Ananova:

The father of the boy accusing Michael Jackson of sex attacks has told of previous abuse-related lawsuits that the child's mother has filed.

The father's attorney, Russell Halpern, says the mother has lied about abuse and has a "Svengali-like" ability to make her children repeat her lies.

The family of the child has already been involved in two previous cases that involved abuse allegations: a lawsuit in which the family said they were battered by shopping precinct security guards.

The father says the second was a divorce fight in which the father pleaded no contest to wife abuse and child cruelty "to avoid a court battle".

In November 2001, JC Penney department store lawyers paid the boy's family £85,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging security guards beat the boy, his mother and his brother in a car park after the boy left the store carrying clothes that had not been paid for, court records show.

The mother also contended that she was sexually assaulted by one of the guards during the 1998 confrontation.

A month before the settlement, the boy's mother had filed for divorce, beginning a bitter fight that would include criminal charges of abuse.

Mr Halpern said the father once showed him a script his wife had allegedly written for their children to use when they were questioned in a civil deposition.

"She wrote out all their testimony. I actually saw the script," Halpern said. "I remember my client showing me, bringing the paperwork to me."

The family's past legal cases could be critical in the current molestation case, if Michael Jackson's lawyer can show the mother or the accuser lacks credibility, said Leonard Levine, a defence attorney who specialises in sexual assault cases.