The teenager accusing singer Michael Jackson of sexual molestation today said he had previously denied his allegations to a school teacher because he was being teased at school as "the kid that got raped by Michael Jackson".
The 15-year-old boy, whose name is well known but cannot be reported for legal reasons, told jurors last week that Jackson (46) masturbated him at least twice at the singer's Neverland ranch in early 2003.
He also said he had lost respect for the man he once thought of as a father figure. "I don't really like him anymore. I don't really think he's deserving of the respect I was giving him," he said as his testimony ended.
In a potentially damaging admission under a fierce cross-examination by Jackson 's lawyers yesterday, the youth acknowledged that he told a concerned teacher that nothing bad had happened to him during his time at Neverland.
The conversation took place after the February 2003 broadcast of a controversial television documentary in which the boy was seen holding hands with Jackson, and the star defended his practice of sharing his bed with young boys.
Santa Barbara County District Attorney Tom Sneddon today asked the boy, who was 13 at the time and a recovering cancer patient, why he told the teacher he had not been molested at Neverland.
"All the kids would laugh at me, try to push me around, say that's the kid that got raped by Michael Jackson ," he said.
"All of the kids were already making fun of me at school. I didn't want them to think it really happened."
Before stepping down from the witness stand, the boy told Mr Sneddon that some of his underwear, along with some shirts and pants, were missing from a suitcase that was returned to him after he left Neverland for the last time in 2003.
Jackson is charged with committing lewd acts on his young accuser, plying the boy with alcohol in order to abuse him and conspiring to commit extortion, false imprisonment and child abduction.
The entertainer, who faces more than two decades in prison if he is convicted, has denied the charges.
After Mr Sneddon's questioning, the prosecution called Terry Flaa, a former Santa Barbara County sheriff's investigator who said that he decided not to investigate two child welfare complaints involving Jackson 's conduct with the boy in March 2003.
The complaints were made by people who had seen the documentary, and Mr Flaa decided not to investigate after learning of an interview by children's services authorities in Los Angeles County in which the boy's family said nothing had happened.
The next witness, sheriff's Lt. Jeff Klapackis, said he ordered the Jackson investigation reopened after talking with the family's attorney, Larry Feldman, and psychologist Stan Katz, who had interviewed the boy and his brother.
Prosecutors say the molestation allegations came to light came during the boys' interviews with Katz.
Agencies
Agencies
is charged with committing lewd acts on his young accuser, plying the boy with alcohol in order to abuse him and conspiring to commit extortion, false imprisonment and child abduction. is charged with committing lewd acts on his young accuser, plying the boy with alcohol in order to abuse him and conspiring to commit extortion, false imprisonment and child abduction.