Leaving Neverland director receiving abuse from Michael Jackson fans 'as disgusting as you could possibly invent'

Dan Reed: 'I’m getting horrible email messages from Michael Jackson fans'

The director of Leaving Neverland, the documentary in which two men who allege that Michael Jackson molested them as children, has spoken about the online abuse fans of the late singer have sent him.

Dan Reed said he has received thousands of "horrible" emails including material “as disgusting as you could possibly invent”.

Leaving Neverland features extensive interviews with two of Jackson’s accusers, Wade Robson and James Safechuck. The four-hour long documentary premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah last week and left audience members shocked by the details of the allegations.

Jackson's estate has called the documentary "tabloid character assassination" and labelled the testimonies from Robson and Safechuck a “public lynching” with “no truth”.

Speaking to the Rolling Stone magazine, Reed said he believed the testimonies given and asked why the public's response to men admitting to sexual abuse was to “shame them” and “shut them down”.

“I’m getting horrible email messages from Michael Jackson fans," Reed said. "Several thousand emails in the past three weeks. Absolutely as disgusting as you could possibly invent.

"And why do people react that way? Why when two men have come forward saying they were sexually abused as a child, why do we want to shame them? Why do we want to shut them down? Why do we want to silence them? Why do we want to threaten them? I don’t understand.”

Jackson, who died in 2009, denied all allegations against him during his lifetime. He was acquitted of molestation charges in a 2005 trial. In 1993, the singer was publicly accused of molesting an underage boy before agreeing to a financial settlement. Lawsuits filed by Robson and Safechuck were both dismissed.

Leaving Neverland is set to premiere on Channel 4 and HBO this spring.