Well, they said Judge Rodney Melville's decision to allow the prosecution in the Jackson case to explore other accusations against Jacko would be key to the outcome of the case, and it has to be said that, as one after another former Neverland employee stands before the court to tell their own 'I saw Jacko and this kid' story, the singer's already damaged reputation is taking quite a bashing. Of course his defence lawyers are yet to wheel in their team of high profile names who will defend Jackson and his attitude to children to the hilt but, should the jury ultimately find against Jackson, surely it will be the former employees' testimonies that swung it.
That said, the dramas in the Jacko trial yesterday came not from a former employee, but from the mother of Jordan Chandler, the boy Jackson was accused of molesting way back in 1993 - allegations which, of course, never went to court after the Chandler family agreed to an out-of-court settlement in return for not testifying against him
**June
Chandler** confirmed that she and her then 13 year old son stayed at Jackson's Neverland ranch several times in 1993. She said that when it was first suggested that her son Jordan should sleep in Jackson's bed she refused. But she later relented when, during a trip to Las Vegas, a tearful Jackson took issue with the mother's decision.
Chandler:
"He was sobbing and crying, shaking and trembling. He said,
'You don't trust me? We're a family. Why can't he sleep in my bed? There's nothing wrong. There's nothing going on'".
After that June Chandler agreed to allow Jordan to share a bedroom with Jackson both at Neverland and when Jackson visited the family in South California. She didn't go into the details of what is alleged to have happened while the teenager shared a bedroom with Jackson, but admitted that she hadn't spoken to her son for the best part of eleven years. Jordan Chandler himself isn't expected to appear at the Jacko trial.
Back to the former employees, and the court yesterday also heard from a former Jackson publicist, Bob Jones, not that he helped the prosecution a great deal. They were interested in a passage from an as yet-to-be-published book he is writing about his time working with Jackson called 'The Man Behind The Mask'.
In that book he is quoted as saying he once saw Jackson lick a teenage boy's head, adding that they were "holding each other tightly" in an "almost romantic embrace".
All well and good except that, when tackled by Jacko's defense team, Jones said he couldn't remember that incident, and that his co-writer on the book must have put it in. But then, when the prosecution produced an email he had written including an account of the event, he backtracked and said that, although he couldn't recall the incident now, if he had written it in an email it must be true. Marvellous. When I say that if Jacko is found guilty it will have been the former employees' testomonies that swung it, I mean all of the former employees' testimonies bar that given by Bob Jones.
The case continues.