Let’s be honest – Michael Jackson was a dangerous pervert who hid a sexual obsession with young boys
MICHAEL JACKSON’s brother Jermaine declared on Wednesday’s Good Morning Britain that he is “1,000 per cent” sure the dethroned King of Pop never molested children.
In yet another shameless bid to silence two of Jacko’s victims, who are speaking out in Channel 4’s bombshell documentary Leaving Neverland, the fellow Jackson Five member told Piers Morgan: “Michael was tried by a jury and he was acquitted on all of this because there was no real evidence.
“Let this man rest. He did a lot for the world, let him rest. I will say this, there is no truth to this documentary.”
Michael sharing beds with young boys at his ranch was, Jermaine went on, totally innocent — simply “slumber parties” with “cookies, popcorn and fun”.
But 25 years ago, when Jacko was alive and still sleeping with boys, his big brother did not feel the same way.
I have uncovered a previously forgotten interview the very same Jermaine Jackson gave to the Daily Express on November 26, 1993.
In it he admitted to fears that allegations made against Michael by Evan Chandler, who claimed the singer had sexually abused his 13-year-old son Jordy in 1992, were correct. The interview by the newspaper’s ex-showbiz and investigations editor Roger Tavener in California was headlined: My Doubts About The Innocence Of Michael.
Jermaine said: “I love him, but you have to wonder if there might not be some truth in it.”
Just a year later, Michael agreed to an out-of-court settlement with the Chandlers — paying £11.5 million to the boy, just over £1 million each to his parents, and £3.2 million for their lawyer.
The old interview adds weight to the growing view the Jackson family has changed its opinion on Michael following his death.
Earlier this month, a long-forgotten 1993 interview with La Toya Jackson on NBC revealed their mother Katherine was furious after finding cheques Michael had written to the families of young boys in 1984.
She said: “There were two cheques that I know of that she has shown me and it’s for a substantial amount of money — she was outraged over it.
“My mother is very much aware of the children that were there. The boys that stayed there.
“They would stay in there for days. And then they would come out and another boy (would go in) and then he would bring someone else. What 35-year-old man sleeps with little boys and stays with them for a week or two weeks or whatever? And sleep in the same bed.”
Please let’s all start to be honest about this deeply uncomfortable situation— Jacko was a dangerous pervert who hid his sexual obsession with young boys, who were often paid off, in plain sight for decades.
As you’ve just read, even his own family had suspicions.
But it has suited the music industry and so many music icons who were inspired by Jackson’s incredible work to be wilfully blind to what we have all known.
Just last year Drake — currently the most successful musical act in the world — released a posthumous collaboration with Jackson. Don’t Matter To Me sent him back near the top of the charts in the UK, reaching No 2 in July — a tone-deaf and disturbing development at the height of the #MeToo era.
Just weeks later, music giant Sony threw a massive celebration for what would have been MJ’s 60th birthday in Las Vegas.
The purpose? To make millions more from the shamed singer’s back catalogue, including massive albums like Thriller and HIStory and the Cirque de Soleil show. Usher and Mark Ronson — two more current chart stars — were paid big bucks to perform at the event celebrating a paedophile.
There, I said it again. Just like I did on Wednesday during my segment on ITV’s Lorraine show.
While our viewers were delighted at my honesty, the response from Jackson’s diehard and very vocal fans, and some within the music industry, has stunned me.
SIA’s manager David Russell decided to go on the attack to defend Jacko, branding me “disgusting” on Twitter for posting about the documentary, before accusing me of “exploitation, manipulation, thievery and lies”.
I say to David and all of the Jackson obsessives out there: Instead of shooting the messenger, why not listen to the victims?
Channel 4’s Leaving Neverland, which premiered last week at the Sundance Film Festival and will screen here in the spring, provides sickening accounts from James Safechuck.
Now a 41-year-old man, he was just ten when he “married” Jackson in a mock ceremony.
He describes in detail how they were soon having regular sexual relations, for which musician turned computer programmer Safechuck alleges Jackson would buy him jewellery.
He wasn’t paid to participate in the film. Why should his story be ignored?
As Yvonne Traynor, the chief executive of Rape Crisis, said: “If you take away the star quality and you were left with an ordinary person and all this evidence, what would you think?”
Sure — it’s painful reality, the pop music legend of our era, responsible for many of the most iconic hits of all time, could have abused young boys for years.
But for the music bosses still trying to make money off Michael Jackson as a current artist, the drumbeats for change are becoming deafening.
In years to come, the fact he was tolerated by the music industry simply as an eccentric will be seen as astonishingly reckless. This is the time to be on the right side of HIStory.
BUBBLES BEATEN
JACKSON’s pet chimp Bubbles was trained by “pain and domination” while under his care, according to award-winning conservationist Ian Redmond.
He yesterday shed exclusive new light on claims made by the world’s top primatologist, Jane Goodall, in 2014 that the star used to beat the animal.
Ian said: “Chimpanzees don’t do moonwalks, you train them. Most evidence shows that to train them you have to use force, and that’s normally done by the two-by-four method – which is pain.
“Chimps are delightful, with a mind of their own, and when you make them do something on command, you have to have discipline – and that means living in fear, fear of pain.”
Poor Bubbles.
Wootton's week
WHAT I'VE LEARNED
THE media are at a very different place to the public when it comes to PRINCE CHARLES and CAMILLA’s so-called “fairytale” 20 years after they went public.
A YouGov poll shows 34 per cent of the public still have a negative view of the Duchess of Cornwall, with just 29 per cent feeling positive and 31 per cent neutral, making her one of the most disliked royals.
MEGHAN MARKLE, by contrast, has only a 12 per cent negative view and 54 per cent positive, despite months of difficult headlines. Lots more PR work to be done then by the Camilla For Queen crew at Clarence House.
DON’T put the BBC in charge of your home renovations. Dimwit bosses spent weeks consulting over which types of bricks to use on the new EastEnders set, costing us millions more pounds in the process. In fact, it’s now going to cost an eye- watering £86.7million to construct a new Queen Vic pub and Albert Square. That’s £27million more than they first promised.
Oh, and the set isn’t going to be ready until 2025 – FIVE YEARS LATE!
Is it any wonder folks want to stop paying their licence fee? As DANNY DYER would say: “F***, s**t, f***!”
TATTOOS are never a wise idea – especially in the heat of the moment. Just ask US pop superstar ARIANA GRANDE. She wanted to get the title of her latest hit 7 Rings permanently inked on her palm in Japanese. Only problem is, it ended up spelling “tiny barbecue grill”.
She then tried to correct it but ended up making it worse, reading “Japanese barbecue finger”.
The Thank You, Next tattoo had better be spellchecked.
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