Former Gladiators star Shadow has been jailed for six years after becoming embroiled in a blackmail plot.
Michael Jefferson King – better known by his pseudonym Shadow – was sentenced at Isleworth crown court after pleading guilty to the charges.
The 60-year-old former bodybuilder was arrested and charged last year after demanding a £1000 ransom from a mum whose son was allegedly being held hostage by a drug gang.
Michael has been on remand since his arrest awaiting the trial of his fellow alleged blackmailers.
The jury heard how he had been “known as Shadow in Gladiators” before falling victim to addiction for the second time in his life.
A police mugshot showed him with sunken cheeks, barely recognisable from his well-known chiselled look in the 90s.
Addiction woes
The former Gladiator moved to New York at the age of 14 where he became addicted to crack.
He eventually kicked his habit before returning the UK where he met his wife and became a dad of two.
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Michael was then recruited for a starring role in popular Saturday night TV show Gladiators for its launch in 1992.
However, his success was short-lived when just three years later he was caught using cocaine.
He subsequently tested positive for steroids and was axed from the hit show.
Following his sacking he spiralled into heroin and crack addiction, costing him both his home and family.
He then served a series of prison sentences for various crimes as he struggled to get his life back on track.
In 2009 he entered rehab and began repairing his relationship with his children.
At the time he admitted that he felt like “a leper” after being dismissed from Gladiators.
He said: “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.”
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Tragically, Michael fell back into addiction last year and was charged with possession of heroin in March 2020.
A week later a court heard how King, of Acton, West London, who spent the day smoking drugs before becoming involved in the blackmail plot, had “degenerated rapidly”.