As King, 29, began an 18-month jail sentence for groping
20-year-old student Emily Carr and punching her in the face, she
told for the first time how the £35,000-a-week striker taunted and
floored her in the vicious nightclub attack.
Urging all Britain to look at her horrifying injuries in
pictures taken just minutes after he broke her nose and split her
lip, she sobbed:
"It was like having a brick smashed in your face. King hit me
just like a professional boxer. He's a disgrace and should never be
allowed on a football pitch again."
King's pretty young victim wept and shuddered as she
recalled the horrific moment he punched her full in the face and
sent her crashing to the nightclub floor.
Student Emily bravely waived her right to anonymity to reveal
the full chilling story of how the Wigan Athletic star lashed out
after sneering: "I'm a multi millionaire, love. . . you're not even
in my league!"
As he started an 18-month jail term for groping and attacking
her, Emily, 20, exclusively told the News of the World: "King
thought he was Mr Big, but he's just a thug with a gold
card."
Our shock pictures reveal the awful aftermath of the beating
that left Emily spattered head to toe in blood, her teeth forced
through her lip and her nose badly broken - disfigured for
life.
She added: "King's defence moaned that the sentence would lose
him £1 million in earnings - but I've lost my FACE. He's not fit
ever to play for any team again."
Emily, just 5ft tall, decided to speak out to heap shame on 6ft
1in Jamaican international King - who is still protesting his
innocence - and ensure the world sees him for the thug he
is.
In a moving interview she told how the 29-year-old Premier
League player:
Shy Emily, in her last year studying politics at
Surrey's Kingston University, clutched her late mum's engagement
ring for comfort as she recalled her night of horror last December
6.
She was out with friends at the Soho Revue Club in London's West
End. King was there celebrating news that wife Julie was expecting
his third child. "I only had two or three drinks before it
happened, I certainly wasn't drunk," said Emily.
"When I first saw King I didn't know who he was but my friend
Tim told me. I support Arsenal but don't even know the names of our
own players.
"Then I was stood talking to my friends Nikki and Tim and
suddenly felt someone grab my bum and grope me from behind. I could
feel it was a man's hand.
"It was disgusting, a violation. It wasn't just a little pinch
it was a squeeze done in a sexual way. I was really offended. I
swung round to see King there smirking, looking me up and down and
leering. He was tall, in a tight-fitting top and seemed quite
muscular. But he was acting like a dirty pervert. I looked him in
the eye and slowly told him, 'Don't do that! Don't touch me!'
"
Hitting back at claims that she was dressed provacatively, Emily
told us: "I was in a grey strapless woollen dress. You couldn't
describe it as revealing, it was very conservative.
"But King was stood there looking me up and down like I was a
piece of meat. As he loomed over me sniggering I caught glimpses of
his gold tooth as the lights hit it.
"Ten minutes later King came and stood on my right, really
close. I was keeping an eye on him and being cautious. He was just
inches away and right in my personal space. I saw him reach over
and stroke my friends Sinead and Nikki on the neck. I saw Sinead
go, 'Don't touch! Hands off!' His eyes were all over the place and
he seemed quite drunk. He turned his attention back to me, gave me
a dirty look and shouted, 'Get this girl away from me!'
"He then dropped his head down into my face and said,
'You're not even in my league love, not even in my league.' He was
trying to belittle me and mock me."
Wiping away tears, Emily added: "I now know I'm not in his
league, I'm well ABOVE it. But I stood my ground and calmly said,
'You're not part of this table, could you please
leave?'
"King then bragged, 'I'm a multi millionaire, love' - loud
enough above the music for people to hear. That's when my friend
Ryan came to my aid and told him firmly but politely, 'Come on
mate, leave it. She's not interested.'
"But King wouldn't stop. He started pushing my head, poking and
prodding me in the temple. Ryan again asked him not to touch me but
King goaded him more by pulling my hair.
"He was toying and teasing me, trying to spark a reaction from
the boys.
"Then he grabbed my wrist and one of my girl friends
leaned over to pull his arm off and he let go. I went to pull my
dress up and as I looked up again that's when he punched
me.
"I never saw his hand, it came completely out of the blue. There
was no warning. I was knocked off my feet.
"I fell backwards and Tim caught me. It was a blur but luckily I
didn't lose consciousness. I felt all this warm liquid trickle down
my face. I brought my hands up and realised it was blood. It
wouldn't stop.
"Blood was pouring out of my lip where my teeth went through,
and my nose was broken. I could taste the blood everywhere, in my
mouth and nose. I've never been punched before. It was like being
hit with a brick in the face. My friend who saw it said King took a
step back and delivered the punch like a boxer in the ring - with
full force.
"I know it sounds ridiculous but I was so in shock that all I
could think about was that I was getting blood on my new Marc
Jacobs handbag. I kept repeating, 'Where's my bag? Somebody wipe my
bag!'
"It was only when I saw myself later I realised how
serious it was. This sticky warm blood was all over my hands going
crusty, and all over my pals Nikki and Sinead
too.
"My grey dress had gone claret. I was still very shocked, my
face was huge, my lip blown up, my cheek swollen and my nose on one
side."
To add insult to injury the police were not alerted right away
and it was left to Emily's pal Sinead to call for help more than
half an hour after the beating. Emily said: "I was taken into a
back room where a man who worked for the club told me that Marlon
King was a regular who spends lots of money.
"He had the cheek to tell me, 'King is a really nice guy.' I
can't believe he stood there seeing me covered in blood and said
that."
While Emily waited for the police King sent a friend in to to
see her.
"In walked this big beefy man," she said. "The door was guarded
by two bouncers but he just sauntered in unchallenged. He told me,
'I'm here on behalf of Marlon King to apologise for what just
happened.'
"But I was shocked at what came out of his mouth next. He looked
down at me and said, 'You must have done something to provoke
it.'
" I couldn't believe it. I felt intimidated, alone and
frightened all over again. I just said, 'Get out! Get out!' I'm
only a small girl, how an earth could I have provoked King. It's
ridiculous.
"Now my mouth was hurting so much it was hard to talk. The
numbness I felt from shock was beginning to wear off and now I
could feel pain - a throbbing in my lip, cheek, nose and creeping
across my face.
"Finally the police arrived and I was taken to hospital. My
brother is a serving officer with the Met and came rushing to see
me. I just broke down and cried.
"By then my face was so swollen that the doctors couldn't tell
what was broken."
Before the attack Emily had perfect facial features with a
beautiful slender nose. But in the weeks after the attack she was
told cowardly King had damaged it forever. "A surgeon said all the
bones in my nose had been smashed to the left," said Emily. "When I
look in the mirror or see photos of myself now I can see this big
bulge.
"And every time I see my disfigured face it's a permanent
reminder of HIM. I will never be able to forget the attack. I don't
want to sound vain but I've lost my old face.
"I couldn't eat during the trial and I've lost weight. I've also
suffered with depression. With one punch he has changed my life for
ever."
Emily's ordeal was prolonged when King was arrested and
questioned but refused to admit the attack. And this week she had
to relive the whole nightmare again before a packed court. "Every
day I went to court I felt sick and was retching," she said. "It
was horrible.
"His staring eyes in the dock were cold and showed not a bit of
remorse. That told me everything. He just didn't
care.
"King didn't need to put us through that trial. It was
cruel.
"When the guilty verdict came in I looked over at his wife Julie
with her head in her hands and thought, 'Now you KNOW what he's
done, even if you don't want to believe it.' I feel sorry for
her."
When Julie King was asked yesterday if she had ever been the
victim of domestic abuse she insisted: "Never!"
But her spokesman added that she would not be giving interviews
until she sees what comes out about her husband over the next few
days.
Although Wigan have sacked King and his behaviour has been
widely condemned, Emily is angry there's no universal cry for him
to be banned from the game for life.
"I've a cousin who, like thousands of youngsters, looks up to
footballers as role models," she said. "King should never be
allowed on the pitch again.
"I believe in giving people a second chance but King has 13
previous convictions and has used up all his
chances."
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger, disagrees. He said: "When he has
paid his sentence, of course you would consider signing someone
like that. Otherwise you would never forgive anybody
anything."
But Emily hit back: "Would a manager like Wenger be saying that
and proposing to pay such a thug massive amounts of money every
week if HIS daughter was attacked?
"It sets a bad precedent if you fail your fans and endorse these
brutes."