Picking me I’m riding him...
A SCHOOLGIRL who is alleged to have performed a sex act on England footballer Adam Johnson told her friends: “He’s picking me up this week and I’m riding him.”
Johnson is on trial for two counts of sexual activity with a child, which prosecutors say took place in the star’s Range Rover last January with a girl who was then 15-years-old.
The girl was yesterday cross-examined over messages she posted on social media about her meetings with the former Sunderland winger.
Orlando Pownall, defending, referred to one Snapchat message, which was then put on Facebook, in which the girl stated, “He’s picking me up this week and I’m riding him.”
Speaking to court via a video-link, the teenager said: “I was trying to big myself up as any 15-year-old girl would.”
The star-struck teen went on to describe how she secretly filmed one of their meetings but only managed to capture an image of Johnson’s Range Rover dashboard.
She said she did this to prove to people that she had met the footballer.
The girl wiped away tears as she told the jury she never thought she would end up explaining herself in court.
She later said: “I was trying to brag about it and show off. How many teenagers can say that’s happened to them?”
The girl also told the court: “I thought I was big and I thought I was clever... I feel so stupid now for not seeing, but I didn’t see it at the time.”
She told the court she felt “obliged” to perform the sex act on him.
Mr Pownall asked the girl about the messages exchanged between her and Johnson before they first met in his car. The teenager said she found some of the messages “a bit creepy”.
Asked to clarify, she said: “I thought that when I told him my age he would have backed off. Who just asks for a random fan’s number?”
Prosecutors say the teen performed oral sex on the ex-Sunderland player after the pair exchanged hundreds of messages, online and via text.
The girl also said of Johnson: “Someone texting a 15-year-old girl – they’re not completely normal.”
Defence lawyer Orlando Pownall asked the girl whether she “absolutely hated” Johnson now.
She said: “Yes, I do, after everything he’s put us through. He told everyone he was innocent and he made people call me a liar.
“He let people cheer him on in matches and he let people call me all the names under the sun.”
The teenage girl was also cross-examined yesterday over messages she posted on social media about her meetings with the former Sunderland winger.
It emerged that the girl did not mention some of the more serious activity in an initial police interview and later said she had held back from describing some of what happened to protect Johnson, 28.
Mr Pownall asked her whether she was still trying to protect Johnson.
The girl became tearful as she said: “No, because he did nothing to protect me and he made me out to be a liar.”
Later in the cross-examination, the girl got more upset and continued to insist she hadn’t wanted to get Johnson into trouble.
She said: “I didn’t want that to happen to him. I saw myself as playing a part in it as well – I thought I’d done wrong, too.”
The girl began sobbing again and asked for a break.
Johnson’s girlfriend Stacey Flounders, who was absent from court earlier in the week, was at his side again yesterday as he entered Bradford Crown Court.
On Monday, the jury was played two video recordings of police interviewing the girl about her relationship with the footballer.