In a video that has been unearthed from 1993, pop icon Michael Jackson’s sister LaToya stated that her brother was indeed a pedophile, saying, “Michael is my brother; I love him a great deal but I cannot, and will not, be a silent collaborator of his crimes against small, innocent children, and if I remain silent then it means I fuel the guilt and humiliation these children are feeling and I think it’s very wrong.”
LaToya Jackson made the claims in an MTV interview after the father of 13-year-old Jordy Chandler accused Michael Jackson of molesting the boy and a settlement was reached out of court, according to The Daily Mail. Chandler and Jackson met in 1992, when Chandler was 12, according to The Mirror, which added that Chandler’s father “became suspicious after Jackson stayed in a room with Jordy and his stepbrother at the Monaco World Music Awards. In the same year, the LA police department launched an inquiry and went to Neverland with a strip-search warrant after Jordy gave a detailed description of his penis.”
The Mirror added, “In 1994 the case was settled out of court for $23 million. Jordy refused to testify against the singer and the district attorneys said their investigation failed to produce evidence and they could not file criminal charges without Jordan’s cooperation.”
In the 1993 video, LaToya Jackson alleged that she had seen hush money paid to youths for “very, very large sums.”
In the interview, according to The Daily Mail, LaToya asked, “Now you stop and think for one second and you tell me, what 35-year-old man is going to take a little boy and stay with him for 30 days? And take another boy and stay with him for five days in a room and never leave the room? How many of you out there are 35 years old? How many would take little kids and do that? That are nine, 10, 11 years old? I love my brother but it’s wrong. I don’t want to see these kids hurt.”
The Daily Mail added that LaToya said she herself had been abused by her father, asserting, “I am a victim myself and I know what it feels like. These kids are going to be scarred for the rest of their lives and I don’t want to see any more innocent, small children being affected this way … I love Michael very dearly but I feel even more sorry for these children because they don’t have a life anymore, they don’t.”
After LaToya alleged her brother was a pedophile, she later retracted her statements, saying her husband at the time had manipulated her to slam her brother, according to The Daily Mail.
Furor over Michael Jackson’s alleged pedophilia was triggered recently after the release of the documentary “Leaving Neverland,” in which two men who alleged they were molested by Jackson when they were children described in detail the nature of the alleged abuse. The Daily Mail reported that in the documentary, James Safechuck, who claimed he was 10 years old when the alleged abuse began, and Wade Robson, who claimed he was seven when he was abused, came forth with allegations that Jackson abused them.