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Adam Johnson found not guilty on one count of sex with schoolgirl Adam Johnson guilty of sexual activity with a child
(35 minutes later)
The footballer Adam Johnson has been cleared of one count of sexual activity with a 15-year-old schoolgirl. The footballer Adam Johnson is facing jail after being found guilty of sexual activity with a 15-year-old schoolgirl.
The jury found the former England midfielder not guilty of having the teenager perform oral sex on him in his Range Rover on 30 January last year. The former England footballer was convicted of digitally penetrating the teenager but was cleared of another count in which she was alleged to have performed a sex act on him.
The jury has been unable to reach a unanimous verdict on another count of sexual activity with a child. The judge, Jonathan Rose, told jurors he would now accept a majority verdict on that count. Related: Fall from grace: Adam Johnson’s queasily self-destructive demise
There was little reaction from Johnson in the dock as the verdict was returned. He appeared to give a faint smile to the jurors as they returned to continue their deliberations. The judge Jonathan Rose told Johnson a custodial sentence was “an almost inevitable outcome” when he is sentenced in two to three weeks at Bradford crown court.
The jury of eight women and four men delivered the verdict at 3.46pm, a year to the day that Johnson was arrested. They had been deliberating for nine hours and 10 minutes. He said his preliminary view was that the case fell into the category of a five-year prison sentence with a range of four to 10 years.
The jury of eight women and four men deliberated for nine hours and 42 minutes after which they found Johnson guilty of one count of sexual activity with a child.
They returned with a majority of 10-2 after failing to reach a unanimous verdict.
The jurors convicted the 28-year-old just half an hour after acquitting him on another count of sexual activity with a child.
The footballer showed little reaction from the dock as the verdict was delivered. His sister sat with her head bowed in the public gallery.
Adam Johnson pictured in police mugshot after his arrest a year ago today pic.twitter.com/atp0VPXf1a
Johnson had denied all four of the allegations until the first day of his trial, when he pleaded guilty to two counts of grooming and kissing the schoolgirl.
He continued to deny that he did anything further than kiss the teenager and disputed her allegation that she performed oral sex on him and that he penetrated her with his fingers..
The victim, now 16, was a Sunderland season ticket holder who “idolised” Johnson and regularly waited outside the club’s Stadium of Light for a picture with her hero, the court heard.
They began swapping messages on New Year’s Eve and 18 days later Johnson met the girl to give her a signed Sunderland shirt.
Giving evidence, the £60,000-a-week footballer told his trial that Sunderland AFC knew that he admitted kissing and sending explicit messages to the girl as long ago as May 2015.
The club is facing troubling questions about why it allowed Johnson to return from suspension just 16 days after his arrest.
The trial heard that Margaret Byrne, the club’s chief executive, had copies of police interviews with Johnson and the victim, as well as copies of the 834 text messages they swapped, by 4 May.
Johnson’s final game for Sunderland was on 6 February, when he scored in a 2-2 draw away to Liverpool, the weekend before his trial. His contract was torn up 24 hours after he pleaded guilty on 10 February.
Orlando Pownall QC, for Johnson, told the court that there would be an appeal against the guilty verdict.