Bombshell Interview: Michael Jackson Juror Believes Star Abused Wade Robson & Macaulay Culkin
March 25 2019, Updated 4:42 p.m. ET
Juror number five on the infamous Michael Jackson 2005 child molestation trial is speaking out exclusively to RadarOnline.com following the shocking new allegations from the explosive Leaving Neverland documentary.
Eleanor Cook, now 93, sat in the courtroom nearly 15 years ago, and heard several testimonies from boys who had been close to the late singer.
Among them was child actor Macaulay Culkin and young dancer Wade Robson, who both insisted Jackson had never sexually abused them.
However, in the shocking new HBO film, Robson changed his tune, claiming Jackson had actually abused him for years. (Culkin still insists Jackson never touched him during their longtime friendship.)
Cook told RadarOnline.com she never bought the boys' testimonies.
"I didn't believe them," Cook said of Culkin and Robson, adding that she thought the boys made up the story to protect the King of Pop.
"They were kids who grew up with Michael."
When RadarOnline.com reached out for comment, Culkin's rep said: “We decline to dignify the request with a response.”
Cook further confessed she was one of only two jurors who found Jackson guilty of intoxicating and molesting young boy Gavin Arvizo.
"I definitely thought he was guilty with all my heart and soul," Cook firmly told RadarOnline.com. "I have always thought that. I have prayed about it."
Cook added that despite believing Jackson was guilty, she "felt sorry for him."
"His father mistreated him. Yes, he was guilty, and he did a lot of that stuff. But he had a hard life, and his mother was the only one that was there every day. She was a very sweet woman."
Jackson's father Joe died in 2018, while his mother Katherine is in failing health at age 88.
Cook claimed Jackson "should have been sent to jail" and "punished," but she eventually decided on "not guilty" with the rest of the jury because she and another like-minded juror "knew we weren't going to change anyone's mind."
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"We gave in," she explained.
Jackson was acquitted of all charges, and his family has maintained his innocence even nearly 10 years after his overdose death at 50.
