Jackson's defence team 'to portray him as a victim'

Michael Jackson has played the victim in his songs for years.

In “Billie Jean,” he portrays the target of a false paternity claim. In “Man in the Mirror,” he says he’s ”been a victim of a selfish kind of love.” And throughout the album “HIStory,” he’s threatened by ominous characters such as “D.S.” – a character based on the prosecutor now accusing him of child molestation.

As his defence begins in his molestation trial, Jackson will again present himself as a victim – but this time his attorneys say it’s no performance. They say Jackson is the target of overzealous prosecutors, an untrustworthy inner circle and a family of grifters making false allegations.

But the lawyers will have to make sure they don’t alienate jurors by playing the victim card heavy-handedly, said Dana Cole, a defence attorney and close friend of lead Jackson attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr.

“You don’t want to whine ’Poor me.’ But you do want to explain why the accuser’s family would be concocting molestation allegations – because they’re targeting him and trying to cash in like others have done in the past,” Cole said.

Jackson’s feelings of victimisation date back to his early childhood, when his family felt that the Jackson 5 didn’t receive fair treatment in their contract with Motown Records, said J. Randy Taraborrelli, a CBS News analyst and author of “Michael Jackson: The Magic and the Madness”.

Jackson has also claimed that he was abused for years by his father, Joe Jackson. In the Martin Bashir documentary at the heart of the prosecution’s case, Jackson said his father beat him and his brothers if they didn’t learn their performance routines quickly enough.

“If you didn’t do it the right way he would tear you up, really get you,” Jackson said, adding that his father hit him with “whatever’s around -throw you up against the wall, hard as he could.”

The defence opened its case last week, however, by trying to shoot down the notion that Jackson is a victimiser himself with a pattern of past inappropriate behaviour with boys.

On Thursday, they called to the stand two young men who slept in Jackson’s bed when they were boys and both said the singer never molested them.

“Never, I wouldn’t stand for it,” said one of the witnesses, 23-year-old Brett Barnes.

Jackson has already been portrayed as a victim during the trial, with his ex-wife Deborah Rowe testifying that some of his associates were “opportunistic vultures” trying to make money off of him.

Defence attorneys are expected to call witnesses including Jay Leno and Kobe Bryant to try to show that the family of the boy accusing him of molestation also has a history of trying to ingratiate themselves to celebrities for profit.

Jackson, 46, is accused of fondling 13-year-old Gavin Arvizo, plying him with alcohol and conspiring to detain him and his family so they would rebut the parts of the Bashir documentary in which he said he allows children to sleep in his bed.