Johnson's police mugshot
FOOTBALLER Adam Johnson is facing up to ten years' in jail after being found guilty of serious sexual activity with a child.
The 28-year-old former Sunderland and England player and members of his family showed little emotion as the jury returned with the verdict after more than nine hours of deliberations at the end of a 14-day trial.
Durham Police photo of the outside of Adam Johnson's Range Rover.
Johnson's girlfriend at the time he committed the offence, Stacey Flounders, who told the court Johnson had cheated on her with "quite a few women", sat in the public gallery ashen-faced.
Judge Mr Justice Rose told Johnson, who was cleared of having allowed a 15-year-old Sunderland season ticket holder who "idolised" him to perform oral sex on him in his Range Rover, that his £60,000-a-week lifestyle was set to utterly change in the near future.
He said there was a "very high probability" Johnson would be handed a "significant custodial sentence", of between four and ten years, and told him to get his affairs in order.
He added: "You can say goodbye to your daughter. The prison sentence will mean you will not see her for some time."
Johnson’s daughter was seven weeks old when he was arrested, a year ago to the day that he was found guilty of the offence.
Imposing a 7pm to 7am curfew on Johnson, Judge Rose added: "You would be well advised to stay well away from social media.
“You must understand when you return here at the end of March that it will be to receive a substantial prison sentence. Do you understand that?”
Johnson nodded in the dock.
Durham Police photo of the inside of Adam Johnson's Range Rover.
Johnson's barrister, Orlando Pownall QC, told the court an appeal would be launched against the conviction.
The footballer's 12-year career, in which he had played for Middlesbrough aged 17 and Manchester City, had already been in ruins after he pleaded guilty to grooming a 15-year-old girl who had idolised him and his club of four years, Sunderland, sacked him.
As the trial started, he had also admitted one charge of sexual activity with the teenager and denied two more serious counts of sexual activity with a child.
The panel of eight women and four men found with a 10-2 majority verdict that the midfielder had performed a sex act on the girl behind a Chinese takeaway in County Durham.
The court had heard Johnson exchanged 834 mobile phone messages with the schoolgirl in little more than a month, at the same time as his girlfriend, Stacey Flounders gave birth to their daughter.
It also heard how he had sought to meet the girl after dark, in a remote spot and how he had become infatuated with the teenager, whom he knew to be below the age of consent.
The trial was told a series of humiliating revelations about Johnson's troubled personal life, including that his former team-mates at Sunderland had distanced themselves from him in recent weeks and that Miss Flounders saw no future in their relationship.
Johnson, of Castle Eden, County Durham, had committed a classic case of grooming, argued the prosecution, where he had manipulated the teenager into feeling a sense of approval.
The ex-Black Cats winger had claimed that he initially met the girl in his black Range Rover to do "a good deed" in giving the child a signed football shirt.
A foundation of his defence case appeared to relate to the amount of time he spent with the schoolgirl on January 30 last year, with the footballer claiming he had left the teenager after 15 minutes as he had to be at the Stadium of Light to catch a bus or face a £120,000 fine from the club.
The court heard Mr Justice Rose question that claim.
Johnson's girlfriend at the time he committed the offence, Stacey Flounders, who told the court Johnson had cheated on her with "quite a few women", sat in the public gallery ashen-faced.
Judge Mr Justice Rose told Johnson, who was cleared of having allowed a 15-year-old Sunderland season ticket holder who "idolised" him to perform oral sex on him in his Range Rover, that his £60,000-a-week lifestyle was set to utterly change in the near future.
He said there was a "very high probability" Johnson would be handed a "significant custodial sentence", of between four and ten years, and told him to get his affairs in order.
He added: "You can say goodbye to your daughter. The prison sentence will mean you will not see her for some time."
Johnson’s daughter was seven weeks old when he was arrested, a year ago to the day that he was found guilty of the offence.
Imposing a 7pm to 7am curfew on Johnson, Judge Rose added: "You would be well advised to stay well away from social media.
“You must understand when you return here at the end of March that it will be to receive a substantial prison sentence. Do you understand that?”
Johnson nodded in the dock.
Durham Police photo of the inside of Adam Johnson's Range Rover.
Johnson's barrister, Orlando Pownall QC, told the court an appeal would be launched against the conviction.
The footballer's 12-year career, in which he had played for Middlesbrough aged 17 and Manchester City, had already been in ruins after he pleaded guilty to grooming a 15-year-old girl who had idolised him and his club of four years, Sunderland, sacked him.
As the trial started, he had also admitted one charge of sexual activity with the teenager and denied two more serious counts of sexual activity with a child.
The panel of eight women and four men found with a 10-2 majority verdict that the midfielder had performed a sex act on the girl behind a Chinese takeaway in County Durham.
The court had heard Johnson exchanged 834 mobile phone messages with the schoolgirl in little more than a month, at the same time as his girlfriend, Stacey Flounders gave birth to their daughter.
It also heard how he had sought to meet the girl after dark, in a remote spot and how he had become infatuated with the teenager, whom he knew to be below the age of consent.
The trial was told a series of humiliating revelations about Johnson's troubled personal life, including that his former team-mates at Sunderland had distanced themselves from him in recent weeks and that Miss Flounders saw no future in their relationship.
Johnson, of Castle Eden, County Durham, had committed a classic case of grooming, argued the prosecution, where he had manipulated the teenager into feeling a sense of approval.
The ex-Black Cats winger had claimed that he initially met the girl in his black Range Rover to do "a good deed" in giving the child a signed football shirt.
A foundation of his defence case appeared to relate to the amount of time he spent with the schoolgirl on January 30 last year, with the footballer claiming he had left the teenager after 15 minutes as he had to be at the Stadium of Light to catch a bus or face a £120,000 fine from the club.
The court heard Mr Justice Rose question that claim.
Prosecution barrister Kate Blackwell QC had told the jury Johnson had considered himself to be above the law, while his own QC told jurors they may well agree with the prosecution's portrayal of his client as "immature, arrogant, promiscuous".
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