by Giles Hewitt and Glenn Chapman
SANTA MARIA, California - The sister of Michael Jackson's child sex accuser claimed Thursday that she felt trapped by a pall of fear and secrecy at Neverland Ranch and saw the star plying her brother with wine.
The 18-year-old's testimony at Jackson's trial focused on a period two years ago when prosecutors allege the singer conspired to intimidate and isolate her family, held them captive at his ranch and sexually molested her then 13-year-old brother.
"We were scared. It was very aggressive," she said of the stay at Jackson's sprawling, fantasy-style home.
Speaking in an at times barely audible monotone, she laid out an often confusing sequence of events that involved her family being whisked to and from Miami in a private plane, cajoled into making a video defending Jackson's reputation and applying for passports and visas to take them to Brazil.
The ordeal, as described in her testimony, was sparked by the negative fallout of British journalist Martin Bashir's documentary, "Living With Michael Jackson," which showed the superstar holding hands with his future accuser and admitting to sharing his bed with children.
Prosecutor's allege that the film threw Jackson and his aides into a panic, and that they conspired to abduct the family to keep them from away from the media.
The sister told jurors that the family was flown to a luxury resort in Florida ahead of the US broadcast of the documentary on February 6, 2003.
"Michael Jackson wanted for us not to watch it, the Bashir tape. He was kind of like upset about it. He didn't want to see it," she said.
The family was then flown back to Neverland in California on Jackson's private plane, she said, adding that during the flight she saw the singer and her brother drinking from a shared Diet Coke can.
The prosecution alleges that the can actually contained wine.
Once back at the ranch, she described a mood of fear and intimidation that caused the family to finally pack their things and leave after a week.
"My mom wanted to get us out of there," she said.
When asked by prosecutor Thomas Sneddon why she had been scared, the young woman said: "The whole secrecy ... very aggressive, I didn't understand what was going on."
She added without elaborating: "There was one point when (a Jackson aide) said there were death threats."
During that time at Neverland, the sister said she came across Jackson giving her brother, a recovering cancer victim, alcohol in a wine cellar that was accessed from the ranch's amusement arcade through a door disguised as a juke-box.
"I saw Mr Jackson pouring wine into cups," she told jurors, adding that the self-proclaimed 'King of Pop" then handed the wine to four children present -- her brother, their younger brother, then 11, another boy and herself.
"It tasted funny and weird," she said.
On another occasion, she recounted following her brothers into Jackson's bedroom, where the singer lay down on his enormous bed with the two boys as they watched a movie.
There were "empty bottles, or half-full bottles of alcohol" ranged around the room, she added.
Among the charges levelled against Jackson are several of plying his alleged victim with alcohol in order to facilitate the alleged molestation.
If convicted of all 10 charges he faces, Jackson could go to prison for up to 20 years.
The sister also told the court that two Jackson aides scripted a video they wanted the family to make, rebutting damaging material in the Bashir documentary.
One of them "told us to say nice things about Mr Jackson and not to talk about what goes on at the ranch," the young woman told jurors. "He offered us a paper -- it was kind of like a script -- of nice things to say."
Asked about her statement on the video that Jackson helped her and her brothers with their homework, she said it was a lie.
"They took us out of school," she said. "There was no homework to help us with."
She said her mother eventually persuaded a sympathetic Jackson employee to drive the family back to Los Angeles after they had spent almost a week at Neverland. They never returned.
Jackson's lawyers will be given the chance to cross-examine the young woman on Friday.
Asked as he was leaving the court what he thought of the sister's testimony, Jackson replied: "Interesting ... frustrating."
Eariler in the day, jurors had been a given a visual tour of Jackson's residence, including his bedroom, via a police video shot during a raid on Neverland in November 2003.
The footage revealed a home of cluttered opulence, where gilded vases and velvet chairs competed for space with inumerable toys, dolls and movie memorabilia.
03/04/2005 04:09 GMT