Jacko and my regret over Little Jimmy: Reporter reveals he wrote a note to Michael Jackson's accuser, then aged ten, after 1988 concert because he feared the singer was ‘holding him against his will’
- Sam Smyth was present at Michael Jackson's concert in Cork in 1988
- He recalls raising questions about Jackson's 'best friend' James Safechuck, ten
- He and others were deeply disturbed by their inappropriate relationship
- Wrote 'Little Jimmy' a note telling him if he needed help they would give it to him
The documentary Leaving Neverland details shocking allegations of Michael Jackson's depraved abuse of children, and includes testimony from two boys alleging their horrific abuse while Jackson showered them - and their families - with luxuries and money.
The same boys, Jimmy Safechuck and Wade Robson, now men in their 40s, also gave evidence for Jackson's defence against child abuse charges in 2005.
Irish Mail on Sunday reporter Sam Smyth recalls how he raised questions about Jackson's relationship with Jimmy Safechuck when they arrived for a concert in Cork in 1988.
Irish Mail on Sunday reporter Sam Smyth recalls how he raised questions about Jackson's relationship with Jimmy Safechuck when they arrived for a concert in Cork in 1988
Little Jimmy Safechuck was a ten-year-old boy when he travelled to Ireland as the special guest of the biggest pop star in the world, then in his 30th year.
Here, Smyth, who had unique access to his entourage and details his close encounters with the backstage world of Michael Jackson in Rotterdam and Cork on the 'Bad' world tour.
We sat around a table in the resident's lounge in Jury's Hotel in Cork while Michael Jackson was unwinding in the luxurious penthouse suite above. It was the August Bank Holiday in 1988, Jackson was the biggest pop star in the world and we had just got back from his show-stopping performance at Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
Eamon Dunphy and I had booked rooms and that granted us access to the night porter's bar and we drank bottles of Heineken while analysing 'Michael Jackson the phenomenon'.
The spectacle on stage, the choreography, the band, the lighting and production were, we agreed, breathtaking - yet Jackson's consummate artistry left everything else in the shade.
The Bad tour played to 4.5million people worldwide and 130,000 paid £2million to attend two shows in Cork. But that night talk quickly turned to Jackson and the ten-year-old boy whom he claimed as his 'very closest friend': Jimmy Safechuck.
Little Jimmy, as he was called, checked into the hotel that afternoon after he and Jackson arrived by private jet.
Too close for comfort: Jimmy Safechuck is pictured holding hands with Michael Jackson
James Safechuck, now aged 41, claims he was a victim of child abuse at the hands of Jackson between the ages of 10 and 14
Sometimes little Jimmy had danced on stage at other venues on the tour but he was a no-show at Páirc Uí Chaoimh and, according to staff, didn't leave his room in Jury's.
Stating the obvious that had been ignored by the world's media, Dunphy said it was very, very odd for a 30-year-old man to have a ten-year-old boy as his very best friend.
Everyone at the table agreed and friendly hotel staff assured us little Jimmy was tucked up in bed in a room that had a 'do not disturb' notice on the door.
We also learned that the entourage had taken an entire floor in the hotel and little Jimmy's room was close to the Dunboyne Suite where Jackson was bunked up.
After a few more bottles of Dutch courage a night porter was asked for hotel stationery and an envelope - there was no need to borrow his Biro.
While we were preparing our message to little Jimmy, the then minister for justice, Gerry Collins, came into the hotel and stopped by our table.
Dunphy started to tell the minister about little Jimmy and Michael Jackson but Mr Collins had to rush off before hearing our concerns.
A single page telling little Jimmy that, if he needed help, it was available in the resident's lounge was sealed into an envelope and given to a porter to slip under Master Safechuck's door.
The porter was also given a generous tip and he later assured us that the letter had been delivered. We never heard from little Jimmy.
Helpful staff later revealed that the panoramic windows in Jackson's suite had been blacked out with PVC binliners. And that made his publicists' assurance at the time that 'Michael and little Jimmy are inseparable' even more unsettling.
All of this was six years before the first child abuse scandals that have shamed Ireland through the past generation.
Everyone who was anyone headed to Páirc Uí Chaoimh that August Bank Holiday weekend: there was limousine gridlock in Cork and traffic jams in every town going back to Dublin.
A special train from Dublin serving fine wines and salmon in the buffet car, shuttled 300 VIP guests including two future taoiseach (Bertie Ahern and Albert Reynolds) as well as the Director General of RTÉ.
Three helicopters took turns charging £20 for a one-way ride across the river Lee from the Silver Springs hotel where the high rollers who could not get into Jury's were staying.
Safechuck met Jackson in 1987 when he was ten and was picked to appear with the singer in a Pepsi commercial. Jackson invited him along on the Bad tour with him the following year and they shared a hotel room while his parents slept down the hall. Safechuck says that he was being abused by the singer, and that it happened more than 100 times, often at Neverland
I had reported on Michael Jackson's Bad tour a couple of weeks earlier from a stadium in Rotterdam, and the backstage bustle left me puzzled and uneasy. Publicists drip-fed the media with a series of bizarre stories claiming that Jackson had a best friend called Bubbles, a chimp that lived like a 17th century French aristocrat.
The man behind the hype was manager Frank DiLeo who had created the 'Wacko Jacko' persona after the release of the Thriller album in 1982 that went on to sell 47million copies.
My notes at the time record that 'bumping into Frank DiLeo is like colliding with a Honda Civic - and when he has passed, his stumpy ponytail jutted out over his collar like a tow rope dangling from the boot of a car'. DiLeo was five foot two inches tall and about four foot from shoulder tip to shoulder tip; he weighed 18 stone (114kg).
Stabbing my chest with a stubby finger that night in Rotterdam, DiLeo said of the Bad tour: 'Nobody will ever sell that many tickets again.'
Asked to define his job, DiLeo smiled and said: 'My function is to make any dream Michael has come true.'
I was in Rotterdam with Oliver Barry from Banteer, who was promoting Jackson's concerts in Cork, and he secured access for me to meet Jackson's team.
I asked DiLeo about Jackson's appearance fees: 'A lot of people have ideas for Michael to make millions.' And then he explained that his base rule for choosing promoters was that those offering the most money don't know what they are doing.
DiLeo had just negotiated a $15million fee for Jackson to promote Pepsi, a cola the performer refused to drink or even be photographed with a can of it in his hand.
DiLeo's parting words to me in Rotterdam were that God had been good to him: 'Allowing me to work with the greatest entertainer of our day is a blessing. Nothing in my life has been more satisfying than to be able to work with an artist whose talents are so abundant.'
Seven months later, on St. Valentine's Day 1989, Jackson accused DiLeo of 'tampering with money' and they parted company. Two years later DiLeo appeared in the film Goodfellas, in a role he was born to play: gangster Tuddy Cicero.
He died in 2011 aged 63.
The first half of Leaving Neverland aired on Channel 4, in which Jimmy Safechuck (left) and Wade Robson (right) alleged that Michael Jackson abused them
In 1993, a dentist accused Jackson of abusing his 13-year-old son, Jordan Chandler, but a criminal investigation was closed after Jackson made a confidential settlement of $23million.
In 2005, police charged Jackson with child abuse at his Neverland estate outside Los Angeles. After the criminal charges against him failed, in the summer of 2006 Jackson came to Ireland with his children and spent time at Grouse Lodge Studios near Moate in Co Westmeath.
In the six months they stayed in Ireland his children, Prince Michael Junior, Paris and Michael Joseph, stayed at the cottage beside the studios with their nanny, Grace, and a tutor.
They visited businessman Harry Crosbie, usually in a people carrier with blacked out windows, and the impresario said Jackson's children were lovely. Occasionally they played with his grandchildren, said Mr Crosbie, and Michael Jackson was a gentleman.
Jackson died at his home in Neverland in 2009 after a medical misadventure with an anaesthetic he used to help him sleep.
Jimmy Safechuck and Wade Robson began a civil claim in 2013 against the Jackson estate (worth $4.2billion, according to Forbes magazine), but it was dismissed because of the statute of limitations.
That decision has been appealed, Jackson still has 22.4million listeners a month on Spotify, and 2.18million followers on Twitter although his Twitter account was not opened until after his death.
In the new documentary, Leaving Neverland, both Jimmy Safechuck and Wade Robson give graphic and harrowing details of their abuse on camera; neither was paid for appearing.
At the time of the original allegations in 1993, detectives came to the Safechucks' family home and the family told them to go away.
The detective turned to Safechuck's mother and said: 'Okay. But when your son is in his 30s, he's going to say "Michael Jackson abused me".'
Safechuck is now 41, married and a father, and recalls his family welcoming Jackson into their home in California.
He also remembers going on the Bad world tour in 1988. In the film he says Jackson introduced him to 'masturbation' in Paris when he was ten, and rewarded him with jewellery for sex acts.
In the film his mother, Stephanie Safechuck, is angry for not protecting her son: 'I f***ed up… I was so happy that he [Jackson] died [in 2009].'
Looking back to that weekend in Cork 31 years ago, it was obvious that Jackson's relationship with Jimmy Safechuck was at least inappropriate, probably criminal.
Nobody shouted stop. The most famous pop singer in the world was hiding in plain sight - a predator on children protected by all the lawyers and influence that his millions could buy.
And I deeply regret not reporting my suspicions, no matter how slight the chances of anybody making Michael Jackson stop sexually abusing children.
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