Former Gladiator and bodybuilder is jailed for drug debt blackmail plot

A BODYBUILDER famous for his starring role in the 90s television programme Gladiators has been jailed for his part in a blackmail plot over a drugs debt.

Michael Jefferson King, known to millions as Shadow from the ITV show, was one of four people who kept a man detained in a flat in Acton, London, during an attack lasting around eight hours.

King was described as a “lieutenant” to the plot, which ended in Aaron Ali being beaten and filmed for “highly distressing” videos sent to his family to elicit a payment of up to £1,000 to let him go.

At one stage, King was alleged to have ordered a co-defendant to “fetch a hammer to break his legs” after Mr Ali tried to flee.

King, 60, a long-time user of crack cocaine and heroin, was handed a sentence of six years and three months after admitting two counts of blackmail at Isleworth Crown Court.

Three other defendants, so-called ringleader Simon Batson, Donna Harman, and Otis Noel, were also sentenced for their role in the plot.

Her Honour Judge Fiona Barrie said: “A plan was hatched by the four defendants to extort money from Mr Ali’s family.

“He was subjected to a sustained and brutal attack over several hours, and from lunchtime until 9pm he said he was tortured by the group.”

She told the court Mr Ali said “he was treated as less than a human by people he knew, all for drugs and money”.

King showed no emotion as the sentence was passed.

King’s defence counsel, Stella Harris, said her client had a promising career as an athlete but that time spent living in New York in the 1980s exposed him to Class A drugs, which became an “entrenched” feature of his life.

She said: “He was a professional bodybuilder, all the while having these periods of abstinence and success, but there were relapses, he lost work, a relationship went wrong, and he turned to drugs.”

King, of Birkbeck Grove in Acton, had 20 previous convictions, largely drug-related.

His co-defendant Batson, 39, of Burlington Gardens in Acton, received a jail term of six years and nine months for two counts of blackmail.

He could be heard complaining about the length of his sentence as he was taken from the dock.