Michael Jackson could not have caused his own death by self-administering a powerful sedative, the medic who carried out his autopsy said, as a graphic photo of the star’s corpse was released.

Christopher Rogers, who examined the King of Pop’s body after his June 2009 death, said it was more likely that Jackson’s personal physician Conrad Murray mistakenly gave him too much of the drug propofol to try to help him sleep.

“The circumstances from my point of view do not support self-administration of propofol,” Dr Rogers told the Los Angeles court as Dr Murray’s manslaughter trial entered its third week.

Dr Murray is accused of involuntary manslaughter by giving Jackson an overdose of propofol. His lawyers claim Jackson was a desperate addict who gave himself a fatal extra dose while Dr Murray was out of the room. The doctor told police, in an interview heard in court last week, that he was away from Jackson’s bed for only two minutes on June 25, 2009 to go to the bathroom, and returned to find the singer not breathing. Dr Rogers said that in such a short time Jackson, already heavily sedated, would not have been able to inject more propofol via an intravenous (IV) tube in his leg fast enough for it to stop his breathing before Murray returned.

“To me that scenario seems less reasonable,” Dr Rogers told the court, adding that he believed Murray simply got the dosage of propofol wrong while trying to keep Michael Jackson asleep. Dr Murray has admitted to giving Jackson 25 milligrams of the drug, a clinical anesthetic the star called “milk” to help him sleep, and would have had to give regular extra doses to keep the singer unconscious.