Santa Maria: Pop star Michael Jackson faces another group of prospective jurors Tuesday, as hundreds of reporters and fans settled in for the second day of a child molestation trial that is expected to last six months. The eccentric “King of Pop” on Monday arrived for the start of his trial flashing “V” signs, wearing a white suit and dark glasses. He strode into court to the cheers of 200 fans and the stares of 1,000 reporters for proceedings that could cost him his freedom, his reputation and his career.

Inside the courtroom in the usually sleepy California hamlet of Santa Maria, jury selection marked the formal start of an anticipated trial that could see the entertainer jailed for up to 20 years. Jackson stood solemnly between his lawyers as he faced the first 300 potential jurors in whose hands his fate could lie. Jackson is accused of molesting a cancer patient, then 13, at his Neverland Ranch, near here, two years ago.

Jackson, 46, and a father of three, broke his court-imposed silence on the allegations on Sunday, defiantly proclaiming his innocence. “I will be acquitted and vindicated when the truth is told,” he said in a video statement. — AFP