Assessment of Jackson accuser denied

Requests by Michael Jackson's defence lawyers in the alleged child molestation case to have the accuser and members of his family mentally assessed have been denied by the Superior Court.

Superior Court judge Rodney Melville denied the request to have psychiatric evaluations made of the accuser and his mother and brother yesterday in a pre-trial hearing in Santa Barbara.

The judge went as far as allowing the team to subpoena medical, psychiatric and other records relating to the family, saying: "I want to protect Mr Jackson's right to set up his defence... but I also think we also have got to protect the people whose records are being subpoenaed."

Jackson will stand trial for ten separate counts of child abuse from the 31st January 2005.