Gladiators star Shadow, 60, is jailed for six years for blackmail plot
MICHAEL Jefferson King, 60, who starred as Shadow in hit TV show Gladiators, has been jailed today for his role in a blackmail plot.
The former bodybuilder was caged at Isleworth Crown Court for six years and three months after admitting taking part in the drug-fuelled plan over a debt.
King was was one of four people who kept a man detained in a flat in Acton, west London, during a torturous attack lasting around eight hours.
Jurors were previously told that King was “known as Shadow in Gladiators” — though he is now barely recognisable from his 1990s heyday after years of drug abuse.
He was described as a "lieutenant" to the plot and had demanded £1,000 last year from a mum for the safe return of her son who was allegedly being held hostage by a gang.
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.
GLADIATOR CAGED
He had been in custody awaiting sentencing at the conclusion of a crown court trial of other alleged blackmailers.
Three other defendants, so-called ringleader Simon Batson, Donna Harman, and Otis Noel, were also sentenced for their role in the plot.
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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 said 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 he was sentenced.
London-born King moved to New York aged 14 where he became a crack addict.
A sustained and brutal attack over several hours,
Judge Fiona Barrie describes the attack as she sentenced King and three other defendants
But he got clean and moved back to England, where he met his wife and fathered two kids before being recruited as a Gladiator for the original 1992 series.
In 1995 he was caught snorting coke, then axed from the ITV show after testing positive for steroids.
King later turned to heroin and crack cocaine, lost his home and family and served a succession of prison sentences.
He went into rehab in 2009 and stayed clean, resuming his relationship with his children.
King said he was shunned following his sacking, saying: “I felt like a leper after Gladiators.
“I was on the biggest programme there was – bigger than Blind Date and Noel’s House Party. It felt like I’d had a life and then all of a sudden I didn’t.”
By last year he was back on the narcotics.
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Last March, King, of Acton, West London, was charged with heroin possession.
A week later, days before lockdown, a court heard how he was involved in a blackmail plot after a day of smoking drugs “degenerated rapidly”.
