."
The prosecutor referred to nights when both the boy and his brother stayed in
Jackson's room. "It began with discussions of masturbation and nudity. It began
with simulating a sex act with a mannequin," Zonen said.
Jackson, 46, is charged with molesting the boy in 2003, plying him with wine and
conspiring to hold his family captive to get them to rebut the documentary
Living With Michael Jackson, in which he held hands with the boy and said he let
children into his bed, but it was non-sexual.
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