Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

Investigators were convinced Michael Jackson preyed on his own nephews, several sources involved in the criminal probe told The Post.

Santa Barbara County detectives interviewed two of Jackson’s nephews and another family member while investigating the King of Pop for child molestation in 2004-2005, but believe Jacko silenced his family with gifts and threats.

“We received a credible tip about the nephews and, as with many things that happened during the investigation, Jackson’s people got wind of it and Jackson spirited the one boy off to an island,” said a former county detective. “Well, when that boy returned, Jackson had also purchased him a brand new car which we understood, along with the trip, was to shut the nephew up.”

But the then-18-year-old nephew still hinted something was amiss.

“He was home alone and invited two detectives in, offered refreshments and he also offered that he would be unwilling to talk bad about his uncle,” a prosecution source said.

“It was odd that he wasn’t upset with the visit, he wasn’t upset that the detectives told them what they had suspected happened between he and Michael and he never gave a real denial,” the source said.

Another nephew denied being assaulted by the “Dangerous” singer.

One family member “said he feared there were several nephews who had already been victimized and that he also feared that Jackson’s own son [Blanket] was being groomed by Jackson for unsavory behavior,” the detective told the Post.

Investigators never charged Jacko because the relatives wouldn’t cooperate, investigators said.

The police interviews took place before Jacko’s molestation trial was beginning in Santa Maria, Calif. Jackson was accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old cancer patient, but was acquitted. Four years later, the singer died of a drug overdose.

Last week, Radar Online reported that Jacko hid a twisted sex addiction as well as deviant artifacts like a Jon Benet Ramsey doll with a noose around her neck and torture magazines at his Neverland Ranch.

The website said police also found scantily clad photos of young boys including that of Jackson’s nephews, Taj, Terrell and T.J. — the sons of Jacko’s brother Tito — who formed the 1990s pop group 3T.

One private investigator with direct knowledge of the police raids told the website: “The detectives report cites Michael even used sexy photos of his own nephews … in their underwear to excite young boys.”

Jackson attorney Brian Oxman said the Radar Report mischaracterized art as porn: “Terrell is standing naked with a shirt in front of him. It is reminiscent of Kim Kardashian on the cover of GQ magazine. He had the photo done for an album cover. There were 50 people there at that photo shoot.”

Jacko recorded and produced music with his nephews and, as revealed in a family member’s tweet last year, eerily wrote a letter to the boys’ late mother – his sister in law – warning her to “please read this article about child molestation and please read it to Taj … it brings out how even your own relatives can be molesters of children, even uncles or aunts molesting nephews or nieces. Please read. Love MJ.”

Jacko estate lawyer Howard Weitzman told The Post Jacko “never molested anyone. And, whomever would say that he would harm his own children is ridiculous.”

Before the acquittal and in their attempts to uncover more family secrets, authorities flew to Las Vegas and met with an “immediate” family member of Jacko’s.

“What he told us was eye-opening. He told us that Jackson had for years tried to hide his predilection for prepubescent boys.” However the family member said Jackson had also been addicted to all kinds of drugs and often was too screwed up to even realize that others were witnessing his touching little boys.

This family member said he feared that there were several nephews, including his own son and Jacko’s own son, who may have been victims.

Jacko had a total of 23 nephews and nieces. Oldest brother Jackie, 65, has two children, including one son; Tito, 62, has three sons; Jermaine, 61, has nine children, including seven sons; Marlon, 59, has three children, including one son; Randy, 54, has three children, including one son; sister Rebbie, 66, has three children, including one son.

Jacko had three children, Prince, 19; Paris, 18, and Blanket, 14.

“The family member … told us that [family matriarch] Katherine Jackson more than anyone else knew about her son’s activities with boys but was too embarrassed to do anything about it. He told us that Katherine implied that Hollywood turned Jackson gay, which had nothing to do with his being a pedophile,” the prosecution source said.

The family member declined to testify at trial, telling investigators and friends that such testimony would lead to an unwanted divorce from his wife and he’d be ostracized from the family or even killed if he did so.