There canât be many people leftâsave the most devotion-blind fansâwho believe Michael Jackson had entirely innocent relationships with all of the children with whom he shared his bed.
Although the Thriller singer is said to have paid as much as $200 million in hush money to multiple victims before his death in 2009, he was never convicted of child abuse. Many of his defenders simply prefer to focus on his musical achievements.
His trial, in 2005, found him not guilty on 14 counts of sexual abuse. But since that time, a steady stream of alleged victims has come forward.
But now, new allegations have emerged that investigators at the time of the trial discovered Jackson had stockpiled a vast collection of sexual imagery, including child pornography, scenes of animal torture, and S&M pictures, reportedly used as part of a twisted strategy to groom sexual molestation victims by desensitizing them.
The allegations are reported by Radar Online, which claims to have knowledge of police reports detailing the cache of horrific material, which it says was found after police raided the Neverland Ranch in 2003.
Jackson died in June 2009, after taking a lethal dose of sleeping medications administered by his personal physician.
Among the deeply disturbing materials seized at the time of the raid, according to Radar, were ânotes, diaries, documents, photographs, audiotapes, and videotapes,â along with more than 80 video recordings and computer hard drives.
âThe documents collected by the Santa Barbara County Sheriffâs Department paint a dark and frightening picture of Jackson,â an investigator in the case told Radar.
âThe documents exposed Jackson as a manipulative, drug-and-sex-crazed predator who used blood, gore, sexually explicit images of animal sacrifice and perverse adult sex acts to bend children to his will,â said the source.
âHe also had disgusting and downright shocking images of child torture, adult and child nudity, female bondage, and sadomasochism.â
Radar added that a private investigator who it said had âdirect knowledgeâ of the raids said: âThe detectivesâ report cites Michael even used sexy photos of his own nephews, who were in the band 3T, in their underwear to excite young boys.â
Radar alleges that a sex book called Room to Playâwhich included a photo of murdered child beauty queen Jon Benet Ramsay with a rope around her neckâwas among items found.
Radar quotes an investigator who claims Jackson used the material to âdesensitizeâ his victims as part of the grooming process.
Jackson was acquitted on 14 counts of child molestation and two counts of giving an intoxicant to a minor.
If the existence of this alleged cache of material can be proved, questions will inevitably be asked as to how it has remained hidden for over 10 years.