Liz Taylor backs king of pop
Actress Elizabeth Taylor has said she believes pop star and good friend Michael Jackson is “absolutely innocent” of child molestation charges and will be “vindicated”.
In a statement on Sunday, Taylor also slammed the media for behaving “abominably” toward the self-styled king of pop, who was arrested last week on suspicion of sexually abusing a young boy.
“Their whole reaction is that he is guilty. I thought the law was ‘innocent until proven guilty’,” she said of the press.
The veteran actress said she would not be giving interviews to the media because of the way they had treated Jackson.
It was her first public comment on the charges since some 60 police officers stormed Jackson’s Neverland Valley ranch near the US city of Santa Barbara on Tuesday, looking for evidence to substantiate the allegations of an unidentified young boy.
Past allegations
Jackson has not spoken publicly about the child molestation charges but has said in a statement that the allegations are lies.
He is due in court for arraignment on 9 January.
Prosecutors have said Jackson will be charged under a California law that defines molestation as “arousing, appealing to, or gratifying the lust, passions or sexual desires of” the offender or a child under age.
The charge carries a penalty of three to eight years in prison.
It was the second time in ten years that such allegations have been made against the performer.
In August 1993 police launched a criminal investigation after a boy, 13, told his therapist that Jackson sexually molested him for four months.
In January 1994 Jackson settled a civil suit filed by the boy’s family and prosecutors said they would not file criminal charges because the boy refused to testify.