Culkin denies being molested by Jackson

“Home Alone” star Macaualay Culkin came to Michael Jackson’s defense on Wednesday by firmly denying on the witness stand Wednesday that Michael Jackson ever molested him, though he said the two slept in the same bed “a handful of times.”

He went on the ridicule the charges against his friend. Culkin said he began sleeping in Jackson’s bedroom upon his first visit to the singer’s Neverland Valley Ranch near Los Olivos. He shared Jackson’s bed at Neverland during several subsequent visits between the ages of 10 and 14, he said.

Culkin, who has been portrayed by prosecutors as a past Jackson victim, said he was stunned to learn that his name had been invoked at the trial and criticized authorities for failing to contact him — although he later acknowledged that his lawyers had stood in the way.

The 24-year-old former child star’s testimony came before jurors watched never-before-seen outtakes from a damaging 2003 TV documentary about Jackson. In the outtakes a British journalist is shown goading Jackson into discussing his lonely childhood, love for children and hurt over constant “lies” about him in the media.

The almost three-hour videotape moved the 46-year-old pop star’s mother to tears as she sat in the courtroom. At one point Jackson appeared upset and dabbed his eyes with a tissue, prompting his lead attorney, Tom Mesereau, to console him.

Dressed in a black pin-striped suit and open-collared white shirt, Culkin appeared at ease on the witness stand as he described Jackson as a close friend and one of the few people who could truly understand his life as a child star.

Culkin’s testimony provided a boost to defense lawyers, who are fighting not only the current charges but claims by prosecutors that the entertainer has been molesting or grooming young boys for abuse since the 1990s.