Marlon King is just a thug with a gold card
Victim Emily tells of star’s sneers, gropes and brutal punch
BEFORE: Emily in 2008 with lovely features and straight narrow nose. AFTER: Emily's pretty face is a bloodied, swollen mess
THE devastated victim of Premier League thug Marlon King has bravely revealed her true identity and demanded he be banned from football for LIFE.
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."
I'VE LOST MY OLD FACE: Brave Emily speaking yesterday about her ordeal, which has left a permanent bulge in her nose
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!"
It was like having a brick smashed in your face
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:
- GROPED her bottom in front of shocked clubbers.
- TAUNTED her about his vast wealth when she complained.
- POWERED up his devastating punch with a deliberate step back to gather strength for the blow that knocked her off her feet.
- ORDERED a beefy pal to make a menacing "apology" implying it was HER fault.
- FORCED her to endure a harrowing trial by refusing to admit his guilt.
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 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!'
WIFE JULIE: Insists she was never abused
"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.
A BLOODIED PULP: Injuries on her body
"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.
There was no warning. I was knocked off my feet
"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!'
STAINS OF SHAME: Emily's dress
"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.
My face was so swollen that the doctors couldn't tell what was broken
"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."
