SANTA MARIA, California (AP) – Witnesses testified yesterday in Michael Jackson’s child molestation trial that the accuser’s mother got a body wax and her children visited an orthodontist at a time when the family was allegedly being held captive by the pop star and associates.

None of the witnesses described any effort by the family to indicate they were in trouble and needed help, or said they saw a “positive PR film crew” that the mother claims followed the family on trips from Jackson’s Neverland ranch.

Spa worker Carol McCoy said she performed a full body wax on the mother on February 11, 2003.

She said a woman dropped the mother off at the spa and no one stayed with her during the procedure. McCoy said the mother was free to leave at any time.

“Did she say anything or do anything that suggested she was being restrained in her liberty?” asked defence attorney Robert Sanger.

“No,” McCoy said.

When the mother testified in April, she disputed defence attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr’s statement that she had received a body wax, saying it was a leg wax.

The $140 (euro110) bill for the procedure indicated brow, lips, bikini and leg, and the witness confirmed that was a body wax.

Jackson, 46, is accused of molesting a 13-year-old cancer patient in February or March 2003 and plying him with wine. He is also accused of conspiring to hold the family captive in order to get them to make video rebutting a February 6, 2003, documentary in which the boy appeared with Jackson, who said he let children sleep in his bed in a non-sexual way.

An orthodontist, Dr Jean Lorraine Seamount, and assistant Tiffany Haynes testified about a visit by the accuser and his brother, sister and mother on February 24, 2003.

The mother had described the dental visit as a ruse to try to escape.

Seamount, however, testified she saw no sign that the family was being held captive, and both she and her assistant criticised the accuser’s behaviour.

“The older boy was kind of rude,” Haynes said.

Seamount testified that the mother asked her to remove her children’s braces so she could mail them back to their old orthodontist. Seamount said she advised the mother to not have the braces removed but the mother insisted because she was upset with the previous orthodontist.

“She claimed that once the orthodontist found out who she was he wanted more money,” Seamount testified.

She testified that the boy who is now Jackson’s accuser behaved poorly and went through drawers, forcing her to throw away several sterilised items.

On cross-examination, Senior Deputy District Attorney Ron Zonen asked why the children had been designated “VIP patients”.

Seamount said that if patients had special needs they were designated VIPs, which might grant them special privileges in terms of scheduling.

She said Neverland ranch manager Joe Marcus had told someone in her office that the children were high profile and may be recognisable.