This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Former music mogul Jonathan King used his fame to sexually assault teenage boys as he promised them sex with girls and told of his celebrity friends, a court has heard.

The convicted sex offender, 73, allegedly exploited his position in the record industry to carry out attacks on 11 teenagers as young as 14 in the 1970s and 1980s.

King, an ex-pop star and producer for acts including Genesis, is said to have lured youngsters into his car before driving them home, where they were plied with alcohol.

He gave them presents, including records and concert tickets, as well as showing them pornography and pictures of naked girls he told them they could have sex with, said prosecutor Rosina Cottage QC.

King, who made regular appearances on television and radio at the time, also told his alleged victims about his celebrity friends and even claimed 1980s topless model and singer Samantha Fox was his girlfriend, the jury was told.

“When they were in his power and in no position to repel his advances he would assault them,” she said. “It appears that it was a game of manipulation and power over boys aged about 13 to 16.

“He would play the same routine again and again, honed for success.”

King is standing trial at Southwark crown court where he denies 24 serious sexual assault charges against boys aged between 14 and 16, alleged to have taken place between 1970 and 1988.

Dressed in a dark suit, white shirt, blue tie and colourful trainers, he appeared in court under his real name, Kenneth George King. He sat expressionless in the dock as the case against him was opened.

A jury of five men and seven women was told King denies he would ever have sex with anyone under age or force himself on someone without consent. But the prosecutor said his denials are “hollow” and revealed he was convicted in 2001 of sexual offences against five teenage boys in the 1980s.

Referring to the current allegations, she added: “He claims not to know or remember most of the boys, despite their photographs or letters or addresses and details still being in his home up to 30 years later, like trophies kept for his own private perusal.”

The court heard King would target straight, immature boys, securing sex by showering them with gifts of records, concert tickets, meals and alcohol, as well as paying insincere compliments and making false promises.

One alleged victim said he was “star struck” when King pulled up next to him near London’s Tottenham Court Road in his white Daimler car in April 1970.

The court heard King later bought the 15-year-old alcohol after taking him to dinner at a Chinese restaurant, where he said he would go with the famous TV star and radio DJ Kenny Everett.

He was left “shocked and frightened” after King sexually assaulted him at his home, where he had given him more to drink and offered to show him his music room, a jury was told.

Cottage said the complainant came forward after reading an article in the Independent newspaper in 2012, entitled “Jonathan King: the only apology I have is to say that I was good at seduction”.

King denies meeting the boy or having any sexual encounter with him, the court heard.

Another alleged victim was 14 or 15 years old when he was sexually assaulted by King in the late 1970s, the court heard.

King is alleged to have shown the youngster “pop fan goodies” in the boot of his car before giving the youngster a newly released single.

He is later said to have taken the boy to a Birmingham radio station while he was interviewed, plied him with champagne and taken him to the Playboy Club in London.

The prosecution said the complainant was promised sex with girls, shown pornography and supplied condoms by King, who also took the boy and his sister to Pebble Mill, a BBC studio in Birmingham.

She told jurors he last saw King on his 21st birthday, when the defendant told him “he was too old and ugly for him now”.

King made no comment when interviewed about the allegations after the complainant came forward after hearing of another high-profile case.

The trial, which could last until 3 August, continues.