Football star 'broke woman's nose'

The Wigan Athletic striker, who denies all charges, 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.

He told jurors the 29-year-old defendant had not been part of their group and "none of them had invited him to join them". But that did not stop the married father-of-three from "sexually touching" the woman on her bottom, claimed counsel.

"It was neither welcome nor consensual, nor could he have thought that she was consenting to it," he said. "They were complete strangers to each other. It was not an accidental brushing, or innocent contact that occasionally happens in crowded bars. This was deliberate and sexual."

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. It was a completely gratuitous piece of violence against a slightly-built female. It was unprovoked and could not have been an act of lawful self-defence," he said.

As security staff intervened and led him away the player allegedly told them: "Why? I've done nothing wrong."

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

The trial continues.