Gladiators star Michael Jefferson King jailed for six years for role in blackmail plot

Michael Jefferson King is best known for his role in Gladiators (Picture: PA/Rex)

Gladiators star Michael Jefferson King, better known as Shadow on the 90s TV show, has been jailed for six years and three months for his role in a blackmail plot.

The 60-year-old was sentenced after admitting two counts of blackmail at Isleworth Crown Court.

King was jailed for his participation in a plot, where he demanded £1,000 from a distraught mother for the safe return of her son.

He was one of four to keep a man detained in a flat in Acton, West London.

Aaron Ali was beaten and filmed with videos being sent to his family to elicit a payment of up to £1,000 to let him go.

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.’

He was sentenced at Isleworth Crown Court (Picture: Metropolitan Police/PA Wire)

King was alleged, at one point, to have ordered a co-defendant to ‘fetch a hammer to break his legs’.

The three other defendants, Simon Batson, Donna Harman, and Otis Noel, were also sentenced.

Former athlete and TV star King has had a lifelong battle with drug addiction, having first become hooked on crack cocaine as a teenager while living in New York.

He later became clean, relocated to the UK and became a bodybuilder, earning national acclaim as Gladiator Shadow in 1992.

However, he was axed from the series in 1995 after testing positive for steroids and being caught taking cocaine.

Since then, King has battled his addictions – which ultimately resulted in use of heroin and crack cocaine – despite attempts to get clean and entering rehab facilities in 2009.

MORE : Ex Gladiators star pleads guilty to ‘drug fuelled blackmail plot’

MORE : Gladiators cast to reunite and ‘reveal juicy gossip’ in tell-all reunion 20 years after finale