Footballer met and more after

A SCHOOLGIRL broke down and sobbed yesterday as a court heard she “felt compelled” to engage in sex acts with England football star Adam Johnson after he picked her up in his Range Rover.

The victim, aged 15 at the time, told how she promised the player “a thank- you kiss” after he gave her two Sunderland FC shirts signed by him and admitted: “I was well up for it. I met up with him again. I gave him his thank- you kiss and more.”

She said she had not at fi rst told police the full extent of the encounter because she was trying to protect the £ 50,000- a- week player she regarded as an “idol”.

The girl gave evidence via a video link to the court and said: “I was panicked about people fi nding out. I did not want him to lose his career and everything. I was not worried about myself, I was ready to face my problems. I was trying to protect him so he would not lose everything”

The disgraced footballer was sacked last week by Premier League giants Sunderland after he admitted sexual activity with the besotted child he groomed with racy text messages.

But he denies that an encounter in his black Range Rover Sport involved two more serious sexual offences.

Yesterday a jury of eight women and four men heard two recorded police video interviews with the girl.

She told how Johnson asked her for a “thank- you kiss” outside a County Durham Chinese takeaway on Janu- ary 17 last year. Weeks earlier she had friend- requested Johnson on Facebook and within an hour of chatting online he moaned that it would be “ages” until she turned 16.

The pair arranged to meet at 9pm after Johnson had fl own to Newcastle from London following a Spurs game and was on his way home to his £ 1.85m mansion in Castle Eden.

Eleven days earlier Johnson’s girlfriend Stacey Flounders gave birth to their fi rst daughter, Ayla.

The girl told how after getting into the player’s car in the early evening of January 30 he said: “I’ve come for my thank- you kiss.”

She said that she eventually told him “go on then”, and they began kissing “with tongues”.

She said: “He took his seatbelt off, leaned over and then kissed me.

“It was with tongue and he had his hand in my hair. It went on for a few minutes without anything else happening. I was kissing him for a while.

“I sort of knew what he was going to do. I was nervous really but when he was doing it I was all right. I felt compelled to do it.”

In the second of two recorded interviews played to the jury the girl told how she then performed a sex act on Johnson.

The female police offi cer conducting the interview with the girl who was dressed in her school uniform asked how she felt. She replied: