Court footage reveals Jackson’s lavish playground at Neverland

MICHAEL JACKSON’s elegant home with its lavish playground for children was placed on display in a courtroom as defence lawyers showed a judge videotapes of a raid last year on the pop star’s Neverland estate.

The videotape was viewed at a hearing in Jackson’s child molestation case, at which the defence was attempting to limit the evidence prosecutors can present during trial in January. Jackson’s lawyers say the search was overly broad and unjustified.

The pre-trial hearing in Santa Maria, California, was to resume today with evidence from the detective who directed the search of Jackson’s home.

The defence yesterday extracted evidence from the stepfather of Jackson’s accuser that their family sought payment from the superstar for appearing in a video designed to restore Jackson’s reputation.

Jackson, 45, is charged with committing a lewd act upon a child, administering an intoxicating agent and conspiring to commit child abduction, false imprisonment and extortion. He has pleaded not guilty and is free on €3 million bail.

In a one-hour excerpt of 15 hours of video footage, sheriff’s detectives trudged ahead of a videographer as they opened doors on scenes from Jackson’s life behind the gates of his Tudor-style mansion.

The detectives swept into the entertainer’s toy room, where his children often played with life-sized Star Wars figures and an even bigger Superman figure.

Also videotaped was Jackson’s wine cellar, business office and the classroom, with its child-sized desks, where he had his children home-schooled.

During earlier evidence, the accuser’s stepfather, identified as Mr Doe to shield his stepson’s identity, portrayed himself as the moving force behind efforts to obtain payment from Jackson’s people.

“I said, ‘This family has nothing and you’re making millions from this and what are you going to do for this little family,”’ the man said of a conversation with a man from Neverland.

He said the person offered to buy them a house and provide a college education.

His testimony appeared to bolster defence contentions that the accuser’s family tried to “shake down” Jackson for money. Jackson's lawyers say molestation accusations came when no payment was made.

The attempt to tape a testimonial video interview followed the broadcast of the TV documentary, Living With Michael Jackson, which included the alleged victim and showed Jackson defending his practice of having young boys sleep in his bed. When the documentary raised a storm of controversy, the stepfather said, Jackson hired an investigator to record a rebuttal video to vouch for Jackson’s good character.

The stepfather also said he asked British journalists, who came to the family’s home, for money. He said he was offered £8,000, but never took the money.