Michael Jackson family compensation battle: Superstar so frail paramedics didn't recognise him

Michael Jackson family compensation battle: Superstar so frail paramedics didn't recognise him

The body of Michael Jackson had become so frail paramedics failed to recognise the superstar, believing he was a hospice patient returning home to die.

Ambulance man Richard Senneff yesterday told jurors in the Jackson family’s £31bn compensation battle against Jacko’s concert promoter the singer looked “chronically ill” as they fought to try and resuscitate him.

Mr Senneff, who said he could see Jacko’s ribs when called to his home in June, 2009, added: “He was very pale and underweight.

"I thought perhaps this was a hospice patient. He looked like someone who was at the end stage of a long disease process.

"The patient appeared to be chronically ill.”

He said Jackson’s doctor Conrad Murray, convicted of his manslaughter in 2011, appeared “frantic” by the bedside but failed to say he had administered a shot of the powerful anaesthetic Propofol.

He added: “He was pale and sweating. He was like a deer in the headlights.”

The paramedic, who also gave evidence at the Las Vegas physician’s criminal trial, was testifying on behalf of ­Jackson’s family.

Murray was sentenced to four years in prison in 2011 for administering a fatal dose of Propofol to Jackson.

The Jacksons are suing AEG Live for employing and failing to supervise £25,000-a-week Murray.

But AEG says it was Jackson who was responsible for his own demise.

Jacko’s children â€" Prince, 16, Paris, 15 and 11-year-old Blanket â€" were braced for “devastating new details” over their father’s private life after the jury was warned: “We’ll show some ugly stuff.”

Lawyers for AEG Live say they have been left with no choice after denying being responsible for hiring Murray.

Details believed to relate to drug abuse and allegations of child abuse â€" which have previously been ruled inadmissible in Jackson’s criminal trials â€" will be heard for the first time during the bitter three-month case.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Yvette Palazuelos will allow the “deepest, darkest secret” of Jacko’s life as part of AEG’s defence.

The jury heard from Marvin Putnam, for AEG. He said: “The public Michael Jackson was very different from the private Michael Jackson.

"Even his family wasn’t sure what was going on. He kept those who might have been able help him at a distance.”

Mr Putnam claimed Jackson was using Propofol for years, adding: “AEG was an outsider. They had no idea. It went on behind locked doors.”

The case continues.