A journalist has told of how he was so “deeply suspicious” of Michael Jackson’s relationship with a young James Safechuck, he reached out to him during the star’s 1988 ‘Bad’ tour.
Sam Smyth was covering one of his concerts and became concerned by his behaviour towards James, asking the boy if he was being held against his will.
Jackson is facing new allegations of sexual abuse against children in the documentary Leaving Neverland which premiered in Australia last week.
The trailer for Leaving Neverland. Post continues after video.
The gripping two-part film details Safechuck and Australian-born Wade Robson’s claims Jackson groomed them and molested them for years.
Smyth writes, in an article for the Irish Mail, he was staying in the same hotel as the singer before he performed in Ireland and he and another journalist noted how odd it was that the 10-year-old was with him.
They also noticed Safechuck remained in his room the whole time Jackson was off performing, with a ‘do not disturb’ sign hanging on the doorknob and sheeting on the windows to block the view.
So they sent a letter to the boy’s room using hotel stationary that read;
“Dear little Jimmy Safecheck, we are in the residents’ lounge…and if you are being held against your will or if you need rescuing contact us.”
They never heard back, despite leaving it with a hotel porter alongside a ‘handsome tip’ to make sure it found him.
“I remember thinking at the time..it’s very odd for a man in his 30th year to have his very best friend as this little boy called Little Jimmy Safechuck who was 10,” Smyth told The Ray D’Arcy Show yesterday.
"The whole thing was odd, very suspicious, certainly not anything that I would ever want for anyone belonging to me," he said.
Smyth says he believes the allegations made in the documentary Leaving Neverland, despite not getting a reply to that letter all those years ago.
"I am quite convinced they are telling the truth. I think most people would be...I think the film is very credible and very skilfully made," he told the radio show.
In Leaving Neverland, Safechuck, who didn't admit to anyone about the abuse until he was an adult, recalled how Jackson began abusing him in hotels while on tour after months of grooming both him and his family.
"He would run drills with me where we would be in the hotel room and we would pretend like someone was coming in and you had to get dressed as fast as possible without any noise.
"So not getting caught was fundamental. It was very much a secret and he would tell me if anyone found out his life would be over and my life would be over," Safechuck told the documentary.
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Read more on this topic:
Without us noticing, it looks like Michael Jackson groomed us for decades.
The signs Michael Jackson was grooming the children he was close to that so many missed.
"It wasn't going to mean anything": Why Michael Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley.
'Blanket' Jackson was just seven when his father died. This week he stopped talking.
The two boys who followed Wade Robson into Michael Jackson's bed insist they weren't abused.
Debbie Rowe says she gifted Michael Jackson two children because he was a 'wonderful man'.
Top Comments
If this account is true. If this did in fact occur. Then the journalist is revealing that despite the claims, 'James Safechuck was not sharing a suite with Michael. He was sleeping in his mother's, which the journalist admits was next to Michael Jackson's own suite, contrary to the claim that the Safechucks were further, and further away from Michael Jackson's suite as the tour progressed.
Also the journalist is providing nothing more than innuendo, conjecture and the fact that he thinks it strange for Michael Jackson to have had a friend that was 10 years old at the time. He admits that when he became inebriated, he wrote a note and sent it to ‘James Safechuck's’ room, just to appeal to his own preconceived notions: that a friendship in contrast with his understanding of the norm somehow indicated the supposed existence of improper conduct.
Note: the sheets have also been reported as to being PVC bin liners to obscure view. Also that the windows that were obscured were actually to Michael Jackson’s suite not the Safechuck’s.
Why this is somehow evidence of Michael Jackson’s guilt, and in support of the abuse allegations is baffling?