Boy tells jury singer groped brother

A 14-year-old boy told jurors in Michael Jackson's child molestation trial on Monday that he twice saw the pop star masturbating himself and groping his sleeping brother, the first testimony in the case that directly implicates Mr Jackson of sex abuse.

The boy, whose now 15-year-old brother made the accusations at the heart of the case against Mr Jackson, said he witnessed the disturbing scene on two nights in February or March of 2003, while climbing stairs to the superstar's Neverland Valley Ranch bedroom.

He said that on both occasions Mr Jackson and his brother were lying on the 46-year-old performer's bed and his brother, then 13, was asleep. Mr Jackson was not aware that he was on the stairs and peering through a railing, the boy testified.

The boy, who was 12 at the time, said he watched for only a few seconds before leaving to spend the night with his sister in a Neverland guest cottage. On most nights, he said, he and his brother both slept in Mr Jackson's room.

The testimony could prove crucial to Santa Barbara County prosecutors as corroboration of the accusations against Mr Jackson. The singer is also accused of giving the boy wine in order to abuse him and conspiring to commit false imprisonment, extortion and child abduction.

Mr Jackson, who has pleaded innocent, faces more than 20 years in prison if convicted on all counts.

Defence lawyers say the sex abuse charges were dreamed up by the boy's mother in order to wrest money from Mr Jackson. They have attacked the credibility of the entire family, citing their conflicting statements about Mr Jackson on video and audiotape and similar accusations made by the mother against others.

The accuser's brother, who spoke in a matter-of-fact tone and did not appear to make eye contact with Mr Jackson in the courtroom, testified that once when he and his brother were watching a movie, "Michael walked up naked and picked up something. Me and my brother were grossed out. He told us it was natural." During the family's first visit to Neverland in 2000, the boy said, Mr Jackson and an aide showed him and his brother pornography on the internet while the pop star's young children, Paris Michael and Prince, slept on his bed.

The boy said Mr Jackson then leaned over to his sleeping son and told him was missing out on the pictures, using a vulgar reference to a woman's genitalia.

He also said Mr Jackson had a suitcase full of pornographic magazines that he would show the boys. The boy identified the black case when Santa Barbara County District Attorney Tom Sneddon showed it to him in court.

Shown pictures of several magazines inside, the boy said they were among the magazines Mr Jackson had in the case.

On a private plane in 2003, he said Mr Jackson "leaned over and handed me what I thought was Diet Coke. It tasted like the smell of rubbing alcohol. I asked what it was. He said it was wine."

During testimony, the boy also said the singer nicknamed him "Blowhole" and called his brother either "Apple Head" or "Doo Doo." His brother called Jackson "Daddy".