A Premier League footballer with a history of violence against women was jailed for 18 months yesterday for punching a student in the face after she rejected his aggressive sexual advances in a nightclub.

Marlon King, who earned about £1 million a year, was sacked by his club, Wigan Athletic, after being found guilty of groping a 20-year-old woman and breaking her nose with a single punch. He was out drinking last December to celebrate his wife’s pregnancy, and a winning goal he had scored hours earlier.

King, 29, a Jamaica international, has 13 previous convictions for offences including theft, drink-driving and violence, it can now be reported.

In 2003 he was convicted of two counts of common assault after chasing two women through the streets of Soho with a belt and buckle wrapped round his right fist. Three years later he was fined for threatening behaviour after slapping a woman and spitting at her when the police arrived.

“You have shown not a hint of shame at your disgraceful and arrogant behaviour,” Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith told King yesterday.

Southwark Crown Court was told that on the night of the assault, King was “cold-shouldered” by a series of women in the Soho Revue Bar in London. He then approached his victim, a “slightly built” student. During the trial, the victim said: “I felt someone grab my left buttock. I turned round and was quite disgusted and shocked.”

She said King told her: “You’re not even in my league, love, I’m a multimillionaire.” Then, in a burst of “completely gratuitous violence” he hit her, “smashing” her to the floor.

The woman wept as she listed her injuries. “It split my lip, broke my nose and gave me a black eye. It felt like I was bleeding everywhere, but it was mainly my nose and mouth.”

The judge told King: “Thereafter, you did your level best to avoid any responsibility for what you had done, and were helped in this by the nightclub, for whom you were a good customer. They allowed you to leave without calling the police, although they pretended to do so.”

He added: “I appreciate that this conviction will cost you an enormous amount of money, but it is difficult to be sympathetic when you boasted about how much you earned.”

King, from Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, insisted he was the victim of mistaken identity. But a number of witnesses convinced the jury he was lying, and King was convicted of sexual assault and actual bodily harm by a jury by a margin of 10-2. He showed no reaction. He will now have to register as a sex offender for seven years, pay £3,125 compensation to his victim and £1,800 prosecution costs.

As the sentence was pronounced, several of King’s supporters swore at the judge and loudly accused him of “institutional racism”. One, referring to the acquittal of the Liverpool captain for affray, shouted: “Steven Gerrard’s still walking the streets.” Another added: “Heil Hitler.”

King’s first conviction came at the age of 17 after he fractured another footballer’s cheekbone with a head-butt and a punch while playing for a local team in Dulwich. He was jailed only once for 18 months, in 2002, for receiving a stolen BMW. His 18-month sentence was reduced to nine months on appeal.

Each time he was able to continue his football career. But last night he was disowned by his football club. Although he was on loan to Hull at the time of the assault, the Wigan chairman, Dave Whelan, accepted responsibility for King and said he would never play for the team again.

Mr Whelan said.“As far as we are concerned, he is finished with football at Wigan Athletic.”

King, a £5 million signing from Watford, will be over 30 when he is released from prison and will struggle to be offered another chance in the top flight.

He becomes the highest-profile footballer to be sent to prison in Britain since Joey Barton, the Newcastle United midfielder, who was jailed for six months in May last year for beating a teenager in the street.

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