For the last couple of weeks, I've done a deep dive into the accusations against MJ. I had a vague understanding that he had been accused of molestation by at least 2 boys, but I had no idea how extensive the evidence actually was.

So I listened to Telephone Stories, the podcast about the Chandler case and the 2005 trial, and was stunned to hear that some boys, like Brett Barnes, slept in his bed for up to a YEAR. I was surprised to learn that Jackson slept at Chandler's house, leaving in the morning and then returning at night. I was surprised to learn that when MJ was confronted by parents such as June Chandler for behaving inappropriately he would start to cry.

I think part of why the story is so hard to comprehend is because MJ may have been the world's most skilled manipulator. Of course he was a superstar, and many people are seduced by fame and money. But he had this vulnerable demeanour he could turn on to defuse any resistance and twist people into doing what he wanted. He got people to feel sorry for him over and over again.

What I would like to know, however, is are there ever going to be any repercussions for the enablers? The staff who turned a blind eye, the security (or whoever) who made payments. Surely some of this behaviour crossed a line, legally. But I suppose the statute of limitations means that no-one can really be prosecuted after all this time.

I'm also quite amazed at the success of the new biopic, particularly since we are living in a post #MeToo era, and society has been rightly outraged by Epstein's crimes. What gives?

A row of empty Jim Beam bottles lines a shelf in the room where missing five-year-old Sharon Granites went to bed on a mattress on the floor on Saturday.

The child was later seen outside the house, holding hands with a criminal drifter now on the run and accused of abducting her.

On the fourth day of the frantic massive search for Sharon, Robin Granites – an interpreter, Warlpiri cultural authority and a patriarch of Sharon’s family – on Wednesday invited The Australian into the house at Old Timers town camp with the permission of the occupants.

Mr Granites wants Australians to see the reality of life for children in Alice Springs’ town camps. He wants to talk about how vulnerable they are to the strangers and even familiar faces arriving and leaving constantly, partying and ignoring rules that say town camps are alcohol-free.

Mr Granites said Sharon was asleep in the room on Saturday before 47-year-old Jefferson Lewis was seen holding her hand outside the house.

“(Sharon’s mum) was yelling out to the little girl ‘Sharon, Sharon’, she wasn’t even heard. I think she was already taken away by the bloke.”

Robin Granites, Sharon’s grandfather. Picture: Liam Mendes

Sharon ‘held hands’ with suspected abductor

Police say Sharon was put to bed in the room sometime before 11pm and that Lewis was seen holding her hand outside the house about 11pm. Police believe he led Sharon away from the house to an area where they have since found a distinctive yellow shirt that Lewis was wearing that evening, a child’s underwear and a doona cover. 

On-the-ground search-and-rescue teams have been battling through 1.5m-high buffel grass, spurred by heavy rain in February and March, significantly slowing efforts to cover large areas.

Police are investigating a theory that Lewis has split off from Sharon and she is possibly in the hands of other individuals.

A source told The Australian some of his associates are not co-operating which is why police think he is being supported and helped.

On Wednesday evening a helicopter was seen performing low, sweeps across specific areas of Alice Springs.

“It’s equally feasible that she’s with him and that she’s not with him,” a police spokesman said.

On Wednesday evening a helicopter was seen performing low, methodological sweeps across parts of Alice Springs. Picture: Liam Mendes

Police spoke to Jefferson Lewis

NT Police assistant commissioner Peter Malley says Lewis was “probably under the influence of alcohol” at 6.45pm of the evening Sharon disappeared, when police spoke to him in the street at Old Timers town camp. They had been called there to carry out a mental health check, found no evidence of a crime and left about six hours before Sharon was reported missing. That evening several people were at or near the house where Sharon was put to bed. Police described the scene as “a bit of a party”.

Lewis – a violent criminal fresh out of jail – was staying at the house. Mr Granites said this was typical in town camps.

“It’s not a safe place,” he said. “Town camps have never been a locked gate, locked doors, locked anything. Anyone can just smash in and walk straight in, into these houses. They even break into cars and all. They are a dangerous place the town camps.”

Jefferson Lewis.

Sharon Granites has been missing for more than four days. Picture: NT Police

Living among piles of rotting garbage

Mr Granites, 72, is Sharon’s grandfather according to Warlpiri custom. He is her paternal great uncle – his late brother was the ­father of Sharon’s father and he is now the only surviving brother among his siblings. He is from Yuendumu but serious heart problems have led him to live at a hostel in Alice Springs. He has lived at town camps there and says they are no place for children.

“The drinkers … anyone can tell you this,” he said.

Mr Granites said the rubbish inside and outside town camp houses upset him. He repeatedly points out piles of rotting garbage and the many camp dogs free to roam into houses and take food.

He said children had a better chance at a good life and good school attendance in remote dry communities away from the chaos of Alice Springs.

Looking at the room where Sharon was put to bed on Saturday, he said: “It would have been a really nasty place for her to live. I would rather take her back out to the community. That’s where the houses are being built and ­renovated.”

A record $4bn of housing funding began to flow into the NT in 2024. While the building and maintenance program is being noticed in overcrowded remote communities, Mr Granites said he had seen no difference at all in Alice Springs’ town camps. He said the status quo in town camps must not be allowed to continue.

“They still think that we are an animal,” Mr Granites said. “I want to try and tell them that please help us. If you’re a prime minister, please help.”

Outside the home at Old Timers Camp. Picture: Liam Mendes

Missing five-year-old ‘a loving girl’

On Wednesday police described Sharon as a very affectionate little girl and her family as deeply distraught.

Mr Granites said Sharon’s father was in jail and her mother did her best in difficult circumstances. The mother and daughter moved around a lot, he said.

His voice breaks as he speaks of Sharon – “a loving little girl”.

“I’ve got a TV at my home and I look at it at my hostel and it’s always when I see her face, I start crying and thinking I wish they would find you very soon,” he said.

“It is really hurtful for me and when I’m talking about her, it really hurts”.

The room where missing five-year-old Sharon Granites was allegedly abducted from at Old Timer’s Camp in Alice Springs. Photo: Liam Mendes

A mattress in the laundry of the home Sharon Granites was living in. Photo: Liam Mendes

Mr Granites said it did not surprise him that Lewis ended up at Old Timers town camp after his release from prison on April 21. He said word among Aboriginal people in Alice Springs was that Lewis was reluctant to go home to his remote community of Lajamanu – where alcohol is banned – because he wanted to drink in town.

“Some people (were) telling him ‘if you need to get a lift back home we will book your accommodation, book your bus back to home country’ sort of thing,” Mr Granites said. “And that’s why he didn’t want to go, he just wanted to be here, started drinking and wanted to do the mad things like taking woman and being with woman and all that.”

The search for Sharon Granites. Picture: ABC

Clothing items found nearby

Police believe that, around the time Lewis was seen holding Sharon’s hand, he led her away to the dry river bed where they found the items of clothing and the doona cover. In one scenario being examined by police, Sharon could have got away from Lewis at the dry river bed and now be lost in the bush. In that scenario, expert advice about weather and conditions in and near Alice Springs had led police to believe time was running out on Wednesday.

Superintendent Peter Malley said in Alice Springs on Wednesday: “We spoke to survival experts, and we look at if she was wandering around on her own in the bush and how long she could survive for. We’re still within that timeframe.”

NT Police commissioner Martin Dole thanked the almost 300 volunteers who had taken part in the searches by foot as well as businesses that had helped by providing food for those volunteers while they worked.

Police revealed on Wednesday the items seized from the dry bed of the Todd River were now being forensically examined.

Police believe Lewis was being helped and that some people knew where he was.

Police suggest Lewis has not gone far from Alice Springs. Police have spoken to members of his family in the NT and in the remote West Australian Aboriginal community of Balgo.

The home of the missing girl. Picture: Liam Mendes

Lewis is an unusual fugitive ­because there is almost no electronic trace of him since his release from prison four days before Sharon’s disappearance. Lewis cashed a cheque and appeared briefly on a police officer’s body-worn camera footage on the night he led Sharon away .

“It’s going back to 1930s policing without that digital footprint,” Mr Malley said.

“This man doesn’t have a telephone and he doesn’t have a bank account. He doesn’t have a car. So some of the usual practices that we do in 2026 aren’t applicable.

“Hence the amount of resources we have on the ground – we’re knocking on doors, we’re going through houses. It’s old-style policing and it’s a hard slog.”

Dozens of volunteers search for Sharon. Picture: Gera Kazakov/NewsWire

Senator Price laments ‘hell holes’

Mr Malley said Lewis had been made to wear an ankle monitor during one of his previous stints out of jail and data from that helped police identify some “places of interest” that Lewis might have been to while on the run.

On Wednesday, NT senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price revealed Sharon is a member of her family. The former Alice Springs deputy mayor told The Australian she had received information, including from family members, that might be useful in the search for Sharon and she had given that information to police.

Senator Nampijinpa Price urged anyone who might be frightened to tell police what they knew to speak up for Sharon’s sake. The Liberal senator said she understood that some people might fear reprisals through ­payback but their information would be treated in the strictest confidence.

Senator Price said finding Sharon was the most important thing.

Eventually, she predicted many in the community would want to speak openly about town camps and safety.

“There’s another conversation to be had about what happens to town camps,” Senator Nampijinpa Price said.

“These places can be hell holes.”

SHARON GRANITES TIMELINE

Tuesday, April 21

Jefferson Lewis completes an 18-month prison sentence for aggravated assault, breaching a domestic violence order and breaching bail.

He leaves prison and finds his way to Old Timers town camp in Alice Springs that day or in the days following.

Sometime between Tuesday and Saturday: Lewis, who does not have a phone or a bank account, cashes a cheque.

Saturday, April 25

Sharon is at Old Timers camp with her mother, who was there doing washing.

Around 6.45pm: Police arrive at Old Timers town camp in response to a report of a mental health episode there. They see Lewis in the street and speak to him. The interaction is recorded on one of the officer’s body-worn cameras. Police have released two still images from that body-worn camera but not the video. Lewis was “probably under the influence of alcohol” at the time, according to NT Police assistant commissioner Peter Malley, who says officers made inquiries, found no evidence of a crime and left.

Some time before 11pm: Sharon isput to bed in a house at Old Timers town camp, police say

Around 11pm: Police say witnesses spoken to after Sharon’s disappearance claim to have seen Lewis holding hands with Sharon outdoors at Old Timers town camp at this time.

Shortly after 11pm: Police say a family member claims to have seen Sharon inside the house at Old Timers camp.

Sunday, April 26

Around 1.35am: Police are contacted and told Sharon is missing

Police arrive, speak to people present, establish Lewis is absent but must be spoken to and start searching the area

Throughout Sunday: 

Police delare a crime scene in the dry bed of the Todd River, later revealing they found Lewis’ shirt, a child’s underwear and a doona cover there

Sunday 9pm: Police issue an arrest order for Lewis

Monday, April 27

The air and land search for Sharon continues and intensifies in and around Alice Springs with help from volunteers

Police take data from an old ankle monitor that Lewis was made to wear for past convictions, checking all the places he went incase he returned there

Tuesday April 28

Alice Springs turns out again to help police find Sharon

Police are convinced someone is hiding Lewis

The police hunt for Lewis relies heavily on old-fashioned techniques such as doorknocks and foot patrols because he has no phone, no bank account and virtually no digital footprint.

Wednesday April 29

Volunteers continue to search the bush around Alice Springs for Sharon. Business donate food to the search crews.

Police say Sharon is a very affectionate little girl, much loved by her family, and finding her is their top priority