Michael Jackson charges to be filed today

Pop icon Michael Jackson will be formally charged today after being arrested last month after allegations of child molestation…

Pop icon Michael Jackson will be formally charged today after being arrested last month after allegations of child molestation.

The Santa Barbara County District Attorney's office gave no details of the complaint it intends to file against Jackson in court at around 4 p.m. Irish time.

But prosecutors said at the time of Jackson's arrest in November that the singer would face multiple charges of child molestation.

Jackson's second brush with the law in 10 years over allegations of child molestation follows a day-long raid at his Neverland Ranch outside Santa Barbara in November.

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The 45-year-old singer surrendered in handcuffs to an arrest warrant on November 20th and was released the same day after posting a $3 million bond.

Jackson, through his lawyers, has called the allegations a "big lie" and said the accusations were prompted by a desire for financial gain.

In 1994, Jackson reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with the family of a boy who claimed Jackson had sexually molested him. Charges were not brought in that case because the boy refused to testify.

The charges follow a television documentary broadcast in February in which Jackson showed a British reporter around his Neverland ranch, described himself as "Peter Pan" - the boy who never grew up - and talked of having sleepovers with young boys.

Jackson insisted however that there was nothing sexual in those encounters, which he viewed as an innocent form of his professed affection for children.