Questions raised over key allegation from Michael Jackson accuser
Has a simple fact about the Neverland Ranch just exposed one of Michael Jackson’s Leaving Neverland sexual abuse accusers as a liar?
Questions have been raised about the dates of alleged sexual abuse given by one of Michael Jackson’s accusers in the documentary Leaving Neverland.
Jackson biographer Mike Smallcombe revealed the train station at the singer’s Neverland ranch was not built until 1994, The Sun reports.
In the doco, accuser James Safechuck claims he was abused from 1988 until 1992 and was molested in a room within the Neverland station.
Yesterday, Smallcombe tweeted out Santa Barbara County construction permits showing approval for the building of the structure happened in September 1993.
In response to Smallcombe’s revelations, Leaving Neverland director Dan Reed tweeted: “Yeah there seems to be no doubt about the station date. The date they have wrong is the end of the abuse.”
However, Safechuck has repeatedly claimed, in the documentary as well as in court documents and interviews, that the alleged sex abuse stopped in 1992 when he was aged 14.
In further tweets, Reed said that there had been “No u-turn. No clash of dates. James was present at Neverland before and after the train station was built. In fact he took photos of the completed station which we included in the doc. And his sexual contact with Michael lasted into his teens. That’s all in the film.”
In another tweet, he wrote that “Safechuck was at Neverland after the train station was completed. He even took photos of the station, we put two of these in the film. And he’s clear in the documentary that the sexual contact with Jackson continued into his teens...”
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On Twitter, Smallcombe slammed Reed’s apparent attempt to change the accuser’s timeline.
He posted: “So @danreed1000 is now saying because the story has been debunked, suddenly the end of Safechuck’s abuse was when he was 16/17 rather than 14.
“It’s a three year discrepancy. Just hold your hands up, don’t change the story.
“This is what happens when you don’t investigate properly.”
Speaking with The Mirror, the biographer called the filmmaker’s response “embarrassing”.
He said: “Firstly, I’m shocked that he’s spoken on Safechuck’s behalf.
“And secondly, it’s embarrassing that he feels he has to now change the narrative of the film — which is that the alleged abuse stopped in 1992 — all because part of it has been disproved.”
Smallcombe also claims some of the testimony given by another Jackson accuser Wade Robson in the documentary can be disproved.
Speaking with The Mirror, he questions the Australian-born dancer’s account of being molested by the superstar in 1990 while his family visited the Grand Canyon.
Wade said he was left alone with Jackson for five days at the star’s Neverland Ranch in California.
But the youngster and his mother both defended Jackson while speaking to investigators in 1993 after 13-year-old Jordan Chandler accused the entertainer of sexual abuse.
Smallcombe claims it is this testimony that proves that Wade is not telling the truth.
He said: “His mother, Joy Robson, testified under oath in a deposition in 1993/1994 in relation to the Jordie Chandler case that Wade had actually gone with them on that trip to the Grand Canyon, before the entire family returned to Neverland for the second time the following weekend.
CHANGING STORIES
“Joy Robson had no reason to lie about this; she openly admitted that Wade stayed with Jackson alone on other occasions.”
Smallcombe added: “Her words in that deposition were, ‘We went to the ranch for the first weekend, and then we left and went to the Grand Canyon, and we toured. We came back to the ranch for the following weekend.’
“She was asked to elaborate on who had gone to the Grand Canyon, and she said ‘my family’. There was no mention of Wade staying behind.”
Jackson’s biographer then claims Joy said Wade had not stayed alone with Jackson at Neverland until 1993.
Wade Robson also testified in defence of Jackson during the Billy Jean songwriter’s 2005 trial in which he was cleared of molesting youngster Gavin Arviso.
In this courtroom testimony, the choreographer said that the only time he had stayed at Neverland without Joy was in either 1992 or 1993 along with other Jackson companions Macaulay Culkin and Chandler.
Smallcombe points out that Wade said that his sister had stayed in the same bed as him “the entire time” they were at Neverland the first time.
He says Joy corroborated that account when giving evidence in the same trial.
Smallcombe adds that Wade said he “did not know” whether his recollection of that night came from his own memory or if someone else had told him what happened.
Wade Robson alleges that Michael Jackson sexually abused him from the age of seven to 14.
Safechuck claims he was groomed and raped from age of 10 to 14 by the superstar.
Michael Jackson denied all allegations of sexual abuse made against him.
His estate has called the two-part documentary film “one-sided”.
This story originally appeared on The Sun and is republished here with permission.
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