'Jacko computer porn stash'

Computers that police seized from Michael Jackson's Neverland bedroom contained thousands of pornographic pictures, the singer's child-sex abuse trial was told yesterday.

The prosecution says three computers found in his private quarters had been used to surf a series of websites.

Some 1,700 pornographic images - many of them of teenage girls - were discovered on a hard drive.

One of the computers had the user identification name Big Mike.

The court was told the computers had also been used to access adoption websites, Disney websites and toy websites.

The findings were revealed during legal argument in the absence of the jury. Prosecutors wanted to convince Judge Rodney Melville to allow them to introduce the computer material as evidence.

The alleged teenage victim Gavin Arvizo and his brother Star have already claimed Jackson, 46, showed them Internet pornography on a computer in his bedroom.

And the prosecution says the three computers seized provide 'powerful corroborative evidence' of their story.

Prosecutor Gordon Auchincloss said: 'In this case the defence are saying it is just a coincidence that these computers have erotic materials on them, just a coincidence they have teen erotic materials on them, just a coincidence that they were found in his private sanctuary and just a coincidence that Gavin and Star were shown erotic material in his bedroom.

'This defendant viewed teen erotic materials on computers in his bedroom, which is one of the most important aspects of our case.

'It is our position that Mr Jackson was showing this adult material to these children.'

Jackson's defence lawyer Robert Sanger told the court that any

material found was heterosexual and not illegal to have.

Mr Sanger said that material found on the computers was dated 1998 and from September 2003.

This was before the Arvizo family ever visited Neverland and after they left for good in March 2003.

Mr Sanger said: 'This is heterosexual material and not directly related to this case.

'There is nothing that is illegal on these computers and the question is what is the probative value of these lawful materials.

'We will show at some point that there are relatives of Mr Jackson that have used his computers and Mr Jackson is not particularly inclined to use computers.' The judge eventually refused to allow the prosecution to use the pornography evidence taken from the computers. Judge Melville ruled

that the material was stored in the computers' 'cache' and it could not be determined if they had been looked at by anyone.

Later Jackson comforted one of his lawyers, who collapsed at court and had to be taken to hospital by ambulance as soon as the day's hearing was over.

Jackson, who himself has been taken to hospital twice during the case, leant over to touch Brian Oxman on the arm and sympathise with him.

The cause of Mr Oxman's illness was not known.

Jackson faces one count of conspiracy to commit extortion, false imprisonment and child abduction; four counts of child molestation; one count of attempted child molestation, and four counts of furnishing an intoxicant for purposes of committing a felony.

He denies the charges. The case continues.