Enlarge imageLONDON (Reuters) - Wigan Athletic striker Marlon King was jailed for 18 months on Thursday after the Premier League player was convicted of groping a woman and breaking her nose after she rejected his advances in a nightclub.
King, 29, was unanimously convicted of sexual assault and causing actual bodily harm by a jury at London's Southwark Crown Court.
The court heard how King, who was celebrating both his wife's pregnancy and scoring a winning goal only hours earlier, was repeatedly cold-shouldered by women revellers in London's packed Soho Revue Bar last December.
The court was told that when the slightly-built university student rejected his advances, King, a father-of-three, replied "I'm just out of your league. I'm a millionaire."
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She replied: "I don't care who you are, take your multi-millions and get away from our table."
Prosecutors said he then lost his temper and in an outburst of "completely gratuitous violence" lashed out, "smashing" her to the floor.
His single clenched fist blow was so powerful that two other revellers -- one of them holding on to his arm -- were also sent flying, the Press Association reported.
As friends helped the 20-year-old to her feet, blood poured from her shattered nose, the court heard.
The Jamaican international from Waltham Cross, north of London, claimed he was a victim of mistaken identity.
But after hearing evidence from a string of witnesses, including a football coach who insisted King was the assailant, the jury decided he was lying.
King is the latest Premiership player to have been jailed for violence on a night out. In May 2008 Newcastle United midfielder Joey Barton was jailed for six months after admitting to beating up a teenager.
(Reporting by Stefano Ambrogi; Additional reporting by David Cutler; Editing by Ed Osmond)
