Culkin set to testify at Jackson trial

Jurors in Michael Jackson’s child molestation case got a taste last week of how the defence planned to present its case: a parade of witnesses saying nothing happened in the pop star’s bedroom.

The defence was expected to continue today presenting witnesses whose testimony was intended to deny claims from prosecution witnesses that they saw Jackson act inappropriately with boys.

Actor Macauley Culkin, a regular guest of Jackson’s Neverland ranch in the early 1990s, was expected to be among the witnesses for this portion of the defence’s case, though it was unclear when he would testify.

After the prosecution rested its case last Wednesday, Jackson’s lawyers presented two men who slept in the singer’s bed as boys and said nothing sexual had happened.

On Friday, defence lawyers presented the boys’ mothers, who said they trusted the singer enough to let their sons sleep in his bed and were convinced that no molestation ever occurred.

Joy Robson and Marie Lisbeth Barnes praised Jackson from the witness stand Friday.

“I’ve known Michael for a long time. I’ve spent many hours talking to him about everything. I feel like he’s a member of my family. I trust him. I trust him with my children,” said Robson, whose 22-year-old son, Wade Robson, told jurors earlier that he was never molested by Jackson.

“He’s a very special person,” she added. “He’s not the boy next door. He’s Michael Jackson. He’s very unique. He has a very pure personality. To know him is to love him and to trust him.”

Jackson, 46, is accused of fondling a 13-year-old former cancer patient, plying him with alcohol, and conspiring to detain him and his family so they would rebut a documentary in which he is seen holding hands with his accuser and saying he allows children to sleep in his bed, though he says the sleepovers were non-sexual.

Jackson denies all charges.