SANTA MARIA, California (AP) – The teenage boy who says Michael Jackson molested him testified yesterday that he denied the abuse to a school administrator because he was tired of the other kids making fun of him.

The conversation with the administrator occurred after the broadcast of a TV documentary that showed Jackson with the boy. In the documentary, the pop star acknowledged sharing his bed with children but characterised the practice as innocent.

The boy, now 15, testified that he was harassed by schoolmates who said he had been “raped” by Jackson, and he got into fights as a result. He was then sent to see the school’s dean, who asked him whether Jackson had molested him.

“I told him that it didn’t happen,” the boy said. “All the kids were already making fun of me at the school and I didn’t want anyone to think it had really happened.”

The testimony came during questioning by District Attorney Tom Sneddon a day after the teen admitted under cross-examination that he told the school official nothing happened during stays at Jackson’s Neverland ranch.

Sneddon also sought to counter a video showed by Jackson’s attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr showing the boy saying Jackson “was like a father to me”. Sneddon asked the boy what he thinks of the pop star now.

“I don’t really like him anymore,” the boy said. “I don’t really think he’s deserving of the respect I was giving him as the coolest guy in the world.”

Prosecutors claim the boy and his family were held captive for about a month at Neverland while Jackson used them to make a video rebutting the damaging TV documentary.

Under cross-examination, the boy said he did not take advantage of several opportunities to escape – during trips to the dentist and to go shopping at Toys R Us – because he did not want to leave.

“Those first few escapes you talked about – I liked being at Neverland. It was like Disneyland,” the boy said.

The boy said his mother was the one who wanted to escape. He said he did not want to flee Neverland until the family left for good in March 2003.

He said that even when the family left Neverland, Jackson’s employees kept a close eye on them. “They never wanted us to be in separate areas. They wanted us to be together,” he said.

Mesereau also asked the boy whether he knew that he had until age 18 to file a civil lawsuit against Jackson and that winning a criminal conviction would help such a suit.

The boy said he was unaware of either issue.

After Sneddon’s questioning, the prosecution called Terry Flaa, a former Santa Barbara County sheriff’s investigator who said that he decided not to investigate two child welfare complaints involving Jackson’s conduct with the boy in March 2003.

The complaints were made by people who had seen the documentary, and Flaa decided not to investigate after learning of an interview by children’s services authorities in Los Angeles County in which the boy’s family said nothing had happened.

The next witness, sheriff’s Lt Jeff Klapackis, said he ordered the Jackson investigation reopened after talking with the family’s attorney, Larry Feldman, and psychologist Stan Katz, who had interviewed the boy and his brother.

Prosecutors say the molestation allegations came to light during the boys’ interviews with Katz.