File:Michael Jackson with James Safechuck, 1988 (261526892).jpg

This photograph is used in the documentary LEAVING NEVERLAND. _____________________________________________

Michael Jackson on the grounds of the Kahala Hilton Hotel in Honolulu, Hawaii, with boy Jimmy Safechuck and Jimmy's mother, in white - February, 1988. This walking bridge, over the hotel's dolphin pond, was removed by the hotel during renovation many years ago. Today the hotel is known as the Kahala Hotel and Resort.

Scanned from the original 35MM film negative.

The small boy dressed like Michael is James ("Jimmy") Safechuck, a boy who appeared in a Pepsi commercial with Michael and was traveling with him. He was sexually abused by Michael Jackson between 1988 and 1992 according to the documentary LEAVING NEVERLAND. The sexual abuse began in early June of 1988 in a Paris hotel room, about 4 months after this photograph was taken.

At the the I saw them and photographed them Michael and Jimmy were inseparable around the hotel together, chasing each other, playing tag, making soap bubbles on a balcony of the hotel, walking closely on the beach together and looking at the hotel's dolphins, turtles and penguins together. Michael, though 29 1/2 years old at the time, acted more like someone Jimmy's age. Jimmy is about 10 years old at this time.

Michael and Jimmy were staying at the Kahala Hilton Hotel (today called Kahala Resort) and I saw them 7 different times around the hotel over 3 days - during the day walking together on the beach, standing together in the lobby, together on a room's balcony, looking at the dolphin area together, and looking at the turtles and penguins kept on display around the swimming pool.

Another time I saw Michael, Jimmy and his mom were standing on the balcony of a room making soap bubbles in the air (see photos of them on the balcony in this album).

Michael was in Hawaii to make an appearance at a Pepsi bottlers convention that was taking place at another hotel 15 minutes away, the Sheraton-Waikiki Hotel, a 30-story hotel located in the heart of crowded and touristy Waikiki Beach.

This was four years after Michael's scalp was burned during the filming of a Pepsi commercial, two years after he was diagnosd with vitiligo, a skin condition, one month before he finalized the purchase of the land that would become Neverland, and four months before he began sexually molesting Safechuck according to the documentary Leaving Neverland.

By the way, I have seen the HBO documentary Leaving Neverland and I believe Wade Robson and Jimmy Safechuck. Others feel differently.