Jackson will ‘no longer sleep with boys’

The lawyer who defended Michael Jackson against charges of child molestation has said that the pop superstar will no longer share his bed with young boys.

Speaking after the star was cleared of child abuse charges at a Santa Maria court yesterday, Thomas Mesereau told a US television network that Mr Jackson would not share his bed with children – an admission he made during the 2003 television interview with Martin Bashir, which sparked the investigation leading to the court case– because of the charges that had been brought him.

The 46-year-old star was cleared of all ten charges against him, which also included charges of conspiracy to commit and child abduction, false imprisonment and extortion and providing alcohol to minors, yesterday afternoon local time.

Members of his family, including his mother Katherine, his father, Joe, his brothers Randy and Tito and sister LaToya, accompanied Mr Jackson to the court. Upon leaving the court, he was greeted by cheers from fans awaiting the result outside the courtroom. Mr Jackson, who had been suffering from back pain during the trial, appeared to be frail and subdued during the reading of the verdict, leading to some speculation that he may have taken some kind of sedative beforehand.

Speaking after the verdict, Mr Mesereau said that “Justice had been done”. Prosecutor Tom Sneddon, the district attorney who had previously attempted to prosecute Jackson on child abuse charges in the 1993, said he was disappointed by the result.

It has been reported that Mr Jackson will try to relaunch his pop career. However, there has been speculation that this may not prove to be easy, due to the lurid details, which were made public during the trial. Celebrity publicist Max Clifford told BBC Radio 4’s ‘Today’ show that, in spite of Mr Jackson’s huge fanbase “a lot of people are not happy with what emerged from the trial. He said the singer faced “an uphill struggle for him to get back to anything like the popularity he enjoyed in the past”.

(KMcA/MB)