Premier League footballer Marlon King says he ‘didn’t touch anyone’ and is a victim of mistaken identity

A Premier League footballer today denied groping and “decking” a young woman in a nightclub.

Marlon King said he was not involved in any violence or confrontation as he, his brother and two friends celebrated the news that he was to become a father for the third time.

The 29-year-old, who said he had had up to three drinks and was sober, told Southwark crown court in London: “I didn’t deck anyone. I didn’t touch anyone in that club … I didn’t smash anybody’s face in.”

King, identified as the assailant by a football coach and other witnesses, the court heard, insists he is the victim of mistaken identity.

The court heard that King had scored the winning goal for Hull City against Middlesbrough and had planned to spend the night “up there”, until his wife, Julie, asked him to return to their home in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, “because she had something she wanted to tell me”.

He travelled south with his half-brother, Dean, and two friends who had come to watch the match, and learned that she was pregnant. With her blessing, he and the others went to Soho Revue bar.

His alleged victim has told jurors she was talking with friends when King groped her bottom and “smirked at me in a suggestive way”. She told him to leave, but he failed to “take the hint” and turned his attention to two of her friends, stroking their necks, she said.

Jurors heard that when they recoiled from his touch, he turned back to the student, telling her: “Don’t you know who I am? I’m a millionaire.”

The 20-year-old claimed: “He started poking me in the head, pushing my temple like he was enjoying it, repeating: ‘Not even in my league.’ I kept on repeating: ‘Take your multimillions and leave – no one cares. Just get away from the table … I felt really embarrassed.”

After she tried to “shoo” him away, “he punched me in the face” and “knocked me off my feet”, she said. The “very hard” blow broke her nose and knocked two other women to the floor, the court heard.

King, who now plays for Wigan Athletic, denies one count of sexual assault and one of causing actual bodily harm in December last year. The trial continues.

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