Girl, 15, wanted to kill herself after footballer sex act, father tells court
THE father of a teenager molested by footballer Adam Johnson told a court yesterday how she ‘wanted to kill herself’ over the incident.
He spoke of his ‘shock and disbelief’ as the 15-year- old sobbed in his arms and admitted she had met her hero and ‘things had happened’.
Recalling how she dramatically broke the news, the father said his daughter came downstairs at 9.30pm ‘crying her eyes out saying she wanted to kill herself’.
In a statement read to the court where Johnson, 28, faces sex offence charges, he said: ‘I asked her what was wrong but she wouldn’t tell me what the problem was, she sat cuddling me in my arms and crying.’
After reassuring his daughter that she could trust him, the girl said: ‘You probably won’t believe us’, adding that she had ‘met up’ with Johnson.
The father said: ‘I asked if she had sex with him and she replied “no”. I asked what went on and she wouldn’t tell me.’
Bradford Crown Court heard the teenager confessed in February last year after becoming distraught at a Facebook chat page involving dozens of pupils at her school discussing the incident.
The girl had told close friends how the ex- Sunderland star kissed her, touched her intimately and got her to perform a sex act on him when they met in his Range Rover.
Gossip spread when the girl spoke too freely after a few drinks at a party. Then girls told boys in an RE lesson and the gossip spread like wildfire.
A schoolfriend said: ‘The teachers said if anyone spoke about it, we would get sent out from lessons but there was nothing they could do about it because everyone was talking about it.’
The girl became so upset at the comments on social media, she collapsed in tears and spoke to her father, who is separated from her mother.
He persuaded her to speak to her mother, who decided they had to tell the police, which they did the next day.
The father said his daughter was a season ticketholder who stayed after matches to speak to players. She told him Johnson was going to give her a signed shirt and said: ‘I didn’t think there was anything wrong with this as she was an avid fan and he was her favourite player.’
Yesterday a friend of the girl told the jury Johnson behaved like ‘ a bit of a paedophile if he goes for kids of 15 and that’.
The friend was shown messages from him which she said were ‘flirty’ and said she thought ‘it’s a bit weird’ the girl was meeting a grown man.
Johnson exchanged hundreds of text messages with the besotted teenager and met her for the first time in his car to sign two club shirts for her.
He arranged to meet her again about two weeks later on January 30 last year to get a ‘thank you kiss’ when it is claimed he molested her.
Another friend, 15, said the girl ‘was going to have sex with him’ at a third meeting on February 25. But he could not find an excuse to leave girlfriend Stacey Flounders at their home in Castle Eden, Durham.
The jury was played a ten-second video secretly recorded by the girl on her phone just before she was allegedly molested.
Johnson is heard talking about football fans and playing style.
He denies two charges of sexual activity with a child. Johnson has admitted sexual grooming and a further charge of sexual activity with a child.
The trial continues.