Marlon King loses appeal over sex attack

A Premier League footballer jailed for groping a young woman and then breaking her nose after she spurned his advances lost a Court of Appeal challenge against conviction today.

Former Wigan Athletic player Marlon King, 30, who was sentenced in October last year to 18 months' imprisonment, had his application for permission to appeal rejected by three judges in London.

They said the prosecution had a "strong" case against King and announced: "We have no doubt that this conviction is safe."

During his trial, London's Southwark Crown Court heard the £5 million striker, who had been celebrating his wife's pregnancy and scoring a winning goal earlier, launched an "unprovoked" attack after repeatedly being "cold-shouldered" by women in the Soho Revue Bar in December 2008.

King, from Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, who has since been released from prison, claimed he was the victim of "mistaken identity".

But a jury convicted him by a 10-2 majority of sexually assaulting a 20-year-old university student, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, and causing her actual bodily harm.

Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith told King that in addition to jail he would have to register as a sex offender for seven years, pay £3,125 compensation to his victim and £1,800 prosecution costs.