Jurors to watch Bashir documentary?

The prosecution in the Michael Jackson child molestation trial want the jurors to be shown the Martin Bashir documentary.

The 2003 programme, Living With Michael Jackson, triggered investigations into the singer's relationship with children, though the defence have claimed that it was "heavily edited in the most sensational fashion possible."

Among other things, Bashir's work shows Jackson holding hands with his accuser and speaking about his habit of sleeping with young boys. The prosecution will say that such scenes encouraged Jackson to abduct his accuser and his family in order to persuade them to appear in a 'rebuttal' video.

In his motion, District Attorney Tom Sneddon said: "The jury cannot truly appreciate the strength of the motivation for the desperate actions undertaken by defendant and his co-conspirators in response to Living with Michael Jackson without seeing what inspired that reaction."

However, the defence claim that the documentary is "theatrical" hearsay and therefore inadmissible as evidence.