- LONDON -- Explicit letters
and poems said to have been written by Michael Jackson to his alleged victim
will form the centrepiece of the sex-abuse case against him.
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- Police seized at least a dozen letters during the raid
on Jackson's Neverland ranch last week.
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- "The district attorney is convinced these letters
will be crucial to the case against Jackson," a source close to the
investigation said yesterday.
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- "The boy told investigators about letters and poems
and their precise location inside Michael's home. These letters were among
the evidence seized, along with videotapes.
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- "They are very explicit and intimate and show a
degree of familiarity. Basically, they appear to be love letters from Michael
to the boy."
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- The accuser, 12-year-old Los Angeles cancer victim Gavin
Arvizo, also told police Jackson's pet name for him was Rubba.
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- "The boy first told this to his therapist, then
repeated it to police," the source said.
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- "He said Jackson called him Rubba because one of
the games they used to play was called rubba rubba. The boy said, 'Michael
told me he was my rubba rubba friend."'
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- Although police handling the case in Santa Barbara, California,
have been barred from revealing any details, it is understood the alleged
abuse took place in February.
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- Jackson is said to have befriended Gavin -- who, during
a controversial British documentary screened earlier this year, admitted
having shared a bed with the singer -- over a long period.
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- A source close to 45-year-old Jackson said: "For
the past five or six years, he's taken kids from fractured homes and nurtured
them as a father figure. As they get older, he teaches them fun things
to do.
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- "Michael says he learned this from an adult when
he was a teenager. No-one on his staff ever said anything. He's a tyrant.
Everybody obeys the man."
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- Another Jackson source said: "The boy told of everything
that went on and described things in Michael's closets, his bathroom, what
was under his bed."
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- In her statements to police, Gavin's mother, Janet Ventura,
has revealed that Jackson encouraged her son to call him "Daddy".
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- Ms Ventura has claimed she, Gavin and his two siblings
were held virtual prisoners at Neverland, 100km north of Santa Barbara.
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- When she learned of her son's accusations of molestation
-- which included claims that Jackson plied him with wine and sleeping
pills -- she fled with her family in the dead of night.
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- A source close to district attorney Tom Sneddon, who
will prosecute the case, said: "The DA is very confident with the
evidence he has. This includes letters, videos and computer files. They
believe they have enough to nail Jackson."
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- Jackson's legal team is said to be encouraging him to
consider a plea bargain, possibly an insanity defence that would allow
him to serve time in a state mental hospital instead of jail.
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- There was speculation yesterday that the singer raised
his $3 million bail with the help of Miami-based Al Malnik, a lawyer for
notorious gangster Meyer Lansky, who died in 1983.
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- Malnik reportedly began making large loans to Jackson
when his career nosedived.
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- Malnik, 69, was cited by the New Jersey Casino Control
Commission in 1980 and 1992 as a person of unsuitable character.
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- The prosecution source said: "It just gets weirder
and weirder. Michael supposedly has financial problems, but hiring someone
with Mob connections is bizarre."
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- Prosecutors are said to be spreading a net around the
world for other alleged victims. One boy of special interest is said to
be in El Salvador, another in South Africa.
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- They are also said to be considering quizzing the son
of an English premiership footballer.
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- Charges of aiding and abetting are likely to be filed
against members of Jackson's entourage.
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- At the same time as the Neverland swoop, police raided
two homes in Los Angeles.
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- One was reportedly the residence of Marc Schaffel, a
gay video producer who filmed the rebuttal tape Jackson released just after
Martin Bashir's British documentary aired.
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- Copyright 2003 Nationwide News
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- http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story.jsp?sectionid=1260&storyid=534904
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