Judge has asked for a 12 nil verdict....would be surprised if that happened. I suspect most reasonable people would believe the girl, but also one or more equally reasonable people would have doubts. As the Sky reporter said though it isn't just who they believe, there is also the matter of hundreds of social media messages exchanged between the two. Johnson is claiming that he suddenly saw the light and there would have been no further contact between them Very difficult for the jury to reach a unanimous decision.
Jury sent home for the day. No verdict reached on day one. Deliberations to recommence at 10:00 tomorrow.
What ever the verdict the girl is going to have major problems from her peers I would have thought. Not sure if true but I gather she has had some already. Kids of her own age have turned their back on her and I can certainly understand why she would have given up her season ticket if that is the case. She too may have to leave the area to make a decent life and put this all behind her it isn't going to be easy. Would that be AJs fault too?
What you mean kids could turn on someone and bully them....surely not. The whole thing was revealed to her parents because she was being bullied and that was when her Dad went to the police. Her life will become a living hell because kids love to make themselves part of the gang by pushing someone else out into the cold. Her relationship with boys will become problematic as well....she would do best to avoid them for quite a while as they will regard her as a trophy. So yes, I do blame Johnson for that. As an adult he could have predicted all this....she is being punished for a kid's foolishness. They all kiss and tell and post photos without regard to the consequences. As for the trial, the jury is probably split. I said right at the beginning that he pleaded guilty to the easily provable, hoping to get away with the rest. The jury would have found him guilty of everything, based on probability, if he hadn't pleaded guilty for some of it. Knowing he is facing some punishment, some jury members are bound to have doubts about the more serious charges. A defence ploy that has a chance of success.
Yep very clever from the barrister, the prosecution spent months compiling evidence for all 4 charges and were probably aiming for the probability reason for conviction on the most serious 2, then changing it at last minute and 90% of the evidence in the trial is about the charges already admitted.
You're right....he ruined his life for nothing really....not as if he lived in a monastery and had no chance of sex with a woman. I remember years ago when Clinton knew he was being watched by journalists who suspected him of having an affair....so what did he do? Visited his mistress by the front door (impossible to write that without it sounding like an innuendo )....thinking with the wrong part of his body.
I suspect the taboo nature of what he was doing was exciting and intoxicating to him and he got caught up in the whole intrigue without ever really considering the wider consequences (for himself or, particularly, her). The excitement of doing something 'naughty' outweighed everything. Silly fool.
And just for a second, I am going to cut Johnson some slack. The guy is in his late 20's. He knows almost nothing about life, except at his age he doesn't realise it. He has very little idea of how to weigh the balances of priorities and importance, against his own self satisfaction. To be honest, he doesn't strike me as the sharpest tool in the box either, so he may never get the epiphany that many people have later in life when things fall into perspective. So, as LTL suggested, I doubt if he did engage his brain. I'll re-tighten that bond again.
I often have sympathy for the guilty person. When I hear that some kid has stabbed another kid, I do think that's two lives ruined. I don't feel true sympathy for Johnson, but I do think about a career wasted. He'd rewind his life if he could.
Plus he's had the mollycoddled upbringing of a professional footballer at the highest level. The two do not a good combination make...
Indeed. Factor that in the the bloke probably doesn't know what day of the week it is, unless it's Saturday. That is in no way a defence for him.
One of the things that showed his true nature to me was that he was texting the girl using sexual language on either side of a text to his GF where he described a picture of his baby daughter as class. The same term as he was using within the same minute to a fifteen-year-old girl. Who describes their own child as 'class' and then just carries on (without interruption) in a sexy and illegal conversation. A picture of his own baby had no affect on him....whereas I bet it would make most people pause and think (however briefly) about what they were doing.
