Michael Jackson’s doctor faced mounting scrutiny yesterday after a pharmacist said he had ordered over 250 vials of a powerful sedative in the two months before the star’s 2009 overdose death.

Pharmacist Tim Lopez said that Conrad Murray, on trial for involuntary manslaughter, never told him he was Jackson’s personal physician and did not say who the sedative, known as propofol, was for. Dr Murray placed the orders for the drug, and a number of other medications including a skin-whitening cream, with his company Applied Pharmacy Services, Lopez told the Los Angeles Superior Court.

“He asked me specifically to find pricing and availability of propofol and normal saline IV bags,” he said, before detailing a string of orders from April to June which included 255 vials of propofol, or several gallons of the drug.

Meanwhile, a harrowing recording of a heavily-drugged Jackson was played in court. In the recording, Jackson said he loved children and felt their pain because 'I didn't have a childhood', adding 'I hurt”.