Accuser faces Michael Jackson in molestation trial

SANTA MARIA, California - The teenage cancer survivor who accuses Michael Jackson of sex abuse locked eyes with the pop star today as he took the witness stand to testify against Jackson in his child molestation trial.

"Yes, that's Michael Jackson," the 15-year-old boy answered firmly when asked by Santa Barbara County District Attorney Tom Sneddon to identify the famous defendant sitting about 12 feet away from him in the packed courtroom.

Wearing a crisp blue shirt and dark pants, the boy testified that Jackson, 46, invited him to his Neverland Valley Ranch for the taping of a documentary about the entertainer, then pulled him aside and asked him to say certain things on camera.

The documentary by British journalist Martin Bashir, which aired in February of 2003, features Jackson and the boy holding hands and nuzzling, and has become a key piece of evidence in the trial.

"(Jackson) was like, 'I'm going to put you in the movies and this is your audition,"' the boy said. "He said he wanted me to say that he pretty much cured me of cancer."

Asked by Sneddon if that was true, the boy said: "Not really, because (during) the majority of my cancer he wasn't even there." He added that he considered comics George Lopez, Louise Palanker and Chris Tucker, and Los Angeles weatherman Fritz Coleman much more instrumental in his recovery.

"COOLEST GUY IN THE WORLD"

The boy added that he was willing to say the things Jackson asked him to say on camera because at that point "I thought he was the coolest guy in the world, my best friend ever, if you know what I mean."

The boy also testified that during his first visit to Neverland with his family in 2000 Jackson and another man showed him and his brother pornography on the internet.

Jackson is charged with child molestation, plying the boy with alcohol in order to abuse him and conspiring to commit false imprisonment, extortion and child abduction. He has pleaded not guilty but faces more than two decades in prison if he is convicted on all 10 counts.

Earlier on Wednesday, the boy's 14-year-old brother completed three days of testimony, saying he had witnessed a bedroom incident between the pair previously unmentioned at the trial.

During cross-examination by Jackson's lawyers over conflicting accounts of events at Jackson's Neverland Ranch, the brother told the court, "It was actually three times."

The defence then dropped its line of questioning.

The brother testified earlier this week to twice seeing Jackson masturbating while groping his sleeping brother. He said he had been watching from a stairway leading to the pop star's bedroom in February or March of 2003.

A third incident had not been previously mentioned, but came up when Jackson's lawyer, Tom Mesereau, asked about a police interview in which the boy described pretending to be asleep on a couch in Jackson's bedroom when he saw the singer get into bed with his brother and snuggle up against him.

Asked about an apparent conflict in his accounts, the boy said. "It was actually three times."

- REUTERS