Jackson defence begins with two young men denying abuse

SANTA MARIA - Two young men portrayed by prosecutors as Michael Jackson's victims when they were adolescents emphatically denied today that he ever abused them, as defence lawyers battled accusations that the pop star was a serial molester.


In dramatic testimony to open Jackson's defence case, both Wade Robson and Brett Barnes said they remained friends with the 46-year-old entertainer with whom they had shared a bed on countless occasions at the singer's Neverland Valley Ranch.


"Did Mr Jackson ever molest you at any time?" lead defence attorney Tom Mesereau asked Robson, a 22-year-old choreographer and former child dance prodigy who has worked with Britney Spears.


"Absolutely not," Robson responded.


"Did Mr Jackson ever touch you in a sexual way?" Mesereau asked. "No, never," Robson said.


Earlier in the trial, a former Neverland maid testified that she saw Robson showering with Jackson, their underpants lying on the bathroom floor. But Robson, under questioning by Mesereau, said he never was in the shower with Jackson.


Another former Neverland employee had told the jury that she once saw Jackson touch Barnes' buttocks when he was a teen.


But Barnes, now 23, flatly rejected any suggestion of inappropriate behaviour by the entertainer.


"Absolutely not and I can tell you if he had I wouldn't be here right now," he said.


Asked if he was aware of the earlier testimony, a defiant Barnes said: "I am and I'm very mad about that because it's untrue. They are putting my name through dirt and I'm really, really, really not happy about it."


Though the acccusations of Jackson's conduct with Robson and Barnes are not part of the current charges against him, legal experts say the testimony about the singer's past history with young boys may have been the most damaging part of the prosecution case.


Jackson is charged in the current case with molesting a 13-year-old boy at Neverland, plying him with alcohol and conspiring to imprison him and his family in 2003. He has pleaded innocent, but faces more than 20 years in prison if convicted of all 10 counts.


On cross-examination, Deputy District Attorney Ron Zonen pressed both men over the propriety of young boys sleeping with a grown man and even challenged Robson's assertion Jackson had never touched him inappropriately.


"What you're really telling us is that nothing ever happened while you were awake," Zonen said to Robson at one point.


"I'm telling you nothing ever happened," Robson answered.


Zonen then showed him books with photos of nude young boys seized from Jackson's home and asked if he would have concerns over sharing a bed with the owner of such materials.


Robson said no, but confronted by Zonen with another book that featured pictures of men engaged in various sex acts with each other and asked if he then had concerns, Robson quietly answered: "Yes, I guess so."


Mesereau tried to mitigate that testimony by saying that the books were seized from Jackson's large library, which was filled with a decade's worth of heterosexual magazines such as Playboy and Hustler.


Robson refused to agree that the material Zonen had shown him could be considered homoerotic and said he believed Jackson "has a sexual interest in women".


Under cross-examination both boys appeared to concede that Jackson had behaved toward them in a manner that prosecutors describe as grooming of potential victims - asking for their trust, calling them members of his family and spending time alone with them.


Barnes also said that he quit his job as a roulette dealer in his native Australia to travel to California for his testimony and was staying at Neverland during his visit.


Earlier today Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville rejected a defence request to dismiss the charges against Jackson, a motion filed after prosecutors rested their case on Wednesday, 2-1/2 months into the trial.


- REUTERS