Jacko sees witch doctor

Michael Jackson is being treated for drug and alcohol addictions by a witch doctor, it was reported last night.

Controversial South American healer Alfredo Bowman - who claims to be able to cure cancer, Aids and leukemia - is treating the 45-year-old in the ski resort of Aspen in Colorado.

'He was brought in to cure the symptoms of Jackson's pain so he wouldn't need painkillers any more,' a source said last night.

The troubled singer, who is accused of sexually molesting a teenage cancer victim, has a 'long-time addiction to alcohol and painkillers', according to a report in the American magazine U.S. Weekly.

He has been living with his children in a nine-bedroom villa in Aspen since February 10.

Bowman, a 70-year-old therapist who claims to have developed a miracle herbal treatment, has been visiting Jackson at the £70,000 home in an attempt to 'detoxify' him.

The Honduras-based healer - known to his patients as Dr Sebi - says he can cure 'such pathologies as arthritis, asthma, cancer, AIDS, diabetes, sickle cell anaemia, epilepsy, herpes, heart and vital organ dysfunctions, leukemia, mental disorders, obesity, tumours and a variety of female and male problems'.

But in the past, those claims have landed him in controversy.

In the 1980s, he took out newspaper advertisements professing his ability but was ordered to stop by the New York state attorney general's office.

His previous clients are said to have included Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes, of the hip-hop girl group TLC, who died in a car crash at the age of 30.

A source said Jackson 'felt better' after his treatment with Bowman but that 'it will take a lot more for him to fully recover'.

Jackson declined to comment on the reports.

But he has previously admitted becoming addicted to painkillers after his hair caught fire during filming for a Pepsi TV commercial. He has been under mounting pressure since December, when he was charged with seven counts of child molestation of 12-year-old Gavin Arno, who appeared on Martin Bashir's ITV documentary.

As he prepares to fight the allegations, Jackson's financial problems are also piling up.

Recently, his former wife Debbie Rowe - mother of his two oldest children - struck a financial deal which forced him to distance himself from the controversial black separatist group, Nation of Islam, in exchange for her not challenging his custody rights.

A travel agent has also filed a £27,500 lawsuit accusing Jackson of failing to pay £10,000 for a charter flight to Santa Barbara, where he surrendered to authorities on the sex abuse charges.