Adam Johnson guilty of child sex charge

 

 Image copyright PA/Durham Police                            

Image caption The former Sunderland footballer was arrested in March last year

Ex-England footballer Adam Johnson has been found guilty of one count of sexual activity with a girl aged 15.

The jury at Bradford Crown Court found Johnson guilty of a charge of sexual touching, but not guilty on a charge relating to another sexual act.
The former Sunderland player had previously admitted grooming the girl and one charge of sexual activity.
Judge Jonathan Rose has warned Johnson he faces a potential prison sentence of five years.

The judge said his preliminary view was that the case falls into the category of a five-year prison sentence with a range of four to 10 years.
He said: "The defendant must understand there is a very high probability of a significant custodial sentence."
Johnson, 28, showed no emotion as the verdicts were delivered and he has been granted bail until his sentencing, which is due to take place in two to three weeks.
Johnson met up with the girl on 30 January 2015 after agreeing to sign football shirts for her, the court heard.
The player admitted kissing the teenager but told the jury the encounter in his Range Rover "went no further".
However the girl told the court the former winger "put his hands down her pants" and she performed an oral sex act on him.
The jury, which had been deliberating since Tuesday morning following a three-week trial, cleared Johnson over the oral sex claim but convicted him by a 10-2 majority on the sexual touching charge.
Johnson was sacked by Sunderland after admitting on the first day of his trial that he had kissed the girl.
He began communicating with the girl at the very end of 2014 while his partner, Stacey Flounders, was heavily pregnant with their first child.
The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was a Sunderland season ticket holder and was "infatuated" with Johnson.
Johnson told the jury that when she sent him a friend request on Facebook he recognised her as a Sunderland fan.
After he accepted the request he began a communication which involved 834 WhatsApp messages in little more than a month before the exchanges moved on to SnapChat and were not recorded.

 

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