Former England footballer, Adam Johnson
Former Sunderland and England international, Adam
Johnson has been sentenced by a court in England and will spend many years in
prison.
Former England footballer, Adam Johnson has been jailed for six years
for engaging in sexual activity with a 15-year-old fan.
Johnson, 28, showed no emotion as he was sentenced at Bradford Crown
Court by Judge Jonathan Rose.
The former Sunderland and Manchester City winger was found guilty of
sexual activity with the teenager following an incident in his Range Rover in
County Durham last year.
He admitted another charge of sexual activity with a child and grooming
the girl.
Judge Rose said the girl had "suffered
severe psychological harm" as he delivered the sentence.
The judge said the victim had been a Sunderland fan who would wait after
matches to take pictures of her "favourite player", Johnson, who knew
her age.
He said: "That was known to you
- to put it another way she had only just turned 15 when you began grooming
her, because as you were to admit you found her sexually attractive."
The judge said Johnson had exchanged more than 800 messages with her,
which had largely been innocent.
"You made a deliberate decision
to engage in sexual activity with this young girl, no doubt in the expectation
that you would get away with it."
The judge said Johnson's decision not to plead guilty meant that the
girl was subjected to a year of being called a liar, including having this
being chanted by football fans.
Judge Rose said the aggravating factors included the secluded location
of the offence, Johnson's "disposal" of social media evidence and
attempts to stop the girl reporting the matter.
He added: "She speaks of entering
many dark places in that year and said she had suffered bullying and stress and
had underachieved at school as a result of the case."
She had suffered sadness, anger and confusion which had been "exasperated" because of the
footballer's status and standing, he said.
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