You're finished, Wigan tells King

The 29-year-old Wigan Athletic striker - who has 13 previous convictions, including one for violence against women - was sacked by his club on Thursday within an hour of being found guilty for the outburst of "completely gratuitous violence" in a West End nightclub.

London's Southwark Crown Court heard the father of three, who had downed several drinks celebrating his wife's pregnancy and scoring a winning goal earlier, launched the "unprovoked" attack on the 20-year-old having groped her bottom and repeatedly been "cold-shouldered" by women in the packed Soho Revue Bar.

When the "slightly built" university student "recoiled" from his touch, £5 million-rated King lost his temper and smashed her to the floor. Two other revellers - one actually holding his arm - were also sent flying.

As his victim was helped to her feet, blood poured from her shattered nose and cut lip.

King, from Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, who will now lose more than £1 million following the termination of his £35,000-a-week contract, claimed he was the victim of "mistaken identity".

But the jury took just under four hours to convict him by a 10-2 majority of sexually assaulting the 20-year-old and causing her actual bodily harm last December.

As King sat in the cells waiting to be driven to prison, Wigan Athletic chairman Dave Whelan announced King had been sacked. He said: "We have to follow the rules and regulations, which means we will have to give him 40 days' notice that his contract will be cancelled.

"He is absolutely sacked - we will not tolerate football players who get sent to jail for 18 months. As far as we are concerned, he is finished with football at Wigan Athletic. It will be very, very difficult for any club to stick their neck out and take Marlon on. I cannot really see him coming back as a professional."

King served five months behind bars in 2002 after being caught at the wheel of a stolen £30,000 BMW, while he has found himself in the dock on seven previous occasions for dishonesty, motoring offences and violence against women. His agent Tony Finnegan said plans for appeals against both King's sentence and his sacking were in place.