JOHNSON CHARGED
Adam Johnson also accused of grooming
AN ENGLAND footballer was yesterday charged with grooming and sexual activity with a 15-year-old girl.
Adam Johnson, 27, who plays in the Premier League for Sunderland and has represented his country 12 times, faces a lengthy jail term if he is convicted.
The £10million winger was arrested seven weeks ago and learnt his fate during an arranged appointment at Peterlee police station, Durham.
Johnson, the father of a three-monthold daughter, has been accused of three offences of sexual activity with a child under 16 and one of grooming.
The £50,000-a-week player is due to appear before Peterlee magistrates on May 20 and the case will then be transferred to crown court.
His team is playing Arsenal away that evening in the penultimate game of their league battle against relegation.
The case threatens to put an end to the talented attacker’s glittering career. Last night, it was not clear if he will be allowed to continue playing before his case is dealt with.
Gerry Wareham, of the Crown Prosecution Service, announced the decision to charge Johnson.
He said it was in the public interest to charge the footballer and there was a ‘realistic prospect’ of a conviction.
Johnson was told of the charges he will face during a 20-minute meeting with detectives. Dressed in a navy tracksuit and white trainers, he emerged grimfaced and walked swiftly out of the police station without commenting before being driven away.
He stands accused of three offences of sexual activity with a child, contrary to Section 9 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003.
The offences are said to have taken place between December 30 last year and February 26.
He has also been charged with meeting a child following sexual grooming under Section 15 of the Act.
Johnson was arrested on March 2 at his six-bedroom, £1.9million home in Castle Eden, near Hartlepool.
He became a father for the first time on January 8 when his girlfriend Stacey Flounders, 25, gave birth to their daughter Ayla Sofia.
The alleged sexual activity offences cover a period while she was pregnant and after she gave birth.
Johnson was born in Sunderland and raised in Easington, County Durham, before joining Middlesbrough’s youth academy as a 12-year-old.
He made his Premier League debut for the club in 2005 and was sold in 2010 to Manchester City. Sunderland signed him for £10million in 2012.
Initially the player was suspended after his arrest. But two weeks later, he was allowed back to training and returned to the team under Sunderland’s new manager Dick Advocaat.
‘Realistic prospect of a conviction’