SANTA MARIA, Calif. — Little boys may arrive at Neverland innocent and wide-eyed, prosecutors suggested during closing arguments Thursday, but a few leave tainted and scarred by what happens to them behind the locked and alarmed doors of the "veritable fortress" that is Michael Jackson's bedroom.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this case is about the exploitation and abuse of a 13-year-old cancer survivor at the hands of an international celebrity," Deputy District Attorney Ronald Zonen somberly announced.

The doe-eyed boy in question, who holed up with his younger brother in Jackson's bedroom for five weeks in spring 2003, is not the same child today, Zonen told jurors.

"What happened at Neverland during that period of time? I mean, what was going on?" Zonen asked.

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The prosecutor answered his own question, describing the lack of discipline the boys received, the separation from their mother, the promise of "ice cream, candy and soda pop whenever they wanted," which marked their days, and the masturbation lessons and pornography that filled their nights.

"At night, they entered into the world of the forbidden and they learned about human sexuality from somebody who was more than willing to be their teacher," Zonen said.

Over three hours Thursday, the prosecutor's voice rose in anger and quavered with resolve as he showed jurors pornographic materials found during a search of Jackson's ranch and drew comparisons between the alleged victim and other boys Jackson has been accused of molesting many years ago.

Prosecutor Ronald Zonen delivered his closing argument Thursday.

Jackson was joined in court Thursday by his mother, Katherine, his father, Joseph, and his brothers Randy, Jermaine and Tito. He was seen passing notes to his attorney.

The singer's spokesperson told reporters after court that while Jackson was nervous yesterday, he was in much higher spirits today.

Jackson is charged with 10 felony counts, including committing lewd acts on the boy, giving him alcohol as a means to lower his defenses, and conspiring to abduct him, extort his family and falsely imprison them in February and March 2003.

"Predators go after the weakest, not the strongest," Zonen said. "And in this case, this was a vulnerable child."

Defense attorney Thomas Mesereau began his closing arguments Thursday attacking the credibility of the alleged victim and calling the family "con artists, actors and liars."

Mesereau will resume his closing Friday morning. The prosecution, which gets the last word, will have another hour to complete their arguments.

The jury is expected to receive the case Friday afternoon, after Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville reads the balance of jury instructions. The panel will not be sequestered.

Pictures of porn

On Nov. 18, 2003, some eight months after the accuser and his family made their final alleged escape from Neverland, 70 officers from the Santa Barbara County sheriff's department raided Jackson's ranch and confiscated an extensive collection of pornographic magazines from the singer's office, bedroom and bathroom, and from under his bed.

Photos from the search were shown to jurors Thursday. The evidence showed Jackson had copies of Barely Legal, Hustler, Club, and Pimps Up, Ho's Down.

"Why is he in possession of all of those magazines? Because he has 13-year-old boys in his room," Zonen said.

The teenage accuser's fingerprints were traced by investigators alongside images of prepubescent-looking girls on the pages of Barely Legal Hardcore. His brother's prints were found on the pages of Finally Legal.

"The selection of these particular magazines are designed to appeal to a 13-year-old boy," Zonen said, suggesting that Jackson himself preferred the photos in "Man: A Sexual Study of Man," a book police discovered that depicts men in homosexual acts.

The heterosexual materials, Zonen said, served to excite Jackson's prey. "It's not for him — it's for the children that come into his room," he said.

Another photo depicted an open cabinet, with a bottle of Vaseline at left and a copy of Barely Legal at right.

In a drawer in Jackson's bedroom, pornographic magazines were stacked next to photos of the victim and his siblings.

In a black suitcase, investigators found more dirty magazines, and loving notes between the accuser and the singer.

Defense attorney Thomas Mesereau will finish his closing argument Friday.

"I'm your son" and "I love you," the boy had written to Jackson.

Scribbled on a piece of perforated notebook paper, Jackson had written to the boy, "I'm very happy to be your Daddy."

"Haven't you heard that before?" Zonen asked jurors, referring to a "grooming" pattern the singer is accused of engaging in with his favored sleepover guests, which has been one of the hallmarks of the prosecution's case against Jackson.

Former Neverland employees testified earlier that Jackson kissed, fondled, improperly tickled and, in one case, performed oral sex in a shower stall on other young boys in the early 1990s.

As a sexual predator, prosecutors contend, Jackson had a criminal pattern of selecting boys from broken homes, with mothers who were easily distracted by expensive jewelry and first-class travel.

Jackson, witnesses testified, encouraged the children to call him "Daddy" and convinced the mothers that letting their boys sleep in his bedroom was an innocent, loving act.

The pop star was never charged with any wrongdoing in any of those cases, and three of the alleged victims testified for the defense that nothing inappropriate ever happened.

But one boy, now a 24-year-old youth pastor, wept on the stand as he described the times that Jackson paid him in hundred-dollar bills to keep quiet about the genital tickling games they played when he was in grade school. He ultimately received a $2 million settlement and five years of therapy, he said.

"If you believe his testimony is truthful," Zonen said of the witness, "then Michael Jackson is a child molester."

Birth of a conspiracy?

The prosecutor also drew on the testimony of former Neverland maids and a ranch manager who testified that Jackson was drunk often during the period the accuser and his family were allegedly held captive, that the boys slept in his bedroom perhaps 90 percent of the time, and that it was common knowledge that the singer kept a wealth of pornography in his bedroom.

If these employees knew, Zonen said, it's easy to imagine the panic that went through the ranks of Jackson's camp — his alleged, unindicted co-conspirators — when the damaging TV documentary, "Living with Michael Jackson" was aired, and the accuser was seen resting his head on the singer's shoulder and holding his hand.

What followed, Zonen said, was a full-blown conspiracy, with Jackson at the helm, to minimize the damage to the singer's career and wealth.

"They all knew he had a drinking problem," Zonen said of Jackson's alleged co-conspirators. They knew too, he said, about the young boys "who disappeared into his room" for hours, days, sometimes weeks.

There was "a very real fear," according to the prosecutor, that the police would come knocking on the gates of Neverland, so they worked in concert to isolate the family, hold them against their will, keep them out of school, pack up their worldly possessions and make plans to send them on a one-way trip to Brazil.

Zonen presented jurors with an extensive timeline, phone records, and other documents that tended to support the alleged co-conspirators' surreptitious actions — such as surveilling the family and tape recording their phone conversations.

The defense pointed out at the end of the day Thursday, however, that Jackson is not directly tied to these events, and in many cases, they could be construed as the actions of a celebrity who was trying to protect his image, not engage in a full-blown conspiracy.

Jackson, 46, faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.