Jonathan King fails to win costs

King says he intends to resume his career in music

Convicted sex offender Jonathan King has lost a bid to win back costs for an abuse case in which he was cleared.

Pop mogul King was released on parole last week after serving half of a seven-year jail term for four indecent assaults on boys aged 14 and 15.

At the Old Bailey on Tuesday he tried to recover "a substantial figure" he paid to fund another case in which he was acquitted in November 2001.

But a judge turned him down saying King had "brought suspicion on himself".

'Interests of fairness'

King was jailed in 2001 after being convicted of seducing and abusing boys, in a case investigated by Surrey Police.

He had been arrested in 2000 following an investigation which began when a man in his 30s told police he had been assaulted by King at a disco in Surrey in the 1970s.

He had been due to face three more trials, but the prosecution elected not to proceed with them after King was jailed, due to the "passing of time" and because of doubts over the age of an alleged victim.

But King had been ordered to pay £14,000 towards prosecution costs for the trial in which he was convicted.

Trevor Burke, QC, representing King, said "in the interests of fairness" his client should have had a contribution towards his costs for the charges which were stopped.

Able to pay

Judge David Paget, who also sat on the original trial, said he had considered all the matters at the time, including the "great deal of money" King had paid in defence fees.

He said the £14,000 King had paid towards prosecution costs was a tiny proportion of the total sum and a figure which King was easily able to pay.

The judge added: "It seems to me that as I recollect the whole of this case and the whole of the indictment, that his conduct did bring suspicion on himself."

After Monday's hearing he would not reveal how much his total legal costs had amounted to.