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Australians deny Michael Jackson hurt them as kids

Michael Jackson's defense at his child-sex trial got off to an explosive start on Thursday as two Australians emphatically denied claims they were molested by the singer over a decade ago.

Wasting no time after Judge Rodney Melville denied a motion to have their famous client acquitted, Jackson's lawyers began their defense by attacking a key prosecution assertion that the pop star had a history of grooming young boys for sexual abuse.

The prosecution rested its case on Wednesday following 10 weeks of often lurid testimony.

The first defense witnesses to take the stand, Wade Robson, 22, and Brett Barnes, 23, both vehemently rejected claims by prosecution witnesses that they had been molested by Jackson as young boys.

"Absolutely not," Robson said, adding that Jackson had never touched him in a sexual or improper way and that he still considered the singer a "close friend."

The two witnesses, both Australian, had been regular visitors to Jackson's Neverland Ranch in the early 1990s.

Under harsh, rapid-fire cross-examination from prosecutor Ron Zonen, Robson admitted to regularly sharing a bed with Jackson during his visits when he was aged between eight and 11.

Robson, a former choreographer for pop star Britney Spears said he had last shared Jackson's bed when he was 13 or 14 years old, although he had continued to visit the singer afterwards.

Barnes also acknowledged sleeping in bed with Jackson at about the same age but, like Robson, he angrily denied any impropriety, saying he and the singer would always wear T-shirts and pajama bottoms.

Asked for his reaction to the testimony of Neverland staffers who said they saw Jackson touch him sexually, Barnes said: "I am very mad about that, because it's untrue."

Zonen showed the witnesses books containing what he said were pictures of men having sexual intercourse and boys "with their genitals prominently exposed."

He pointedly asked whether Robson would be concerned about a man owning such books "crawling into bed with a 10-year-old boy."

The defense could call former child star Macaulay Culkin of Home Alone fame to refute allegations that he was the subject of improper advances by Jackson.

The prosecution fought hard to limit the damage the denials did to its attempts to demonstrate a pattern of pedophile behavior behind the current allegations that Jackson molested a young boy two years ago.

"There is something unsettling about the idea of a seven-year-old boy sharing his bed with a 35-year-old man. This could backfire on the defense," said Jim Moret, a lawyer following the trial.
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