Leaving Neverland director admits one of the accusers' story is inaccurate ...
- Publish Date
- Thursday, 4 April 2019, 9:59AM
Leaving Neverland director Dan Reed has surprisingly admitted the dates of alleged sexual abuse given by one of Michael Jackson's accusers is wrong.
The film-maker was forced to speak out after the King of Pop's biographer Mike Smallcombe revealed one of the locations where an alleged abuse took place never existed until 1994.
Abuse accuser James Safechuck claims he was abused from 1988 until 1992, including being molested in a room at the train station in Neverland.
However, it has now been revealed the train station wasn't built until 1994.
Last week, Smallcombe tweeted out Santa Barbara County construction permits showing approval for the building of the structure happened in September 1993.
Reed has since responded to the revelations, taking to Twitter writing: "Yeah there seems to be no doubt about the station date. The date they have wrong is the end of the abuse."
However, Safechuck has repeatedly claimed in court the alleged abuse stopped in 1992.
Smallcombe hit back at Reed on social media, accusing the film-maker of attempting to change Safechuck's timeline.
He wrote: "So @danreed1000 is now saying because the story has been debunked, suddenly the end of Safechuck's abuse was when he was 16/17 rather than 14."
"It's a three-year discrepancy. Just hold your hands up, don't change the story."
"This is what happens when you don't investigate properly."
The revelation came after Jackson's biographer also claimed some of the testimony given by Wade Robson in the controversial documentary can be disproved.
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Smallcombe questioned the Australian-born dancer's account of being molested by the superstar in 1990 while his family visited the Grand Canyon.
Wade said he was left alone with Jackson for five days at the star's Neverland Ranch in California.
But Smallcombe believes the testimony that Wade and his mother provided while speaking to investigators in 1993 after 13-year-old Jordan Chandler accused the entertainer of sexual abuse proves that he is not telling the truth.
Smallcombe said: "His mother, Joy Robson, testified under oath in a deposition in 1993/1994 in relation to the Jordie Chandler case that Wade had actually gone with them on that trip to the Grand Canyon, before the entire family returned to Neverland for the second time the following weekend."
"Joy Robson had no reason to lie about this; she openly admitted that Wade stayed with Jackson alone on other occasions."
Smallcombe added: "Her words in that deposition were, 'We went to the ranch for the first weekend, and then we left and went to the Grand Canyon, and we toured. We came back to the ranch for the following weekend'".
"She was asked to elaborate on who had gone to the Grand Canyon, and she said 'my family'. There was no mention of Wade staying behind."
The biographer then claims Joy said Wade had not stayed alone with Jackson at Neverland until 1993.
Smallcombe also pointed out that Wade said during the songwriter’s 2005 trial - in which he was cleared of molesting youngster Gavin Arviso - that his sister had stayed in the same bed as him "the entire time" they were at Neverland the first time.
He says Joy corroborated that account when giving evidence in the same trial.
HBO's Leaving Neverland is available to watch on TVNZ OnDemand.