Former pop mogul Jonathan King hopes to be freed from prison within weeks having served half of his seven year sentence on child sex abuse charges. King was jailed back in Nov 2001 after being found guilty of committing various offences against teenage boys in the eighties. Last week King’s lawyer Giovanni di Stefano confirmed probation officers have recommended that his client be released - though he will be put on the sex offenders register and have to comply with strict conditions.
Stefano told reporters: "It has been recommended by the probation officers and by all the reports, because quite simply there has been no offending behaviour by Mr. King for nearly 20 years.
I speak to Mr. King every day and he's anxious to be out. He has an elderly mother who he hasn't seen for two years and he is eminently not a danger to society."
King, of course, maintains he is innocent of the child abuse charges made against him, and has posted a number of statements to that effect on his website at http://www.kingofhits.com. However the courts turned away his attempts to appeal back in 2003.
That said, his lawyer says his conviction may as yet be overturned on a technicality - Stefano says the Director of Public Prosecutions never gave his consent for the prosecution to go ahead, which would render the conviction void.