The director of the controversial docu-series Leaving Neverland has acknowledged there is an error in the timeline provided by James Safechuck, one of Michael Jackson’s alleged sexual abuse victims.
Dan Reed made the admission on Sunday after British journalist Mike Smallcombe revealed that the train station on Jackson’s ranch wasn’t approved for construction until September 1993.
Safechuck, in his 2014 lawsuit against the estate of the late King of Pop, alleged he was sexually abused in an upstairs room in Neverland’s train station up until 1992, when he was 14.
Reed addressed Smallcombe’s revelation on Twitter. “Yeah there seems to be no doubt about the station date,” he wrote. “The date they have wrong is the end of the abuse.”
Smallcombe responded: “Just hold your hands up, don’t change the story. This is what happens when you don’t investigate properly.”
He also poked a hole in the recollection of Wade Robson, the other alleged victim featured in Leaving Neverland. Robson claimed the abuse started when he stayed at Neverland while his family visited the Grand Canyon. But, Smallcombe cited depositions of Robson’s mother Joy in 1993 and 2016 wherein she said her son was part of the trip.
Smallcombe told NME the two timeline issues don’t prove that Safechuck and Robson were not sexually abused by Jackson, but “it does make you wonder, if they’ve fabricated these stories, what about the rest?”
Jackson's family has denied the allegations in Leaving Neverland and, during his lifetime, Jackson denied ever harming children.