A new Channel 4 documentary will feature haunting never-broadcast-before audio recordings of Michael Jackson claiming he would ‘rather kill himself than never see a child again’, with him admitting he had ‘nothing else to live for’.
The unearthed tapes will play out the four-part Channel 4 series called The Trial, which will hit screens tonight at 9pm (February 4), and details new revelations from the pop icon‘s 2005 child molestation trial.
In one chilling clip, Jackson detailed his reliance on a relationship with children, explaining he would rather take his own life than ‘never see a child again’.
The Billie Jean singer will be heard claiming that children naturally gravitate towards him and ‘fall in love’ with his personality, which ‘gets him in trouble’.
Jackson died in 2009 aged 50 from acute propofol intoxication administered by his personal physician Dr. Conrad Murray, which was ruled a homicide.
The haunting clip hears Jackson reveal: ‘If you told me right now, Michael, you could never see another child…I would kill myself.’
A new Channel 4 documentary will feature haunting never-broadcast-before audio recordings of Michael Jackson claiming he would ‘rather kill himself than never see a child again’, with him admitting he had ‘nothing else to live for’
The unearthed tapes will play out the four-part Channel 4series called The Trial, which will hit screens tonight at 9pm (February 4), and details new revelations from the pop icon’s 2005 child molestation trial
Another recording hears him claim: ‘Children want to just touch me and hug me,’ while in another he adds: ‘Kids end up falling in love with my personality. Sometimes it gets me into trouble.’
The clips, which were first detailed by the New York Post earlier this year, will play out as part of the four-part series which Channel 4 described as packed with ‘new revelations’ about his 2005 trial.
The broadcaster teased: ‘Featuring startling new revelations about the 2005 trial of Michael Jackson, this new series includes exclusive footage and unheard audio tapes of Jackson, his close insiders, and the LA police.’
The tapes are believed to give more insight into Jackson’s relationship with young cancer survivor Gavin Arvizo.
Arvizo accused him of sexual molestation in 2005, saying Jackson showed him pornography and gave him alcohol.
The indictment included four counts of child molestation, four counts of getting a child drunk with the purpose of molestation and of conspiring to hold a boy and his family at his infamous California ranch, Neverland.
Following a four-month trial, Jackson was acquitted of all 14 charges.
An insider told the Post of the recordings: ‘There is something extremely unusual and eerie about Michael Jackson’s infatuation with children.
Jackson was accused of molestation by cancer survivor Gavin Arvizo (left)
Wade Robson (pictured) testified in Jackson’s defense in 2005 only to claim he lied years later
New audio recordings of pop icon Michael Jackson revealed his intimate relationship with children ahead of a new docuseries
‘To hear his voice discuss children in this manner, given he had been accused on molestation, raises many questions about his mental health, mindset and sadly, intentions.
‘This is Michael at his most open, giving us an insight into how he was in love with children… infatuated with wanting to be around them.’
Jackson admitted to allowing children into his home and even into his bed without parental supervision in his 2003 documentary, Living with Michael Jackson.
His former public relations advisor will also reveal in the new Channel 4 series that he ‘absolutely’ believed the allegations against the popstar, reported by the Telegraph.
‘I believe there was a cover-up for so many years,’ he will be heard saying.
Jackson’s estate still vehemently denies all child molestation accusations against him.
He had three children of his own, Prince, Bigi (formerly Blanket) and Paris, who described him as ‘the best father you could ever imagine,’ according to People.
It comes as FIVE children from the same family claimed Jackson brainwashed and abused them for 25 years, and are suing the popstar’s estate for £160million.
Michael Jackson had three children of his own Bigi (center), Paris (right of center) and Prince (right)
Michael Jackson (far right) was known for being fond of children and inviting them to his home
He’d befriended the Cascio family patriarch, Dominic, in 1984 at the Helmsley Palace in New York, where he worked as a general manager, and where Jackson often stayed when he was in the city.
When he asked to meet his children, the starstruck Dominic jumped at the chance to introduce them to a real-life pop star.
Dominic and his wife Connie had two little boys at the time, aged five and three. They went on to have three more children: two more boys and a girl.
There were family dinners at the Cascios’ modest house in New Jersey and shopping outings and trips to Disneyland that Jackson attended.
The children would stay – with and without their parents – at Jackson’s Neverland Ranch in California, and one or more of them would be dressed up in a fedora and dark glasses to look like a ‘mini-Michael’.
It was a friendship that went on for decades, and when Jackson’s own children Prince, Paris and Blanket were born, the older Cascio boys would help look after them.
After he turned 18, Frank Cascio started to work for Jackson as a personal assistant.
When the star was first accused of abusing a young boy in 1993, and again in 2005, Frank was quick to leap to his defence, and wrote a book about their deep but purportedly innocent friendship in 2011, called My Friend Michael: An Ordinary Friendship With An Extraordinary Man.
Michael Jackson pictured with Dominic (right), his wife Connie Cascio (left) and three of their children
Jackson was accused of forcing a child and his family to stay at his Neverland ranch in California
But in a horrifying turn of events, the singer now stands accused by the Cascios of grooming and abusing the family of five children over a period of more than 25 years.
Bombshell documents seen exclusively by The Mail on Sunday earlier this year were filed in California, and accuse Jackson of ‘grooming’, ‘sexually abusing’ and ‘brainwashing’ all of them.
In a ghastly twist, each of the five siblings believed that only they were targeted by Jackson in this way, and each thus carried the burden of the secret abuse alone into adulthood.
The scandal is potentially the biggest ever blow to Jackson’s already tattered reputation and may yet destroy it for good. A source familiar with the case confirmed that all five of the Cascio siblings, including Frank, claimed they were abused by Jackson.
‘It was everything sexual: sex with under-age children,’ the source said. ‘When they all realised what had been going on it was the most traumatic thing. Their story is insane.’
The source said that the case was going to be a ‘nightmare’ for the Jackson estate because of the severity of the claims.
The spark that ignited this new scandal was the bombshell 2019 documentary, Leaving Neverland.
In it, Wade Robson and James Safechuck, who were befriended by Jackson as starstruck young boys, and who’d previously denied anything untoward had ever happened between them and their friend, spoke in horrific detail about abuse.
Bombshell documents seen exclusively by The Mail on Sunday were filed in California and accuse Jackson of ‘grooming’, ‘sexually abusing’ and ‘brainwashing’ all of the family’s five children
Many families, including the Robsons (pictured), became frequent guests at Neverland Ranch
Safechuck said he was abused from 1988 to 1992 and Robson from 1990 to 1996 at Neverland and other locations.
Safechuck also claimed that Jackson took him shopping for an engagement ring and later held a mock wedding. Both men are currently involved in legal action against the estate, but Jackson fans accuse them of lies and extortion.
Court documents detail ‘the Cascio siblings’ shock and trauma upon realising this had happened to all of them, unbeknownst to each other following the release of the documentary Leaving Neverland.
The filing at the Los Angeles County Superior Court reads: ‘From the early 1980s until at least 2009, Michael Jackson had intimate contact with the Cascio children.
‘This abusive contact occurred over a span of decades and involved hundreds of instances.
‘Each of the Cascio children were groomed, brainwashed and severely manipulated to believe that each was uniquely “special” to Michael and that their relationship with him was exclusive.
‘This emotional manipulation was designed to secure each family member’s loyalty and ensure their silence, making them feel indebted to Michael and isolated from any source of protection or perspective.
‘Through years of psychological conditioning, Michael cultivated dependence and fear in the Cascios, making respondents believe they had no choice but to comply and no safe way to break free.
The filing accuses the Jackson estate of ‘exploiting the same patterns of trust, fear and conditioned loyalty’ that Michael had used, in order to persuade them to sign a settlement in 2020
A biopic, Michael, starring his nephew is due for release next year
‘The effects of this conditioning persisted into adulthood, leaving respondents with a deeply ingrained belief that speaking out would constitute betrayal – a dynamic the estate has continued to exploit in its dealings with them.’
The filing accuses the Jackson estate of ‘exploiting the same patterns of trust, fear and conditioned loyalty’ that Michael had used, in order to persuade them to sign a settlement in 2020.
Estate representatives, meanwhile, describe an unusual meeting at the Sunset Marquis Hotel pool in Los Angeles, where the Cascios’ camp insisted participants wear only bathing suits ‘so that [Jackson’s] representatives could not wear a wire to record the conversation’.
In January 2020, the estate allegedly agreed to a confidential settlement to protect Jackson’s family.
The agreement included payments over five years, reportedly totalling £13million, strict ‘non-disparagement’ terms and a clause requiring all disputes to be handled in private.
Upon its expiration, the Cascios came back and said that they wanted £160million – sparking the court case which has been largely secret until now.
Their legal team argue that the Jackson estate discouraged the children from seeking independent legal advice, describing the initial settlement as ‘coercive’ and ‘unfavourable’. Legal argument is now ongoing.
The singer, who died in 2009 of ‘acute intoxication’, was dogged during his life by accusations and lawsuits connected with the abuse of young boys.
His friendship with the Cascios was one of his defences, given the superstar was a regular visitor to the family home.
In his book, Frank Cascio said: ‘Those early grade school years passed with Michael as a regular, if often unannounced, visitor to my family’s home in Hawthorne.
‘For the next few years, that’s the relationship that we had with Michael. The doorbell would ring late at night and [sibling name redacted] and I would know it was Michael.
‘We’d wake up, run to give him hugs and show him whatever new toys we had and tricks we had learned, the whole family talking… greeting him like a beloved relative from far away whose plane had arrived late.’
He and a brother first visited Neverland in 1993 when Frank was 12. In his book, Frank said: ‘We wanted to hang out with him. He was the spirit of the place.’
In 2003 Jackson’s Neverland ranch was raided after the singer told interviewer Martin Bashir that he slept in the same bed as children, including Gavin Arvizo – a young cancer survivor he’d befriended in 2000.
Around this time Frank Cascio made the rounds on chat shows, including American series Oprah, to proclaim his friend’s innocence.
The last time Frank visited Neverland was in January 2004, according to his book.
Michael Jackson: The Trial airs tonight at 9pm on Channel 4
