LONDON, England, CMC – Wigan Athletic’s troubled Jamaican striker Marlon King has been sentenced to 18 months in jail after being found guilty of sexually assaulting a 20-year-old student and causing her actual bodily harm last December.
The sentence was handed down in Southwark Crown Court in London’s south-east yesterday.
King, who signed a three-and-a-half year contract with Wigan worth four million pounds sterling last year, is now expected to be dumped from the English Premiership club.
The court heard that last December King groped the woman and then broke her nose with a punch, as he celebrated in the busy Soho Revue Bar after scoring the winning goal for Hull City.
“I felt someone grab my left buttock. I turned around because I was quite disgusted and shocked,” the victim said during the trial.
“There was a man standing towards the bar, smirking at me in a suggestive way. I said quite firmly, ‘Don’t touch me, it’s not nice.’”
The 29-year-old King denied the charges, contending the claims were a case of mistaken identity. However, testimony from several witnesses moved the jury to a guilty verdict.
King, who has yet to play for Wigan this season under new manager Roberto Martinez, has had brushes with the law before.
He was slapped with an 18-month prison sentence for handling a stolen car seven years ago when he played for Gillingham but had the term reduced to five months on appeal.
Last December just days before the Soho Bar incident, King was given a 56-day driving ban for speeding.
He was also in trouble with Jamaican football authorities three years ago when he was axed from the national team to face England because of a breach of discipline.
King was subsequently banned for two years by the Jamaican Football Federation but had the sanction lifted by new president Captain Horace Burrell ahead of the Reggae Boyz’ clash with Costa Rica in February last year.
The forward, who was born in Dulwich, started his professional career with League Two side Barnet and has first played in the Premiership for Watford before moving on to Wigan.
While at Wigan, he was given loan spells at Hull and Middlesbrough.
