by Giles Hewitt and Glenn Chapman
SANTA MARIA, California - The family of Michael Jackson's child molestation accuser lavished praise on the superstar and described him as a father figure in a video shown to trial jurors on Friday.
The video, which prosecutors allege the family forced into recording by Jackson aides, was screened for jurors before the alleged victim's sister told how her brother became distant and withdrawn after a stay at the star's Neverland Ranch.
In the video, the family described the entertainer as "loving," kind" and "humble," insisting that he was like a "father" to the then 13-year-cancer victim who later accused Jackson of abuse.
The boy's mother, who Jackson's lawyers have painted a rapacious financial predator who coached her children to lie and tried to scam celebrities, said Jackson was an "unanswered prayer to my children and me."
"God elected to work through Michael at a very traumatic time in our life," she said in the video.
Prosecutors contend that Jackson kidnapped the boy and his family and held them captive at Neverland to force them to take part in the so-called rebuttal video after the broadcast of a damaging television documentary in February 2003.
British journalist Martin Bashir's documentary, "Living With Michael Jackson," showed the superstar holding hands with his future accuser and admitting to sharing his bed with children.
The boy, his mother, older sister and younger brother, then 11, all appeared in the video made by Jackson's personal cameraman in which they cleared Jackson of any suggestion of wrongdoing raised by Bashir's film, that led to Jackson's arrest.
"The whole world got to see what a father and son do," said of her son's appearance on the Bashir video.
"Didn't you want a father to hold your hand, especially through the most troubling times?" she said.
"They took a beautiful relationship he (Jackson) has with (the boy) and spun it out of control."
The family described their first meeting with Jackson, who befriended the boy when he was undergoing cancer treatment in late 2000 or early 2001 and their first visit to Neverland where Jackson hugged them all.
"That's how this beautiful relationship was formed -- from something traumatic, that flourished into something wonderful," the mother said.
The boy recalled how he came to spend the night in Jackson's split-level bedroom at Neverland -- where the superstar is later accused of fondling the boy while pleasuring himself on at least two occasions -- on his first visit to the ranch
"I think it was that night that I asked if I could stay in his (Jackson's) room," he said on the video. "I think he said that, if it's all right with my parents, it's all right with him. I said, like cool."
He said Jackson had insisted that the youngster sleep in his huge bed, while the star slept in on the floor.
"He was a loving, kind, humble man and all he wanted to do was good and happiness. I took to him pretty quick," the boy said.
In the course of the apparently unedited version of the video, the family alternates from a poised on camera presentation between moments of joking and laughter.
At one point the mother asks Jackson's cameraman to zoom in on her hands as she holds her son's hand. "You know how Bashir zoomed in, do that," she told the cameraman.
The alleged victim's 18-year-old sister told the jury in her second day in the witness box that her brother became withdrawn after the family left Neverland for the last time after making the rebuttal video.
She also told jurors that she had seen Jackson hugging and kissing her 13-year-old cancer-stricken brother at the estate.
"He didn't want to be hugged, he didn't want to be kissed," said the young woman, her voice trembling as she described the alleged transformation of the boy.
Prosecutor Thomas Sneddon, who launched the case against the world's most famous defendant, asked the woman whether she had seen the pop icon touching her brother inappropriately.
"Michael Jackson was constantly hugging (the boy) and kissing him on the cheek or on the head," she responded, adding that she had once seen the entertainer embracing and kissing her brother's head in Jackson's bedroom.
The 46-year-old Jackson could be jailed for up to 20 years if convicted on 10 counts including child molestation plying the boy with alcohol to seduce him and plotting to kidnap him and his family.
The sister, who had Thursday offered damaging testimony on her family's stay at the star's Neverland Ranch, however admitted during cross examination by Jackson's lead lawyer Thomas Mesereau that she had lied about details of the case both on the rebuttal video and to social workers.
03/04/2005 21:14 GMT