AUSTRALIAN Wade Robson, one of the hottest young talents in Hollywood, yesterday said he had shared a bed with Michael Jackson. The Brisbane dancer, who has a hit TV show in the US and a three-movie directing deal with Disney, said he visited Jackson several times at Neverland Ranch in California.

Now 21, Robson says it was an innocent relationship that began when he was five that never involved any sort of abuse. "I never had that experience and I hope that it never happened to anybody else," he said. Jackson, arrested and booked on suspicion of child molestation last week, faces years in jail if convicted. Robson met the entertainer in 1987 after winning a Jackson dance-impersonation contest.

Over the years, Robson said Jackson bought him instruments and encouraged him in their friendship that, according to the 187cm rising star, was always "creatively based".

"His initial interests in me was because of my dancing, he saw the talent and the spark I had inside me and all he has ever wanted to do is just help my career," he said.

Asked if he has ever slept in Jackson's bed, Robson said: "Yeah, but nothing strange happened."