Mom praised Jackson for helping ailing son says witness

SANTA MARIA, California. - A social worker has testified that the mother of the boy who says he was molested by Michael Jackson told her she believed the singer helped her son survive cancer.

Child services worker Irene Peters said she interviewed the accuser and his family shortly after the February 2003 US broadcast of a television documentary in which Jackson held hands with the then-13-year-old boy as the entertainer talked about sharing his bed with young boys.

The broadcast created a media furore and the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services was asked to look into the case.

Peters said the mother told her that Jackson had been like a father to her children, saying at one point she thought Jackson was "responsible for helping (the boy) survive his cancer."

Peters said when she interviewed the boy, "I asked him very point blankly did he ever sleep in bed with Michael Jackson. He told me no. He became a little upset. He said, 'Everybody's saying Michael Jackson sexually abused me. He never touched me."'

The social worker said the interview took place on Feb. 20, 2003. The incident in which Jackson allegedly fondled the boy took place after that date. Jackson has denied the charge.

Peters said the boy's mother also told her she was very vigilant at Jackson's Neverland Valley Ranch in central California, and knew that her children spent time in Jackson's bedroom, "because the kids all play in the room."

"I did ask her if she was aware of her kids ever sleeping in bed with Michael Jackson. She said no, that never happened."

In testimony last month, the mother said she and her family had been pressured to paint Jackson in a good light in the interview with the social worker.

She said an aide "told me if I put Michael in a bad light, that they knew where my parents lived."

The mother also said during her testimony for the prosecution that Jackson aides attempted to sit in on the interview to make sure her answers were favourable to Jackson.

Peters said other people were initially present in the room she told them to leave.

She said the family did not seem to be giving scripted answers or be under pressure. Their answers to her questions, she said, seemed spontaneous and natural.

Jackson's lawyers are attempting to convince jurors that the family fabricated claims of molestation and false imprisonment at Neverland so they could extort money from the 46-year-old entertainer, who faces more than two decades in prison if convicted on all charges.

Jackson is accused of molesting the boy, plying him with alcohol in order to abuse him and conspiring to commit false imprisonment, child abduction and extortion. He has said he is innocent on all counts.

- REUTERS