Michael Jackson songs pulled from primary school teaching materials in wake of child abuse allegations

Michael Jackson songs have been pulled from primary school teaching materials in the wake of child abuse allegations.

A company that supplies music lesson resources to around half the primary schools in England removed all mentions of the late pop star from its teaching material.

Charanga took the decision earlier this year, following the release of the Netflix documentary Leaving Neverland, which detailed claims from Wade Robson and James Safechuck that they were abused by him as young boys.

Mark Burke, director of Charanga, said: "In light of the allegations made against Michael Jackson in March, we felt it inappropriate to promote or share his content with our users.

“We therefore removed it from our platform immediately. As a cloud-based service, our removing this content meant it was no longer able to be used by anyone using the service."

Earlier this year, the executive producer of The Simpsons announced that a “treasured” episode featuring the voice of Michael Jackson is to be removed from television in response to the Leaving Neverland documentary.

James L Brooks, the producer, said he had agreed with Matt Groening and Al Jean, the creators, that it should not be shown again, despite it having been one of their favourite episodes.

Mr Brooks said that the episode could no longer remain in circulation in light of the "monstrous behaviour" described in the film.

Some radio stations in Canada, Australia and New Zealand have banned Jackson records, but there have been no announcements by British stations.

Thriller Live, the West End show, has no plans to close. The Jackson family have denied the allegations, describing them as "all about the money".

The singer, who died in 2009, still has his defenders, including Mark Lester, the British former child actor who starred in Oliver! and later formed a friendship with Jackson.

He said of Leaving Neverland: "It made me feel quite sick. This is not the Michael Jackson that I knew for over 30 years. This is not the man that my children knew."

Jackson's daughter, Paris, spoke out on social media to urge fans to be "calm" in their response. She appeared to defend her father when she said that "lies" are told about "everyone with a good heart", adding: "Do you really think that it's possible to tear his name down?"