Bashir testimony angers Jackson

SANTA MARIA - Michael Jackson will tell a jury his version of key events in his child molestation case, his lead lawyer said, suggesting the pop star could take the witness stand in the trial.

Jackson left the courthouse at the end of the day after telling reporters the proceedings had left him "angry" - apparently over the testimony of British journalist Martin Bashir, whose documentary Living With Michael Jackson is at the centre of the case.

Defence lawyer Tom Mesereau stopped short of saying that Jackson would testify under oath. But three times he told jurors they would hear directly from the 46-year-old performer.

"Mr Jackson will tell you that at one time at Neverland [Valley Ranch], he got a very bad feeling about these people," Mesereau said, in reference to the family of Jackson's 15-year-old accuser.

"He thought, 'I've got to get away. I love helping these children but I've got to get away'."

Defendants in criminal cases are not required to testify in their own defence and some legal experts had said that Jackson was unlikely to take the stand because he would be open to cross-examination by prosecutors.

In his opening statement Mesereau also said that Jackson's accuser and his siblings ran wild at Neverland, breaking into the entertainer's wine cellar, drinking alcohol and looking at his "girlie magazines".

Prosecutors say it was Jackson who gave the boy - at the time a 13-year-old cancer patient with one kidney - wine, vodka and bourbon and showed him pornography.

Jackson is charged with molesting the boy at Neverland in 2003, not long after the broadcast of the documentary by Bashir that showed the superstar holding hands with the youth and saying he shared his bedroom with children.

When Mesereau concluded his remarks, prosecutors called Bashir as their first witness and played the nearly two-hour documentary for the jury. Jackson sat in the darkened courtroom nodding his head to the beat as some of his hits, including Thriller, were played in the video.

Bashir watched from the front row of the courthouse gallery, near Jackson's mother, who appeared to glare at him.

Prosecutors say that Living With Michael Jackson and the resulting worldwide furore panicked Jackson and his camp. They maintain that after its broadcast Jackson and his advisers moved quickly to isolate his accuser and family and force them into making recorded statements exonerating the singer.

Cross-examining, Mesereau sparred with Bashir, suggesting through his questions that the journalist had lied to Jackson about his motives for making the film and had coaxed the entertainer into making the controversial statements.

Bashir refused to answer many questions, citing legal protections for journalists and sources under California law and the US Constitution.

Bashir conceded that he had been the object of three complaints to Britain's journalism watchdog, one of which was upheld.

"Basically, I was accused of not representing the entirety of what I was doing to the person," he said.

"Kind of what you've been accused of here?" Mesereau replied.

Santa Barbara County District Attorney Tom Sneddon described Neverland as a kind of haven for adolescent boys, where they skipped school, drank alcohol, viewed pornography and stayed up all night.

- REUTERS