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Michael Jackson fans protest outside Channel 4 offices re: Leaving Neverland documentary. Yui Mok

Leaving Neverland 'A monster was hiding in plain sight and we chose to look the other way'

Child protection expert Shane Dunphy writes that the allegations are credible and consistent but cannot now be proven definitively.

DAN REED’S TWO-part film, Leaving Neverland is, if nothing else, a well-made documentary.

What sets it apart from the other tell-all, confessional type films is the skill with which it tells a deeply complex story, in a deceptively simple manner.

It does this by escalating the viewers’ emotional responses in increasingly powerful ways.

First off, you are introduced to the key players: to the fore, of course, is Michael Jackson, the most successful musician of his generation and at the time the most famous man in the world.

The events the film deals with occur during the period he was at the pinnacle of his fame and his performing abilities – the BAD album was topping charts all over the world and Jackson was a constant presence on television, newspapers, magazines and radios all around the globe. 

Next up are Wade Robson, James Safechuck and their families.

At the outset, you are already aware they have a story to tell, and you are, initially, a little unsure of them. Both, though, are articulate, measured, good-looking men in early middle-age.

They do not come across as angry or hysterical, and the stories they begin to share are all about wish fulfilment in its simplest form.

Both tell of how, as children, they idolised the most lauded and fantastical pop star in the world, Wade almost became a pint-sized version of the singer

Then how they got to meet him and both went on to become an important part of his life.

In the first hour, you sit through home movies, concert footage, television advertisements, music videos – the viewer is immersed in the sights, sounds and fashions of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

That was a time when our child protection sensibilities were a lot less developed than they are now.

There are some gentle prompts. Safechuck’s mother says she initially refused to allow her ten-year-old son to sleep in the same room as Jackson as it just didn’t seem right to her.

Wade’s mother was less astute and says she just didn’t see anything wrong with the proposal and of course her seven-year-old son was begging her to allow him to share Jackson’s bed.

What harm could it do?

At this point, you’re a little uncomfortable, but the hammer still hasn’t fallen.

You see, you’ve become used to the idea of Michael Jackson as an alleged child abuser. There were some well-publicised court hearings, none of which resulted in prosecutions.

You’ve heard the stories of him sharing his bed with small boys, but Jackson was always presented as a kind of over-sized kid, so there couldn’t be any harm in it, could there?

The world watched from a distance, tutted a few times, and looked away. Reed’s documentary pulls those gazes back front and centre.

Wade and Safechuck begin to tell of the sexual abuse they claim they experienced at Jackson’s hands without any real preamble.

Their story moves from joyful, exciting, fun-filled days with their hero to seemingly relentless sexual molestation rapidly and no detail is spared.

It is stark and painful and at times shocking viewing.

Their stories have polarised opinion and elicited emotional outbursts across both the mainstream and social media.

The main argument in Robson and Safechuck’s favour posits that everyone knew this was going on, and finally, we have evidence – two survivors are bravely stepping forward and speaking their truth. Jackson was a monster.

The backlash is equally vocal: both Robson and Safechuck have, in the past, denied any abuse took place, and are therefore just attempting to cash in on Jackson’s notoriety.

The pop star is not here to defend himself so all we have is one more allegation on top of the others. It proves nothing – Jackson is no more guilty now than he was before Leaving Neverland was released.

Both stances hold some merit. However, permit me to bring a child protection worker’s eye to the situation.

Arch manipulation?

Survivors of sexual and physical abuse often repress their experiences, to all intents and purposes forgetting they occurred.

This is a psychological tool to help the person cope with the magnitude of what happened – the pain, the shame and the guilt.

So the fact that the two men changed their story is not unusual and in no way diminishes the credence of their testimony.

Their stories are also consistent in detail. The grooming, the idea of being initiated into a secret form of love, the secrecy and manipulation.

What I found extremely compelling is the conflict that plays across Robson and Safechuck’s faces as they speak. There is still love there, still some damaged form of loyalty.

Both say they were not afraid of Jackson, that they believed they were having a relationship with him. They even hint at a form of consent being given.

To be clear, a minor cannot give consent to sexual contact.
It is one of the arch manipulations of the abuser that the child victim is made to believe he agreed to the abuse, maybe even wanted it to happen.

Over the years, both men defended their alleged abuser in the court cases against him.

Wade even admits to sobbing when he heard the singer was dead, something the mother states he did not even do when his own father died.

Definitive?

The confusion, the devastation, the sadness and the sheer, raw anguish that is evident in Leaving Neverland all hint at real validity. But is that enough? Can the details of this film be given the undisputed stamp of the definitive?

The answer has to be ‘no’.

Compelling or not, what the film presents is the unproven accounts of two young men and their families. While it is deftly presented and adorned with all the skills of a master filmmaker, it would not stand up in court and offers one view of a relationship.

Jackson can never be asked to corroborate, and too much time has passed for a forensic examination.

So in terms of clarifying whether or not Michael Jackson was a paedophile, Leaving Neverland is just one voice amid a choir of such choruses.

Hiding in plain sight

However, the film does offer a different kind of truth that might be just as important.

As a society for a long time we were unwilling to accept, because of the mask of fame, wealth and genius, the fact that this man could be mistreating the children he surrounded himself with.

Whether sexual abuse was a feature or not (and you can choose to believe or not as you see fit) he isolated them, he manipulated them and eventually disposed of them.

Whether you take the fundamentals of their story as true, what Reed presents in all their battered glamour are the damaged lives of two young men and the obliteration of their families. Robson’s father died by his own hand.

I believe the anger that has erupted since the documentary broadcast is as much an expression of collective guilt as it is a remonstrance against the two men at the centre of the controversy.

A monster was hiding in plain sight, and as a community, we chose to look the other way.

What he did when our eyes were turned cannot be proven beyond reasonable doubt, but I think we can all be sure that it was wrong.

Shane Dunphy is a child protection expert, author and broadcaster. He is Head of the Social Studies Department at Waterford College of Further Education. 

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    Mute Maurice Danaher
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    Sep 2nd 2014, 5:28 PM

    Current national debt is circa €190B. Is Noonan giving up on getting the ECB to finance the Bank debt and get it deducted from the €190B. This was one of FG’s election promises. The real national debt figure is probably close to €500B if we were to accrue all PRSI pension liabilities. Yesterday’s article in the Sunday Times is frightening on this.

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    Mute Winston Teardrops
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    Sep 2nd 2014, 5:33 PM

    Why would they include future liabilities? At that rate you could bring future expected revenue into the equation!

    61
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    Mute Emily Elephant
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    Sep 2nd 2014, 5:40 PM

    Because as from 2017, we have to account for unfunded liabilities to give a true picture of national debt. Just as companies have had to do for years. There’s no real difference between a bond you have to repay and a pension you’re committed to paying, except in accounting terms.

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    Mute Maurice Danaher
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    Sep 2nd 2014, 6:01 PM

    Well said. Couldn’t have put it better myself.

    19
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    Mute Kate Ellen Egan
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    Sep 2nd 2014, 6:04 PM

    Where will the money to fund these early repayments come from ? I know it’s a stupid question but does anyone know the answer ?

    11
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    Mute Robin Tobin
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    Sep 2nd 2014, 6:11 PM

    Maurice the minister is doing lip service for the next election. Europe is in receivership and has told Noonan no to what you have noted. It would be nice but our politician didn’t talk hard they were the good boys in the class. So Europe expects them to keep paying.

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    Mute Alien8
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    Sep 2nd 2014, 6:15 PM

    They will be coming from 15 year loans/bond issues so the banks will be lending this money to repay them back early.

    10
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    Mute VoiceOfVanguard
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    Sep 2nd 2014, 6:23 PM

    Wait ’til Ireland doesn’t get the retroactive bank recapitalization.

    And when – not if – new international corporate tax rules take effect from 2016 (OECD), at least €50 billion, or half the annual value of services exports will be vapourized.

    Plus, some multi-nationals have also said they will leave when that happens i.e. when they have to start paying a lot more corporation tax back home on top of high wages in Ireland.

    Hold on to your tin hats.

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    Mute Richard Rodgers
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    Sep 2nd 2014, 6:28 PM

    Emily
    Perhaps now the penny might drop when we consider the point John Bruton was making when discussing such liabilities recently.!
    He was massively abused on this site when his opinion about defaulting by the State on pensions etc when the alternative was bankruptcy .
    How quickly we shoot the messenger in Ireland rather than trying to deal with realities.

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    Mute SeanieRyan
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    Sep 2nd 2014, 8:14 PM

    Still think that a debt deal will have to be done.

    The EU live in a fantasy world where real economic reality is denied and put on long finger.

    They blew their chance to resolve the Euro crisis.

    11
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    Mute Ben Gunn
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    Sep 2nd 2014, 8:32 PM

    That would apply to unfunded civil service pensions but not to PRSI pensions. That liability is subject to year by year legislation and, in theory, could be reduced or abolished by a new Finance Act. It won’t happen of course, but the possibilty means that it is not a reckonable long term debt.

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    Mute Stephen Brady
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    Sep 2nd 2014, 8:47 PM

    What do you mean give up, they didn’t even ask for feck sake

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    Mute Kerry Blake
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    Sep 2nd 2014, 9:48 PM

    ohhh I feel another seismic shift coming on….

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    Mute Huggy Bear
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    Sep 8th 2014, 9:12 AM

    Property tax
    Water charges
    USC
    ….any if these terms familiar to you????

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    Mute IrishGravyTrain
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    Sep 2nd 2014, 5:21 PM

    No financial penalty for paying off loans early. Ha ha. We should be getting a discount for paying early.

    107
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    Mute Winston Teardrops
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    Sep 2nd 2014, 5:30 PM

    Don’t get into finance. I can tell by this one comment that it’s not for you.

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    Mute Tony Skillington
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    Sep 2nd 2014, 5:51 PM

    We should never have had them in the first place…ffs

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    Mute Peter King
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    Sep 2nd 2014, 5:23 PM

    Getting a bit annoyed with this sycophantic attitude the government has with Europe.

    77
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    Mute John Deegan
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    Sep 2nd 2014, 5:38 PM

    What, you feel no surge of patriotic pride when our minister begs the faceless financiers to kindly allow us to give us a big ball of cash?

    32
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    Mute John Deegan
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    Sep 2nd 2014, 5:39 PM

    * you a big ball of cash *

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    Mute Mike O Neill
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    Sep 2nd 2014, 6:00 PM
    7
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    Mute Richard Rodgers
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    Sep 2nd 2014, 6:39 PM

    Peter.
    What a brain and what a genius. Please tell us how yo can save the State a cool three hundred and seventy five million Euro a year as proposed by Minister Noonan so that we don’t have to politely ask our creditors for agreement to vary the terms of our Bailout.
    You must be a whizz with figures and I envy the confidence with which you stride across these pages.
    I showed your comments to a colleague and I could see straight away that he misunderstands you. In tact what he said about you couldn’t be printed here but all great men Peter suffer from such slingshots!

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    Mute Paul Mc
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    Sep 2nd 2014, 8:09 PM

    @Rodgers as per usual your wisdom knows no bounds you and your comments are wasted on the journal.
    Its time you took up your true vocation and that in my humble oppinion is that of chief Fine Gael ass wipe.

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    Mute Richard Rodgers
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    Sep 2nd 2014, 8:22 PM

    Paul
    Thanks! Your opinion in your own words is indeed humble and it is quite clear that you never aspired beyond that though instinct probably told you that there was enough material in you to heft a Sinn Fein shovel but you would need to be told what to do after that.
    The world needs simple folk Paul and at least you have recognised that!

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    Mute Stephen Grehan
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    Sep 2nd 2014, 8:37 PM

    Well said Paul Mc. When Rodgers is in the company of Edna its like a scene from the film The Human Centipede.

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    Mute Thomas Newell
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    Sep 2nd 2014, 9:09 PM

    hows life as the chief arse kisser and male cheer leader to enda and his brigade richard cos clearly you are one of them patriots big nose hogan was on about

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    Mute Kerry Blake
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    Sep 2nd 2014, 9:54 PM

    So Richard hows that seismic shift of Enda the statesman performing these days?

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    Mute Richard Rodgers
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 12:01 AM

    Kerry
    Whaaaaaaaaat?

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    Mute E=MC2
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    Sep 2nd 2014, 5:58 PM

    When the cost of Noonan’s very generous minster’s pension to which he does not contribute a cent is added to the debt it could be the last straw that breaks the taxpayer’s back.

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    Mute Phillip Hogan
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    Sep 2nd 2014, 5:23 PM

    Wow, we are so lucky.

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    Mute Alien8
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    Sep 2nd 2014, 5:53 PM

    Looking at the returns, it is all rosy for Noonan – revenue’s new mantra is to suck every last penny of savings and profit out of small business and their employees and to present it as a gift to some unelected ex-politicians and expect a pat on his obnoxious head.

    “Look what I brought you – someone else’s debt, maybe I’ve ruined a few small businesses and taxed earnings and savings from Irish people to the hilt, but as long as we’re all happy let’s make this look like good news to the ‘media’ – you’ll print it like that, you property funded news website”…

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    Mute Ger Ryan
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    Sep 2nd 2014, 7:29 PM

    At the end of the 1st 1/4 2008 this country was heading towards a deficit of 22bn euros. In d last 5 yrs we have undertaken a huge social experimenr in how to balance d books without strikes/riots etc and we have nearly made it. There is huge credit due to fg and lab and enormous credit due to d dept of finance and public expenditure.

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    Mute Stephen Brady
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    Sep 2nd 2014, 8:52 PM

    Why should lab and fg get any credit. Ff told them what to do before they got booted out.

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    Mute Colin Mccormack
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 3:53 AM

    How is it any credit to them, it’s a credit to the irish people not the politicians. The politicians didn’t stop riots they hid away in Leinster house and quietly stripped us of our pride and dignity and left most of us demoralised and close to bankruptcy. Suicides are through the roof, let’s see these magnificent politicians of yours deal with that elephant in the roof. Crime.? It’s bandit country in ireland again, those shower deserve no credit for anything.

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    Mute Ger Ryan
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 7:22 AM

    The simple fact if the matter is that this country of 4.5million people withdrew over 16bn from circulation over the past 5 years. Politicans put their names forward as spokespeople for that. You didnt. You come on forums and talk abt how bad it is. Pokiticans arent stupid or even greedy anymore. They all know the suicide numbers, the high taxes, the unemployment but they still put their names forward. You didnt. it is easier spew vitriol from d sidelines

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    Mute Alan O'connor
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    Sep 2nd 2014, 6:06 PM

    More bad news for the Shinners. Tax take up. Ahead of forecast.

    Where are the Shinners anyway?

    I suppose it’s hard for them to spin positives into negatives. Especially when there’s an election coming up. Just doesn’t appeal to voters.

    But it’s all they have.

    21
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    Mute Thomas Newell
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    Sep 2nd 2014, 9:13 PM

    so anyone that has a different opinion to them muppets in power are shinners………explains the mental state of the cheerleaders for the likes of the FG/LB/FF crowd on hear…..deluded one trick ponies who believe anything that comes out of the lot in the dail

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    Mute John Hartigan
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    Sep 2nd 2014, 6:08 PM

    Election spew has started

    21
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    Mute Nosmo King
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    Sep 2nd 2014, 6:11 PM

    ” Noonan ” and ” charm ” in the same sentence !! . It is just so wrong, Jack Horgan-Jones. Just so, so wrong.

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    Mute VinHeffer89
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    Sep 2nd 2014, 6:05 PM

    Will Mr Noonan be dancing suggestively for Mario Draghi et al as well?

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    Mute Susan Adair Farrelly
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    Sep 2nd 2014, 8:54 PM

    Charm?? God help Europe…

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    Mute Jarlath Murphy
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    Sep 2nd 2014, 5:41 PM

    Jam?………………………………..
    ‘…………………………?…………….
    ……..?………………………………….

    NEVER!

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    Mute DM
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    Sep 2nd 2014, 6:16 PM

    Why was my two comments deleted?

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    Mute Brehon Law
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 8:16 AM

    Just in time for the general election!

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