Police interview with Dr Conrad Murray heard in court

Jurors in the trial of Michael Jackson's doctor have for the first time heard audio of Dr Conrad Murray being questioned by police two days after the pop star's death.

In the recording, Dr Murray describes how he gave Jackson the anaesthetic propofol after singer's insomnia did not respond to other drugs.

Dr Murray is charged with involuntary manslaughter.

Defence lawyers argue that Jackson gave himself the fatal dose of propofol.

In the interview with police, Dr Murray says that on the night of 25 June 2009, he injected Jackson with several sedatives, but the pop star remained wide awake.

"He's not able to sleep naturally," he told detectives early in the interview.

'Milk'

Jackson complained that he needed to sleep, as he had rehearsals for his comeback tour early the next morning. Dr Murray described giving Jackson lorazepam and another drug, Versed.

"And four o'clock came and four o'clock went and he was still awake," Dr Murray said in the recording, describing the 10-hour battle to get the star to fall asleep.

Eventually, he said Jackson asked for his "milk" - which was his word for propofol.

"He said: 'Please, please give me some milk so I can sleep'," Dr Murray told police.

Jackson fell asleep after being given the injection. "I watched him for a long enough period that I felt comfortable," Dr Murray said.

He said that eventually he had to the leave the room for two minutes, and when he returned he found that Jackson had stopped breathing.

He said he immediately tried to revive the singer by compressing his chest, and then called Jackson's personal assistant to get help in the frantic resuscitation attempt.

A security guard called the emergency services and the singer was eventually taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

During the two-hour recording, Dr Murray said he wished Jackson no harm, and in fact had been attempting to wean the singer off propofol in his final days. He acknowledged that he had given the singer propofol every day for the past two months.

"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 he added: "I realised Michael Jackson had a dependency and I was trying to wean him off it."