Released footballer King to challenge conviction

King received an 18-month sentence at Southwark Crown Court in October last year after he was convicted of punching a 20-year-old woman while out celebrating his wife's latest pregnancy at the Soho Revue Bar.

His victim, who jurors heard had spurned his advances, was left with a broken nose.

King was found guilty of sexual assault and causing actual bodily harm.

The 30-year-old striker was released from prison last week. Yesterday he said he was desperate to clear his name because he was wrongfully convicted of the assault.

"If every conviction was 1,000 per cent right then we wouldn't have a chance to appeal," he said. "That would be the final decision.

"I'm here today and I will fight tooth and nail to clear my name and take it to wherever I've got to, if it's the last thing I do."

He also told radio listeners that serving this stretch of time in prison – his second after he spent five months in jail in 2002 after being caught driving a stolen BMW – was like serving "two sentences" as he was away from his family and wife Julie.

He added: "I know I've made mistakes and I'm not perfect but I'm here today to clarify I'm not a sexual offender, I'm not a sex beast, I've never been convicted of sexually assaulting a woman before, I've never hit a police officer.

"A lot of things that were said were totally untrue but I understand why people have that perception because it's in black and white and it's in front of you."

King's wife Julie, was interviewed with him, said he was a "family man" and she would not still be in a relationship with him if he behaved in any other way.

Commenting on his previous 13 convictions, she said: "When you look at it on paper it does look terrible, there's no denying that, but I think Marlon can say of course he has been bad in the past and the records show that, it's just the details that people fail to mention as well, things that surround circumstances."

King, who was sacked from Wigan, is now looking for a new club and said the last nine months in prison had helped him reflect on his life. He was on loan to Hull from Wigan at the time of the offence.

He said: "It's been the biggest counselling session for me. Sometimes we live life and you don't get a chance to step back and see where you're going wrong.

"Maybe I haven't had anyone in my ear, I'm not making excuses, to just tell me ''look you need to...' I've never had that.

"I've always been in control of my own destiny and I've made a lot of mistakes but just because I've made mistakes it doesn't make me guilty of every crime you're accused of."

During the 45-minute interview, King and his wife covered a range of topics, including his forthcoming appeal and future career.

He said CCTV footage would help prove his innocence and show inconsistencies in the evidence given in court.

On several occasions he repeated his assertion that he was innocent of the sexual assault, saying: "I haven't done it. I will defend myself to the very end."

His wife said she stood by him and suggested his early criminal convictions probably came about because he lived a "football life and street life" at the same time.

King denied that he hated women, saying he had two daughters, a wife and a sister. "It is just ludicrous to say I hate women," he told the programme.

King also said he hoped to return to football.

Celebration that ended in arrest

King, who was celebrating both his wife's pregnancy and scoring a winning goal, was repeatedly "cold-shouldered" by women revellers in London's packed Soho Revue Bar last December.

When the slightly-built university student and her friends became the latest to recoil from his touch, he lost his temper and lashed out, "smashing" her to the floor.

His 20-year-old victim told jurors she was "socialising, dancing and drinking" when the player wandered over.

It left her "disgusted and shocked", and although she told him to leave, he failed to take the hint, transferred his attentions to her two friends, and began "stroking" their necks.

King claimed he was a victim of mistaken identity.