'I Lost My Kids' at Jackson Ranch

The mother of the teenage boy in the Michael Jackson child molestation case told the jury yesterday that she felt she had lost her children after Martin Bashir's documentary Living with Michael Jackson was broadcast.

"The boys were with Michael during this period," Janet Arvizo said. "There were no guidelines. I lost my kids. [They were] doing everything they wanted with Michael, all day long, all night long."

She alleged that she had been imprisoned at Mr Jackson's ranch, shuttled around by his aides in the weeks after the documentary, and warned that "killers" were out to get her. The aides "told me if I put Michael in a bad light, that they knew where my parents lived."

After she left the ranch she was followed by a group of Mr Jackson's employees, who pressured her to record a rebuttal of the documentary.

They got passports for her family and visas to take them to Brazil until the furore about the documentary had subsided, and removed her children from school.

But after she had made the video the aides were not satisfied, she alleged. "I was supposed to say that Michael healed Gavin. I did not say it exactly the way they wanted. I said it was by God's grace. It was God that healed Gavin, not Michael."

Asked whether she had a conversation with her son about the alleged molestation, she said: "It wasn't a conversation, it was like an eruptive volcano."

Earlier she had said that her son had called her from Neverland to say he could not give a urine sample for a routine test because he had drunk "Jesus Juice" - wine.

Mr Jackson is charged with child molestation, giving alcohol to a minor and conspiracy involving kidnapping and false imprisonment. He could be jailed for up to 20 years.