CATS BETRAYAL
Club blasted for not sacking child abuser a year earlier
SUNDERLAND have come under attack for a ‘catastrophic error of judgment’ after they did not deny knowing last May that disgraced Adam Johnson had groomed and kissed a 15-year-old schoolgirl.
The 28-year-old was yesterday found guilty of more serious sexual activity with the child and is now facing up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced later this month.
Sunderland — who only sacked Johnson after he pleaded guilty to two of his four charges on February 10 — have accused him and his legal team of lying after claims they continued to play their £10million winger despite knowing all along that he was guilty of child-sex offences.
However, in a statement released last night, the Black Cats confirmed that, on May 4 last year, Co Armagh-born chief executive Margaret Byrne had copies of transcripts of police interviews in which Johnson admitted grooming and kissing his victim, as well as 834 messages he exchanged with the girl.
Women’s and children’s charities slammed the club for not sacking the £60,000-per-week star earlier.
ADAM JOHNSON was arrogant to the last, oblivious to the life behind bars which surely awaits this onetime England star and now disgraced sexual predator.
During a break in proceedings in the early part of his three-week trial — which concluded yesterday with a jury finding him guilty of sexual activity with a 15year-old schoolgirl — he was scolded by the judge for his ‘discourteous behaviour’, something we were unable to report at the time.
Johnson had been joking with the security officer who sat with him in the dock at the back of the court. His demeanour was entirely in keeping with a millionaire footballer who made a sober judgment to groom and sexually abuse a child.
Outside the courtroom as the trial neared its third week, he told a friend: ‘I hope this is finished by Friday. It’s a bit boring now.’
His phone was never far from his grasp as soon as the judge had departed, at which point his swagger would invariably return. He even let a door swing in the face of his junior barrister as they left court.
Johnson thought he was above the law. As he will learn if, and surely when, he goes to bed inside his cell for the first time, he is not.
He was devoid of emotion when the guilty verdict was returned, but the colour drained from his face.
He was a man who had it all. Even the prosecution listed his ‘glittering career, beautiful girlfriend, healthy baby, millionaire mansion, handsome cars and more money than he could spend’. Sadly, for Johnson’s partner Stacey Flounders and their baby daughter, it was not enough. He could not resist the pursuit of a girl he knew from the outset was under age, abusing his celebrity status to lure her in with the promise of a signed Sunderland shirt.
The money and material goods, of course, will probably be waiting for Johnson when his sentence is over. But his football career is finished.
Even if the 28-year-old has served his time in his early thirties with his skillset and fitness relatively intact, no club in the land would — or should — employ a convicted child-sex offender.
That he extended his career by nearly 12 months, earning £3million in the process despite having said he told Sunderland that he had groomed and kissed the girl in March of last year, doesn’t rest easy with fans.
The club insisted they did not know he intended to plead guilty — on February 10 — to grooming and one count of sexual activity.
Sunderland sacked their £10m winger the following day, but Johnson’s legal team has accused the club of playing him for nearly a year because they feared relegation from the Premier League.
Johnson’s wealth — which he admitted in court was ‘unimaginable’ when considered in the context of the boy who left school at 15 with four GCSEs — had offered him and his family an escape of their own.
He bought his parents and sister, Faye, luxury houses near to his own in Castle Eden and construction of another property was put on hold last year, shortly after his arrest.
It was on that day that Johnson — shaking and gripping a bar in his games room — said ‘his world was turned upside down’.
For the next 12 months he made out that he was the victim of the girl’s untruths. Johnson, in fact, was the liar all along.
As the guilty verdict was returned and the realisation hit home that he is highly likely to lose his liberty, Adam Johnson finally lost his arrogance.
“He thought he was above the law .... ”