Footballer ‘broke woman’s nose’

PREMIER League footballer Marlon King groped a young woman and then broke her nose when she rejected his advances at a celebrity nightclub, a court heard yesterday.

The Wigan Athletic striker had allegedly shouted, “Don’t you know who I am, I’m a millionaire”, before “smashing her in the face with a clenched fist”.

London’s Southwark Crown Court heard his “completely gratuitous violence” came just minutes after he spotted the slightly-built 20-year-old at the Soho Revue Bar last December.

She was part of a group of “sporty type” friends “socialising, dancing and drinking” the evening away, and had never met the player before.

Some of them “worked at a fitness centre, there was a footballer and also a sports journalist with a well-known TV company”, said Roger Daniells-Smith, prosecuting.

But that did not stop the 29-year-old married father-of-three from “sexually touching” the woman on her bottom, claimed counsel.

The barrister said when she pushed his hand away and he grabbed her wrist, she shoved him in the chest.

“At that moment Marlon King took one step backward and smashed her in the face with a clenched fist. He broke her nose with the blow.”

The woman, who cannot be named, was ushered to a private room to await an ambulance. She was later taken to hospital before being referred to a consultant for further treatment.

King, who denies one count of sexual assault and one of causing her actual bodily harm, insists he was the victim of “mistaken identity”.

The case continues.