BBC3 stirs up Jackson controversy

net1

BBC3 has secured an exclusive interview with the uncle of Jordan Chandler, the boy who accused Michael Jackson of assault until his family reached a £15m settlement with the singer.
The interview will air on BBC3 on Sunday, less than two months after the star appeared in court facing seven counts of child sex abuse charges.

The one-off special, The Boy That Michael Jackson Paid Off, investigates what happened to Chandler, who was 13 when the charges were levelled against Jackson a decade ago.

It features an interview with his uncle, Ray Chandler, in which it is revealed how the family was subjected to death threats and gun shots were fired at their house. Jordan Chandler has since become a recluse, with a reported $250,000 price tag for any paparazzi who manages to take his photo.

"Mentally, emotionally and physically it was a siege," Ray Chandler told the show. "There were death threats, lots of them, they started coming in by the dozens a day. There was the time when someone left a rat with its head cut off in a shoe box at the front door. Someone took a couple of shots at the house when the gun went off twice.

"Everybody was armed - not that we walked about with guns in our belts inside the house but my brother and I never went outside the house without them."

The documentary, made by Blast TV, also investigates the methods Jordan's father, Evan, used to extract information from his son about his relationship with Jackson - and his subsequent efforts to negotiate a film contract. Police launched a formal investigation following the claims of abuse, but prosecutors dropped the case when Jackson reached a £15m settlement with the boy.