Adam Johnson begins six year sentence as police reveal the '˜extreme porn' they found on his PC

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After Johnson was jailed at Bradford Crown Court, restrictions were lifted which have prevented the reporting of the 28-year-old’s arrest in relation to alleged extreme pornographic images, thought to be bestiality-related, found on his computer.

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The arrest was mentioned in hearings at Durham Crown Court prior to Johnson’s trial. Durham Police confirmed he has now been released from his bail in relation to this matter and no further action will be taken.

It is understood the images found on the computer were of a “jokey” nature.

The pre-trial hearings also heard how police found medicines in a safe when Johnson was arrested which indicated he may have been suffering from sexually transmitted infections.

As he was sentenced today Johnson looked straight ahead and did not glance at his parents, Sonia and Dave, who also showed no emotion as they sat listening in the front row of the public gallery.

The packed courtroom listened in silence as Judge Rose repeated how Johnson had kissed and sexually touched the girl in his Range Rover, in a secluded spot in County Durham, on January 30 last year.

The judge told the player the offences happened “at a time when you were engaged in frequent sexual intercourse with multiple partners”.

And he outlined how various medical professionals had agreed he suffered from “compulsive sexual behaviour”.

According to the judge, Johnson told a psychiatrist: “I treated (the teenager) like any of the girls I met.

“I put her age out of my mind. I was sexually interested but she was just another girl, another opportunity. She was attractive enough. Another one to get with.”

The judge said to him: “When you had moved to play for Manchester City you embarked on an extensive social life which involved sexual activity on a very frequent basis with a number of different partners, even when you were ostensibly in a settled relationship.

“You do not suffer from any mental illness but are described as having a very high libido and a tendency to engage in sexual activity to a compulsive degree.”

The judge said Johnson, who ran past photographers into the court building but sauntered into the dock chewing gum, will need treatment for his sexual problems.

Judge Rose outlined how Johnson’s offending happened when he met the girl for a second time after exchanging hundreds of social media messages with her.

The first time they met he gave her a signed football shirt and, when they met again, he asked for his “thank you kiss”.

Johnson admitted kissing the girl but denied the girl’s claim that he touched her inside her pants and how she then performed oral sex on him.

A jury found him guilty of sexual activity with a child in relation to “digital penetration” but cleared him of the same offence relating to the oral sex.

He had already admitted another charge of sexual activity with a child in relation to kissing and also of grooming the girl.

The judge said Johnson had lied repeatedly, referring as he did so to the controversy over whether he delayed his guilty pleas to enable him to continue his £60,000-a-week career with Sunderland.

The judge said: “You lied about the nature and extent of your contact with her and you lied then and throughout the months which followed about the level of your sexual activity with her.

“You had every opportunity to enter guilty pleas to the matters you finally admitted to the court but you chose not to do so, and one consequence of that is that (the girl) was regarded as a liar, by her peers and by the football supporters who would chant abuse about her.

“Little wonder that by the time of this trial she had, in her words, endured a year of abuse, of being called a liar and other more graphic insults, and was deeply upset by what you had done to her and by her treatment, such that she required counselling and such that she reached the lowest ebb after she gave evidence.”

He added: “She speaks of entering many dark places in that year and said she had suffered bullying and stress and had underachieved at school as a result of the case.”

The judge said: “I am satisfied that (the girl) has suffered severe psychological harm and have no doubt that I should take this into account.”

She had suffered sadness, anger and confusion which had been “exasperated” because of the footballer’s status and standing, he said.

The judge said Johnson must pay £50,000 of the prosecution’s £67,132 costs.

Later Johnson re-appeared in court to hear legal argument, but the blue suit he wore to be sentenced had been replaced by a grey sweatshirt and grey jogging bottoms.

Johnson appeared without the support of former partner Stacey Flounders, the mother of his one-year-old daughter, and his sister, Faye Johnson, who used a Facebook post to say she would not attend the hearing because she did not want her brother “to see the pain in my eyes”.

Earlier, Kate Blackwell QC, prosecuting, told the judge that Johnson had a history of meeting girls for sex, describing it as a “clandestine habit”.

Miss Blackwell said a medical report concluded Johnson “believes he has a right to sex”.

Dr Philip Hopley, a consultant psychiatrist giving evidence for the defence, told the court: “This is a man who, at the age of 28, is socially and psychologically immature.”

Dr Hopley said Johnson developed very late physically and had low self confidence as a youngster.

He said he believed that as a professional footballer Johnson developed his confidence and self-esteem very quickly and this, combined with the availability of willing women, led to his “compulsive sexual behaviour”.

The doctor said he found no evidence in Johnson of an attraction to pre-pubescent children or “sexual perversion”.

Orlando Pownall, defending, told the judge: “He has lost a lucrative career he will never be able to retrieve. He has been stripped of his England caps. He has been made the subject of national humiliation and these are all aspects of punishment that arise from his pleas and conviction.”

He added that Johnson’s conduct towards women “is, and could properly be described as deplorable”.

The QC added: “He does not pose a significant risk of harm to children, for (victim) was not selected on her age but despite her age.”

He said that despite the huge publicity surrounding the case, no other underage girls have complained about Johnson.

“This is not the case of a predatory paedophile who has sought out children for sexual purposes,” he said.

“This was an aberration.”

The court heard earlier that Johnson’s actions left his victim “devastated” when she was forced to endure thousands of malicious and slanderous remarks on social media after her identity was revealed.

But even after Johnson’s conviction - which she said “proves to people I was not lying”, she said she still remains the victim of bullying.

In a victim impact statement read to the court, the youngster, who was 15 at the time of the offences, said she had entered “many dark places” over the 12-month period.

The court was told how she was taunted by football fans and on one occasion was approached by a stranger asking about her relationship with the footballer.

As a result she said she had felt at risk going out and her schoolwork had suffered due to the stress of the case.

A victim impact statement on behalf of the victim’s mother added that there “had been no winners” and defended the decision to report the matter to police in order to “protect other vulnerable children”.

The statement said: “Adam Johnson was in a privileged position of trust with hundreds of other idolising young fans who could have just as easily been victims themselves.”

She stressed that the family had never tried to seek financial gain.

In 2006, Johnson made five appearances for Leeds United, on loan from Middlesbrough.

READ MORE:


Did Adam Johnson pocket £3m by delaying admission of teen sex?

Before Johnson: Nine other footballers convicted of serious offences

Statement from Sunderland FC on Adam Johnson case...