Johnson has been found guilty of
one count of segxwal activity with
a girl aged 15. The jury at Bradford Crown Court
found Johnson guilty of a charge of
segxwal touching, but not guilty on a
charge relating to another segxwal act. The former Sunderland player had
previously admitted grooming the girl
and one charge of segxwal activity. Judge Jonathan Rose has warned
Johnson he faces jail and told him to
"say goodbye to your daughter". Reaction to Adam Johnson's conviction In a statement, Johnson's victim said
she had been through the "hardest
year" of her life. She said meeting her hero felt
"surreal" at first but she now feels
"used and let down" by Johnson. She said: "I have had to face so much
abuse after he claimed his innocence
and I was made out to be a liar. "What happened in his car has turned
my life upside down. "There are people who have made
assumptions about me and this has
been hard to deal with... Him being
found guilty shows everyone I was
telling the truth." 'Significant sentence' 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." The judge told Johnson he would be
released on bail so he could get his
"affairs in order". He said: "You can say goodbye to
your daughter. A prison sentence will
mean you will not see her for some
time." 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 segxwal
touching charge. Johnson was sacked by Sunderland
after admitting on the first day of his
trial that he had kissed the girl. 'Gifted' footballer's fall from grace 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. During the trial, prosecutors accused Johnson of delaying his admission to the lesser offences until the start of his trial so he could
still play for Sunderland, from whom
he earned £60,000 a week. Johnson told the court the club knew
he had kissed the girl, but in a
statement issued after the verdict
Sunderland denied the claim. The club said it played no part in Johnson's plea decisions and only became aware he had kissed the girl
when he admitted it in court, at which
point they sacked him. Sunderland's statement said: "Had the
club known that Mr Johnson intended
to plead guilty to any of these charges
then his employment would have been
terminated immediately. "Indeed, upon learning of the guilty
plea on 11 February 2016, the club
acted quickly and decisively in
terminating Adam Johnson's contract
without notice. "This has been an extremely difficult
time for all involved. The victim and
her family have endured an
unimaginable ordeal in the last 12
months and we trust that they will
now be allowed to move on with their lives without further intrusion or public
scrutiny." Speaking after the verdicts, Det Insp
Aelfwynn Sampson from Durham
Police praised the victim for her
bravery. She said: "In our football-obsessed
region, Adam Johnson had a
responsibility as a professional
footballer to be a role model, a role he
did not fulfil." Children's charity the NSPCC also
condemned Johnson after his trial. A spokesperson said: "Adam Johnson
cynically used his celebrity status as
a professional footballer to groom and
segxwally abuse an impressionable
schoolgirl. "His behaviour throughout was
inexcusable, made even worse by the
fact his not guilty pleas forced his
young victim to suffer the harrowing
experience of giving evidence in
court."
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