The teenager who says Michael Jackson molested him acknowledged under cross-examination today that he told an administrator at his school that the pop star “didn’t do anything to me”.

Gavin Arvizo was asked about conversations he had with Jeffrey Alpert, the dean at John Burroughs Middle School in Los Angeles, where he had a history of acting up in class.

“I told Dean Alpert he didn’t do anything to me,” Gavin said under questioning by Jackson attorney Thomas Mesereau. “I told him twice.”

Prosecutors allege Jackson, 46, plied Gavin with alcohol and molested him at his Neverland Ranch in 2003.

The pop star, who was threatened with arrest when he failed to show up in court on time on Thursday, arrived on schedule today. Unlike last time, when a dishevelled Jackson finally arrived in a coat, T-shirt and pyjama bottoms, he wore a red jacket with a black armband and black trousers.

His parents escorted him inside.

Mesereau, during his cross-examination of Gavin, quoted Alpert as telling the youngster: “Look at me, look at me … I can’t help you unless you tell me the truth – did any of this happen?”

When asked when the conversation occurred, Gavin said: ”I believe it was after I came back from Neverland.”

It was not clear in court why the dean asked the boy about Jackson. But Mesereau confronted the teenager with school records that showed that nine teachers had complained about his disruptive behaviour, events that the boy acknowledged.

Of one teacher, Gavin said: “I felt as if he didn’t deserve respect as a teacher. I didn’t respect him as a person.”

He complained on the witness stand about the teaching methods of virtually every teacher mentioned.

“When I would stand up to teachers the other students would congratulate me,” he said, adding: “I was argumentative at times. I didn’t like the way they taught me. I wasn’t learning anything.”

Mesereau also cross-examined Gavin about similarities between a statement he testified Jackson made about masturbation and an earlier statement the boy attributed to his grandmother.

On Thursday, Gavin testified that Jackson told him that if men do not masturbate, they might rape women. Mesereau noted that the boy told sheriff’s investigators in an interview that his grandmother had told him the same thing.

“Why did your story change between that interview and your testimony last Thursday?” Mesereau asked.

Gavin denied changing his story. He said that both his grandmother and Jackson had told him the same thing, but the context was different.

“She was telling me it was okay to do it, and Michael was saying you have to do it,” the boy said.