Jackson defence set to target accuser’s drinking

NEW details emerged yesterday of how pop star Michael Jackson may defend himself against charges that he got a teenage cancer patient drunk before sexually molesting him.

Sources close to the star reportedly said the teenage accuser was seen drunk at the Neverland ranch in California on occasions when Jackson was not there.

The boy's mother did nothing to stop the youngster from drinking, said a the report on ABC News.

The report comes weeks after other sources said Jackson's accuser was seen staggering around Neverland, apparently intoxicated.

Jackson, 45, has pleaded not guilty to committing a lewd act upon a child, administering an intoxicating agent alcohol and conspiring to commit child abduction, false imprisonment and extortion.

According to the report, Jackson will adamantly deny giving his accuser alcohol or knowing that the boy was consuming alcohol.

Jackson's legal team could also argue that the boy's mother sometimes accompanied the boy at Neverland but never tried to stop her son drinking.

On some occasions when the boy was said to be drunk at Neverland, Jackson was not even on the premises, the sources said. They added that there were witnesses to prove this.

Legal analyst and California criminal defence solicitor Dana Cole said: "If the mother is present ... that would certainly cause a jury to think (a) What's the big deal? or (b) How could we possibly blame Michael Jackson for something that is being done in front of the kid's own mother?"

There have also been allegations is that Jackson and his associates harassed and tried to intimidate his alleged victim's family.

Jackson's associates are also accused of conspiring to imprison the alleged victim's family at both Neverland and a hotel in Calabasas, California.

But Jackson's defence team is expected to argue that the alleged victim's mother asked the entertainer to put her up in the Calabasas hotel at a time when she was looking for a new house, ABC reported.

She was reportedly also trying to hide from publicity after her son appeared on the Martin Bashir documentary Living With Michael Jackson.

The woman even went on a shopping spree at the expense of the pop star, sources close to the Jackson camp told ABC News.