Leaving Neverland director makes dramatic u-turn admitting James Safechuck CAN’T have been abused by Michael Jackson on dates he claimed
LEAVING Neverland director Dan Reed has sensationally admitted that the dates given by one of Michael Jackson’s accusers in his film are WRONG.
Filmmaker Reed was forced into an embarrassing U-turn after Jacko biographer Mike Smallcombe revealed the train station at the singer’s ranch was not built until 1994.
In the doc, accuser James Safechuck claims he was abused from 1988 until 1992 and was molested in a room within the Neverland station.
Yesterday, Smallcombe tweeted out Santa Barbara County construction permits showing approval for the building of the structure happened in September 1993.
In response to Smallcombe's revelations, Reed tweeted: "Yeah there seems to be no doubt about the station date. The date they have wrong is the end of the abuse."
However, Safechuck has repeatedly claimed, in the documentary as well as in court documents and interviews, that the alleged sex abuse stopped in 1992 when he was aged 14.
He said: ““Firstly, I’m shocked that he's spoken on Safechuck’s behalf.
“And secondly, it’s embarrassing that he feels he has to now change the narrative of the film – which is that the alleged abuse stopped in 1992 – all because part of it has been disproved.”
Smallcombe also claims some of the testimony given by another Jackson accuser Wade Robson in the documentary can be disproved.
Wade said he was left alone with Jackson for five days at the star’s Neverland Ranch in California.
But the youngster and his mother both defended Jackson while speaking to investigators in 1993 after 13-year-old Jordan Chandler accused the entertainer of sexual abuse.
Smallcombe claims it is this testimony that proves that Wade is not telling the truth.
He said: “His mother, Joy Robson, testified under oath in a deposition in 1993/1994 in relation to the Jordie Chandler case that Wade had actually gone with them on that trip to the Grand Canyon, before the entire family returned to Neverland for the second time the following weekend.
CHANGING STORIES
"Joy Robson had no reason to lie about this; she openly admitted that Wade stayed with Jackson alone on other occasions.”
Smallcombe added: “Her words in that deposition were, ‘We went to the ranch for the first weekend, and then we left and went to the Grand Canyon, and we toured. We came back to the ranch for the following weekend’.
“She was asked to elaborate on who had gone to the Grand Canyon, and she said ‘my family’. There was no mention of Wade staying behind.”
Jackson’s biographer then claims Joy said Wade had not stayed alone with Jackson at Neverland until 1993.
Wade Robson also testified in defence of Jackson during the Billy Jean songwriter’s 2005 trial in which he was cleared of molesting youngster Gavin Arviso.
In this court room testimony, the choreographer said that the only time he had stayed at Neverland without Joy was in either 1992 or 1993 along with other Jackson companions Macaulay Culkin and Chandler.
Smallcombe points out that Wade said that his sister had stayed in the same bed as him “the entire time” they were at Neverland the first time.
He says Joy corroborated that account when giving evidence in the same trial.
Smallcombe adds that Wade said he “did not know” whether his recollection of that night came from his own memory or if someone else had told him what happened.
Wade Robson alleges that Michael Jackson sexually abused him from the age of seven to 14.
Safechuck claims he was groomed and raped from age of 10 to 14 by the superstar.
Michael Jackson denied all allegations of sexual abuse made against him.
His estate has called the two-part documentary film "one-sided."
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