'Neverland ranch', Michael Jackson's 'special' home for 'special' boys
I had only a foggy idea about all this before starting work on the film. The complex, counter-intuitive and repugnant truths of child sexual abuse that Wade Robson, James Safechuck and their families have courageously unravelled on camera came as a shock to me.
In particular, the repellent but undeniable fact that a powerful attachment often forms between the predator and the child, who experiences the adult's sexual advances not as abuse, but quite the opposite: as love. Equally disturbing to any parent is the child's subsequent urge to shelter the abuser from parents or police. This misplaced loyalty often persists into adulthood, even though the adult knows by now that child sexual abuse is a crime. "I felt anointed," as Wade puts it.
And then there's the fear of consequences. "Michael told me we'd go to jail for the rest of our lives," said Wade, describing a conversation that he had at Neverland when he was seven, but was repeated many times. The combined weight of love, shame and fear can lead to a lifetime of silence. The psychological strain of keeping the secret corrodes the soul, resulting in depression, feelings of worthlessness, substance abuse, suicidal thoughts. And the victim doesn't connect these symptoms with the childhood sexual relationship. I am no psychotherapist but this all started to make a dreadful kind of sense to me. As James observed poignantly in a recent interview: "Your whole childhood is a lie."
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What does this say for the media? And the justice system?
They basically covered up for him for decades.
That's also down to Jackson's predatory cunning. He literally walked around holding the hands of the boys he abused, in front of cameras, for years, keeping everyone under his spell.
Finally, that's also down to everyone for believing in the Peter Pan myth.
Wakey-wakey people...