The director of the “Leaving Neverland” documentary is responding to claims that he reportedly admitted the timeline of sexual abuse detailed by both of Michael Jackson’s accusers was flawed.
HBO’s documentary “Leaving Neverland” breaks down the sexual abuse allegations against Michael Jackson from two men, James Safechuck and Wade Robson. It was initially reported that the doc’s director, Dan Reed, backed the two men’s after evidence showed James Safechuck, couldn’t have been molested in a room at the Neverland train station at some point between 1988 and 1992, as the station wasn’t actually built until 1994. The new claims were supported by biographer Mike Smallcombe who took to Twitter and hared construction permits, which showed approval for the building works in September 1993.
In response, Reed tweeted, “Yeah there seems to be no doubt about the station date. The date they have wrong is the end of the abuse.” He then responded, in several tweets, to reports that he’d backtracked the details of the alleged abuse. He later clarified: “No u-turn. No clash of dates. James was present at Neverland before and after the train station was built. In fact, he took photos of the completed station which we included in the doc. And his sexual contact with Michael lasted into his teens. That’s all in the film.”
Another flaw was found in Robson’s story timeline about a trip to the Grand Canyon.
Smallcomb tweeted, “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 following the weekend. Joy Robson had no reason to lie about this; she openly admitted that Wade stayed with Jackson alone on other occasions. 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 story is still updating, but it is reported that Reed is looking to do a part two of “Leaving Neverland” that will include more of Jackson’s accusers.
