In 2005, at the time of Jackson’s trial, many children I shared my school with, condemned Jackson and everything he stood for, denouncing him as nothing more than a paedophile, who was “never any good anyway”. And as a nation, the UK (and maybe the US) sighed and tutted, and said how such a man was tormented by a childhood, how he was “Wacko Jacko”, and how he was a danger to his own children. This is an incontrivertable fact. The paper clippings, or records will prove this.

But when Jacko dies, everyone remembers 1982, and ‘Beat It’, and forgets all the vitriolic things they said; the papers are most guilty of this. I am not implying people should burn effigies and disrespect his memory, but for the same publications that said his London gigs would crash and burn to be creating pull out booklets of his life in their Sunday edition is insulting. Insulting to their own integrity, to the intelligence of their readers and I believe to Jackson himself.

The cold hard facts exist thus; the man had a great voice and made many people happy with his songs. This does not mean that everyone has to like him. The man was tried for paedophilia. He was found innocent. This does mean he was either innocent or guilty. The man had his eccentricities, but this does not mean he was insane. People should find a balance with this man’s death. They should not stumble over themselves to remember him, as doing so is very transparent. Also, they should respect his children, his family and his memory, and not be disrespectful or hurtful to this dead man.