Horrifying discovery Michael Jackson insider made after peeking in 'suspicious bag' taken from child's home
Warning: This article contains discussion of child abuse which some readers may find distressing.
A man who once worked for Michael Jackson has revealed the disturbing contents of a 'suspicious bag' that one of the star's closest confidants allegedly gave him.
Vincent Amen is one of the dozens of contributors who appear in the new Netflix documentary, Michael Jackson: The Verdict.
The three-part series, which was released on the streaming platform on Wednesday (3 June), revisits the allegations against the King of Pop, which culminated in him standing trial in 2005.
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Jackson was accused of molesting cancer survivor Gavin Arvizo — and these claims came to light just months after the singer admitted to sharing a bed with the young boy during a 'bombshell' interview with Martin Bashir.
Arvizo alleged that Jackson had plied him with alcohol, showed him pornography and molested him at his Neverland Ranch in Santa Barbara County, California. Jackson was acquitted.
The Verdict features a host of archive footage, including video of Arvizo sitting down with detectives in 2003.
Take a look at the trailer for the documentary.
In the clip showing Arvizo talking to cops, the teen claimed that Jackson had 'grabbed his private area' while they lay on his bed alongside each other.
After delivering a chilling account of what he claims happened, Arvizo went on to claim that the Grammy-winner had shown him a 'black briefcase, full of naked pictures and magazines of women and girls'.
When police later raided Neverland, officers were keen to see if the boy's claims about the briefcase had any weight — and according to Ronald Zonen, one of the lead prosecutors in Jackson's 2005 trial, they located it.
"Yes, we found the briefcase, yes, it was the same colour, yes, it had pornography in it," Zonen says in the documentary.
PR executive Vincent Amen was hired to help with damage control in the wake of Arvizo's allegations and the fallout which followed the release of Martin Bashir's documentary, Living with Michael Jackson.
He explained that when the media storm erupted, he initially 'wholeheartedly believed' in Jackson's innocence.
According to Amen, he was introduced to the music star by his close pal and business partner, Frank Cascio, who was also known as Frank Tyson.
"Michael was like a father to Frank," he explained while appearing in The Verdict. Frank was a young child when he met Michael, and he grew in the ranks and became his personal assistant.
"Basically, anything that Michael wanted, he would have to do."
Amen said that he once asked Cascio – whom he described as 'the closest person to Michael' — if the allegations made by Arvizo had any truth behind them.
"He told me, 'No, Michael would never do this with a child, I've known Michael all my life, he would never do this'," Amen said. "And I trusted Frank."
After Jackson handed himself into authorities in Santa Barbara, Amen said that police began 'raiding the houses and properties' of the star's associates.
"Frank cleaned out his house of anything that came from the Neverland Ranch," he claimed. "And he hands me a...bag. I took the bag and I'm driving home, and I felt that something was a little suspicious."
Amen said that he decided to take a look inside of the bag and documented the process by videoing himself rifling through it — and this footage is featured in The Verdict.
In the Netflix doc, he then alleged: "I open the bag, I start looking and I see a magazine. Start flipping through it and there was...circles, around the video ordering section.
"Someone wanted these videos, circled the ones they wanted. These videos — which are children, that are naked. Some just families, some just naked children.
"I confronted Frank. I said, 'What is this magazine? Because there's circles around videos of naked children'."
Amen claimed that his friend then made a horrifying admission, as Jackson's former PR went on to allege: "[Frank] said, 'That's just a phase that Michael and I went through.
"'He circled the videos that he wanted, I ordered them, it was a phase that we went through'. They watched them together.
"When I heard that, I was in disbelief. I was very upset. My inclination was after finding this and sitting and thinking about it — was that Frank is so close to Michael, that he is covering up for him.
"That was a defining moment for me. That was the moment that hit me so hard, that I realised that something is going on here."
At the end of the first episode of The Verdict, Netflix noted that Cascio could not be reached for comment.
Earlier this year, the Cascio family claimed that Jackson sent them out as his 'soldiers' to defend him from allegations— and alleged that the 'Billie Jean' singer abused four out of the five siblings.
In a recent report on 60 Minutes Australia, the now adult children, including Frank, recounted their alleged experiences with the legendary performer, which included him performing oral sex on them, forcing them to drink wine and even him drinking their urine as a sign of devotion.
Marty Singer, a lawyer for the Jackson family estate, characterised the lawsuit launched by the Cascio family as 'a desperate money grab'.
"The family staunchly defended Michael Jackson for more than 25 years, attesting to his innocence of inappropriate conduct," Mr. Singer said in a statement."
"This new court filing is a transparent forum-shopping tactic in their scheme to obtain hundreds of millions of dollars from Michael’s estate and companies."
LADbible has contacted Cascio's legal representatives for comment in regards to Amen's claims in The Verdict.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence regarding the welfare of a child, contact the NSPCC on 0808 800 5000, 10am-8pm Monday to Friday. If you are a child seeking advice and support, call Childline for free on 0800 1111, 24/7.
Topics: Netflix, Michael Jackson, Documentaries, US News
Olivia Burke