Jackson relied on his ‘milk’ to aid sleep

In a two-hour interview with police conducted just two days after Jackson’s death in June 2009, which was played in full in court on Friday, Murray was heard explaining that Jackson referred to the anaesthetic – which the doctor injected him with so that he could sleep – as “milk”.

When Murray said that Jackson had demanded “his milk”, his nickname for the drug, a Detective can be heard asking “Hot milk?”

“No”, the doctor said. Murray then described the anaesthetic.

On the tape Murray described how he spent months trying to shepherd Jackson through a raging case of insomnia, giving him nightly infusions of an anaesthetic until realising that the singer was becoming addicted.

Murray’s account was so detailed and graphic that Jackson’s sister, Rebbie, arose and rushed from the courtroom during the description of the singer’s death scene.

Murray sounded calm, speaking in a lightly accented voice. As he neared the end of his story, emotion crept in.

“I loved Mr Jackson,” he told the detectives. “He was my friend.

“He opened up to me in different ways. I wanted to help him… I cared for him. I had no intention of hurting him. I did not want him to fail.”

But the doctor added: “I realised Michael Jackson had a dependency and I was trying to wean him off it.”

The interview, which was conducted on 27 June, 2009, outside a noisy hotel ballroom, gave police their first hint that Jackson’s death was not from natural causes and that he had been given the powerful anaesthetic propofol in an effort to cure his extreme insomnia.

“He’s not able to sleep naturally,” Murray told the detectives early in the interview.

Prosecutors contend that Murray was reckless by giving Jackson propofol outside of a hospital setting and without the proper monitoring equipment.

They claim that Murray gave the singer a lethal dose of the drug and other sedatives on the day that Jackson died.

Defence lawyers say Jackson gave himself the lethal dose after Murray left the room.

Murray has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter. If convicted, he faces up to four years behind bars and the loss of his medical licence.

Murray’s account disclosed the singer’s long history of reliance on propofol.

Jackson told him he had received the drug from doctors in Germany and then from a Las Vegas physician, Dr David Adams, who came to Murray’s office and put Jackson to sleep for hours with the anaesthetic.

Murray sat motionless next to his lawyers as the tape played in the hushed courtroom. The only sound came from jurors turning pages of the 125-page transcript given to them.

Jackson remained awake for hours after returning home at around 1am on 25 June, 2009, after rehearsals.

“It was 4 o’clock in the morning, and then he complained,” Murray said. “‘I’ve got to sleep Dr Conrad. I have these rehearsals to perform’.”

Jackson threatened to cancel that day’s rehearsal, so Murray gave him some more lorazepam.

Over the course of the interview, Murray told police that other doctors had given the anaesthetic to the singer before. Defence attorney Ed Chernoff told the detectives that Jackson was familiar with how the drug was administered through an IV and certain dosages.

Murray said Jackson actually asked him if he could “push it” through the IV himself and said he had done it before.

The doctor said he did not allow Jackson to do it. The court resumes on Tuesday.