So, did Michael Jackson fondle Macaulay Culkin or not? Well
Macaulay and the Culkin family say not. But several of Jacko's former staff say otherwise. One of them was in court on Friday as the old Jacko child abuse trial continued.
Chef
Phillip LeMarque, a former Neverland employee, told the court how he once walked in on Jackson to find him with one hand down the young actor's shorts. Lemarque said he was delivering a late night snack to Jacko and Culkin when he witnessed the former fondling the latter while they played video games. The chef told the court: "I was shocked and almost dropped the French fries".
LeMarque's testimony ended a week in which a number of former Neverland employees were wheeled into the court room to tell the jury they had witnessed Jackson inappropriately touching his young male guests. Each time Jackson's defence lawyer, Thomas Mesereau, has set about attacking the credibility of those witnesses, attempting to portray them as money grabbing opportunists jumping on the 'accuse Jacko' bandwagon, encouraged by an overly enthusiastic prosecution.
The latest witness to be attacked in this way is a former Neverland maid, Adrian Mcmanus, who told the court on Thursday that Jackson had routinely shared his bed with three boys and touched the genitals of a minor. When questioning that testimony, Mesereau accused the former maid of once telling Jackson that she would testify against him if he didn't give her millions of dollars.
He went on to reveal that McManus had once unsuccessfully launched a civil suit against Jackson. Details of that lawsuit were not clear, but Mesereau wanted to suggest that she was now testifying against Jackson because she was bitter about losing that round of litigation. When the maid responded that she was only interested in justice, not money, Meserau bit back by saying: "But your idea of justice was millions of dollars"
The case, as ever, continues.