A former maid for Michael Jackson has told jurors that he regularly shared his bed with "Home Alone" star Macaulay Culkin and another boy -- whom she once discovered
showering with the pop star.
The housekeeper, whose son testified on Monday that Jackson fondled him three times, offered a rare glimpse into life at Jackson's Neverland Valley Ranch, telling of his
sleepovers with boys.
While cleaning Jackson's bedroom, she noticed that Culkin, a regular visitor to Neverland when he was 8 or 9, typically slept in the entertainer's bed, she said. Culkin has
denied that Jackson molested him and is not expected to testify at the abuse trial.
The maid, who worked for Jackson between 1986 and 1991, told the jury on Tuesday that she once stumbled on another boy, age 8, in the shower with him.
I came in and at first I thought they were playing in the bathtub or Jacuzzi and I didn't see them... I walked in and they were in the shower," she said, adding that two pairs of
underwear lay on the floor nearby.
She said she could see two figures, Jackson and the boy, in the steamed-up shower and recognised the underwear from doing the singer's laundry.
"Mr. Jackson's, I knew, was white, and the little boy's, I knew, were coloured, they were little green underwear, like neon green," said the maid, who with her son reached a
civil settlement with Jackson in the mid-1990s.
The woman testified that whenever the 8-year-old boy stayed at Neverland he appeared to sleep in Jackson's bed and that once she found him and the performer watching
television in bed together, naked from the waist up.
She also said that on several occasions she felt uncomfortable about the way Jackson was interacting with her son, but conceded on cross-examination by defence attorney
Tom Mesereau that she never saw the entertainer molest him or anyone else.
Her testimony at times corroborated that of her son as she described once finding him on Jackson's lap and another time sharing a sleeping bag. Her son, now 24, has
testified that he was groped three times by Jackson between the ages of 7 and 10.
The maid and her son are among nine witnesses that prosecutors will call as evidence that Jackson, 46, has a pattern of inappropriate behaviour with young boys, including
Culkin and a now-25-year-old man who settled a civil case against the pop icon for more than $20 million (10.7 million pounds) in 1993.
In the current case Jackson is charged with molesting a then-13-year-old boy at Neverland and with plying the youth with alcohol in order to abuse him. He is also accused
of conspiring to commit child abuse, extortion and false imprisonment.
The superstar, who has pleaded innocent, faces more than two decades in prison if convicted.
In cross-examining the mother and her son, Mesereau focused on the legal settlement that reportedly netted them $2 million and an interview she gave to the tabloid news
program Hard Copy for $20,000.
The man, now a youth counsellor, appeared muddled as he struggled to recall previous statements he gave to authorities, frequently responding "I don't remember" to
Mesereau's questions.
Wednesday, April 06, 2005 16:16 IST