Jonathan King leaves jail vowing to appeal
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The pop impresario Jonathan King will be released from prison today after serving half of a seven-year jail term for abusing two boys.
King, who was jailed in November 2001 for four indecent assaults and two serious sexual offences on a 14-year-old and a 15-year-old in the Eighties, has continually protested his innocence and plans to appeal. His case is being considered by the Criminal Cases Review Commission after a complaint that police used his celebrity status to trawl in the media for victims.
In a final message posted on the website he has kept updated while at Maidstone prison he wrote: "Just a note to reconfirm I will be released on Tuesday, March 29. And I am still completely innocent." The 60-year-old, described by some sections of the press as a "sex beast" and "pop pervert", has criticised the media's handling of his case, arguing that had he been an ageing rocker who had sex with underage girls he would not have been punished.
King says he has a number of projects under way, including a single, his autobiography and plans for a musical based on the life of Cole Porter. His conditions of release include a ban on working with children, remaining at a specified address and not having visitors under the age of 18 without permission.
Giovanni di Stefano, the solicitor whom King shares with Saddam Hussein, says King has had CCTV cameras installed at his home in Bayswater, west London, in an attempt to stop "anyone making up more stories" about him.