The controversial Michael Jackson documentary Leaving Neverland has aired in the US, with details from it being discussed online ahead of its UK TV debut later this week.
The film, which will be aired in two parts on Channel 4 this week, makes a number of claims about Jackson and focuses on two men’s separate, graphic accounts of sexual abuse allegedly endured at the hands of the pop star.
One of them is that Jackson sent Wade Robson – who was seven years old at the time – daily faxes, to a machine he had bought as a gift for his family.
Copies of the faxes feature in the film and appear to reveal Jackson’s nickname for Wade, as he addresses many of them “little one”.
”Little one send me another fax please,” one reads. “I want you to be the best I have high expectations for your talent.
Another says: “I got your fax, I’m going to sleep now. I just wanted to say if you need financial assistance don’t hesitate to ask me. I’m your friend, Love Doo Doo Ho.”
In the film, Robson explains how he first became friends with Jackson, who was in his mid-30s, after meeting him when he won a dance competition at the age of 5.
“We used to spend hours and hours and hours on the phone. He called every day, for two years,’ he says.
“He started calling me apple head. I would call him apple head sometimes. And then he started calling me Little One. I don’t know where it came from but that became my name from him.”
Two years after first meeting Robson, Jackson invited his whole family to the Neverland ranch. When the family went to California, Robson’s parents agreed for him to stay with Jackson while they continued their holiday and he alleges that the abuse began then.
Both Robson and James Safechuck, the other accused featured in the film, have previously publicly accused Jackson of sexual abuse with the former saying he didn’t realise he had been abused until reconsidering the events during a therapy session in 2012.
When Jackson was on trial after being accused of molesting a 13-year-old boy in 2003, Robson was a main witness for the defence and stated under oath that he had never been abused by him.
Leaving Neverland has been blasted by the Jackson estate, who previously urged Channel 4 to rethink their plans to screen it.
In a letter to the Associated Press, they wrote: “I think we can all agree that the false allegations being made in your ‘documentary’ are ‘significant allegations’. It is hard to imagine more significant accusations that can possibly be made against anyone.”
Nevertheless, the Channel has stuck to their decision to screen the two-parter, which will be shown on Wednesday and Thursday this week.