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Michael Jackson's former Neverland Ranch has been pictured rotting and abandoned in chilling photographs captured inside the California property.

Located 40 minutes outside Santa Barbara, the ranch - now known as Sycamore Valley Ranch - was abandoned by the Thriller hitmaker in 2005, after a child sex abuse trial alleged he molested children on its grounds.

Jackson was acquitted of the crimes, which stemmed from a 1993 lawsuit filed by screenwriter Evan Chandler. The singer had reached a financial settlement in 1994 with the Chandlers, which was not an admission of guilt, but further allegations followed and led to the People v. Jackson 2005 trial.

The ranch sat abandoned for years, before it was eventually purchased for £11million by a billionaire friend of Michael's family. All that time - and now - it was manned 24/7 by heavy security, including special drones which patrol the 2,700 acre site.

Neverland Ranch was dragged up again in 2019, however, in the documentary Leaving Neverland, which featured claims from Wade Robson and James Safechuck that they were both abused there.

And in 2024 and 2025, the ranch was used as a filming location for new Michael Jackson biopic Michael, with actor Miles Teller explaining: "We filmed at Neverland, it was wild... we dressed it up."

The amusement rides inside were renovated, with extras posing as ride operators, food stall vendors and other park employees.

The property featured a Ferris wheel, a circus tent, a 50-seat cinema and a basketball court, as well as several guesthouses dotted around. It also featured an arcade, a petting zoo and its own train station.

The ranch's dark past is reflected in terrifying photos, and urban explorers have gone inside over the years. One told Vice: "The strangest thing to me was the little boy in pyjamas sitting on the moon logo, everywhere. Like, it amazes me how much it resembles the DreamWorks logo.

"That thing was painted on the ground, like, 60 feet wide. It was on the signs, on the bumper cars, it was on the coach station where they parked the coach, one on the ground."

Michael also collected memorabilia with his own face on - including Pepsi bottles. According to the explorers, he also had "stacks and stacks" of fan mail.

They told Vice: "One piece that really grabbed me was the prosecuting attorney of his molestation case with devil's horns drawn on. That was just laying on a tabletop - maybe a Pac-Man table?"

In another chilling discovery, the group found a menu titled "Children of the World", and "everything was geared towards children".

If you've been the victim of sexual assault, you can access help and resources via **www.rapecrisis.org.uk** or calling the national telephone helpline on 0808 802 9999