Michael Jackson hit with new child sex abuse claims more than five years after his death
His estate has since responded to the allegations, after court papers were filed on Monday
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Your support makes all the difference.Michael Jackson has been hit with a new allegation of sexual abuse five years after he died of a drug overdose.
Lawyers for James Safechuck, 36, filed court papers on his behalf against the singer’s estate on Monday (4 August).
Safechuck alleges that he was abused by Jackson after he appeared alongside him in a Pepsi commercial in the Eighties. Safechuck was just 10 years old at the time he claims the abuse took place.
Safechuck's attorneys' stated in the court documents: "[Jackson] engaged in a calculated course of conduct to lure both [Safechuck] and his parents into a false sense of security and normalcy that was far from reality.
"And [Jackson] was successful in his efforts to the point that [Safechuck] endured repeated acts of sexual abuse of a heinous nature and was brainwashed by the decedent into believing they were acts of love and instigated by James himself rather than the decedent."
It continues: "After the first incident, [Safechuck] regularly began sleeping in [Jackson's] bed in his hotel room during the rest of the Bad tour in 1988," and alleges that Safechuck "was molested nearly 100 times over the course of four years until he hit puberty".
The attorney for the Jackson estate, Howard Weitzman, has since responded to the claims, asking for Safechuck’s allegations to be dismissed.
Speaking to E! News, he said: "Mr. Safechuck's request to file a late claim against the Jackson Estate so he can recover money from Michael's beneficiary will hopefully be rejected.
"This is a person that made his claim five years after Michael died, more than 20 years after the incidents supposedly happened and has given sworn testimony that Michael never did anything inappropriate to him."
A hearing for Safechuck’s petition has been scheduled for 4 September 2014.
Michael Jackson was acquitted of four child sexual abuse charges in 2005. Similar charges were dropped before they went to trial in 1994.