Ehh.
I'm not saying that. If he did it, a rough childhood is no excuse for his actions. I'm saying there is a decent argument that it never happened at all and kids were coached into these accusations.
Consider Corey Feldman who is basically the poster child as an advocate against underage child abuse in Hollywood and had a close relationship with him:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/corey-feldman-elijah-wood-hollywood-897403
I'm always open to new information. But I never saw anything definitive that pointed to Michael Jackson being a kid ******. Weird? Absolutely. But most of the accusations seemed to come from opportunistic people without any substance to back it up. I've got no horse in this race though. If I'm wrong, please point me to some evidence of why I am.