Corey Feldman has been very open over the years about being a sexual abuse survivor and a friend of Michael Jackson when he was a young boy.
Now, just days after appearing to defend the king of pop on a string of tweets, the former child star has had a change of heart regarding the molestation allegations made against the King of Pop in the scathing documentary, Leaving Neverland.
‘I can not in good consciousness defend anyone who’s being accused of such horrendous things,’ the now 47-year old confessed about Jackson in an interview with CNN‘s Headline News.
‘But at the same time, I’m also not here to judge him, because again, he did not do those things to me and that was not my experience.’
The film examined disturbing claims by James Safechuck and Wade Robson that Jackson sexually abused them over a period of several years when they were children.
Initially, Feldman criticized the documentary, calling it ‘one-sided’ in a series of tweets on Monday, after the airing of the first part of the documentary.
Then, during Thursday’s interview, he had a change of heart of sorts and shared that this has been ‘a very emotional time for me, and this is a very emotional process for any survivor of abuse.’
He went on to explain his tweets by asking ‘people to put themselves in my shoes.’
‘You’re a kid who has endured sexual abuse and during those times, I’m looking to somebody like Michael Jackson as a friend, as a big brother figure. And he was that person to me,’ he said.
‘However, as you’re friends with this guy, all of a sudden you start to hear more and more accusations thrown around by various people.’
‘It comes to a point where as an advocate for victims, as an advocate for changing the statutes of limitations to make sure victims’ voices are heard, it becomes impossible for me to remain virtuous and not at least consider what’s being said and not listen to what the victims are saying,’ he said.
‘This is very important. We must give them their voice. We must allow them to speak, and therefore we must consider all sides of this, even as uncomfortable as that may be.’
The former Lost Boys star has claimed the he and friend Corey Haim were sexually abused by people in the entertainment business as minors.
He maintained he reported his molestations to the police in 1993, while they were investigating Jackson for the first time.
‘I’ve never had a shot at justice. I never had a chance to bring my predators to the court system,’ Feldman said.
Police looked into the accusations after Feldman filed them in 2017, but the case was dropped due to the expired statute of limitations.
During Thursday’s interview, Feldman was adamant that nothing inappropriate had ever happened during his time with Jackson as a youngster.
‘My place is not to be the judge, and is not to be the accuser, and not to be the defender, he said.
‘My job in this is to focus on what’s most important, which is helping to reform the statues of limitations in every state, because if we can reform the statutes of limitations we can prevent these things from ever getting to this point.’
