Leaving Neverland: Michael Jackson accusers describe graphic details of abuse in CBS interview

Wade Robson and James Safechuck allege that Jackson abused them when they were children

Warning: This story contains details some readers may find upsetting.

Two men who say Michael Jackson sexually abused them as children have detailed their allegations in a new interview.

Wade Robson and James Safechuck are the subjects of Leaving Neverland, an explosive documentary airing in March on HBO in the US and on Channel 4 in the UK.

The two men allege that Jackson befriended and sexually abused them from when they were 7 and 10 years old. Jackson’s relatives have denied the accusations and repeatedly denounced the documentary.

Speaking to CBS This Morning, Robson told Gayle King he visited Jackson’s Neverland Ranch in Santa Barbara County as a child and thought it was “the most magical thing” he had ever seen.

Robson said Jackson invited him to stay over, first with his family, then by himself.

“Within either the first or second night of Michael and I being alone at Neverland, the nights started changing,” he said.

“One of the ways I remember it starting is Michael sort of starting to touch my legs and touch my crotch over my pants.

“It performed to him performing oral sex on me, him showing me how to perform oral sex on him.”

According to Robson, Jackson had developed a physical closeness with him in the previous days, rubbing his head, kissing his forehead, and giving him “lost of hugs”.

Robson says Jackson told him “God” had brought them together, that “we love each other” and that “this is how we show each other love”.

Safechuck, who first met Jackson while shooting a Pepsi commercial, shared the following account: “He introduced me to masturbation. He said I taught him how to French kiss, and then it moves on to oral sex.”

Echoing Robson’s description, Safechuck told King that as a child he thought of Jackson as a person he loved – telling the host in another part of the interview that “the parents are groomed as well” and that “Michael spends a lot of time” talking to and developing relationships with them.

Jackson, who died in June 2009, was acquitted at a 2005 trial in California on charges of molesting a different, 13- year-old boy at his ranch. In 1994, he settled a sexual abuse lawsuit concerning another 13 year-old boy.

Robson, now 36, had testified at Jackson’s 2005 trial in the singer’s defence. He and Safechuck now say they saw their childhood experiences in a new light after they both became fathers to young sons.

Leaving Neverland is airing on 6 and 7 March on Channel 4 in the UK. In the US, it will be broadcast on 3 and 4 March on HBO and immediately followed by an interview between Oprah Winfrey and Robson and Safechuck.

Additional reporting by agencies