Jackson 'shared Boy's Bed'

The mother of a boy who reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with Michael Jackson in the 1990s told yesterday how the singer was "sobbing and crying, shaking and trembling" when she said he could not share her son's bed.

"He said, 'You don't trust me? We're a family... [The boy] is having fun. Why can't he sleep in my bed? There's nothing wrong. There's nothing going on'," June Chandler told the jury in Mr Jackson's child molestation trial in Santa Maria, California.

The confrontation between Mr Jackson and the mother came when the family joined the now 46-year-old entertainer on a trip to Las Vegas.

The mother relented and allowed Mr Jackson to sleep with her son. The following day, he bought her a Cartier gold bracelet.

In 1993, the family reached a reported $23m out-of-court settlement with Mr Jackson. The mother received $1.5m.

The allegations of child sexual molestation brought by the family never came to court. But evidence of the previous allegation has been admitted to Mr Jackson's current trial thanks to a California law that allows previous evidence in cases of sexual abuse.

Ms Chandler told the court her son had met Mr Jackson at her ex-husband's car hire business in Los Angeles. She had given Mr Jackson her telephone number and told him to call if he wanted to see her son.

There followed lengthy phone calls between the singer and the boy, culminating in an invitation to the family to stay at his Neverland ranch, followed by visits by Mr Jackson to the family's home in Santa Monica, Los Angeles. There Mr Jackson spent about 30 nights sharing the boy's bed in the family home.

Ms Chandler realised things had got out of hand, she said, on a trip to Monaco with the singer. "I wanted to go into their suite," she told the jury, "but it was boarded up. This was when things started to get really weird."

The boy told his father that Mr Jackson had sexually abused him.

Under cross-examination Mr Jackson's attorney attacked the mother, arguing she was motivated by financial gain.

Mr Jackson faces up to 20 years in prison if found guilty on multiple counts of child molestation and conspiracy charges involving kidnapping and false imprisonment.