Can't get in any of them Comm because of them big plastic 3 for £10 plastic boxes full of our lasses and my daughters crap.
Sunderland football club’s chief executive is believed to have left the country following mounting pressure over her conduct during the child abuse trial of disgraced footballer Adam Johnson. Margaret Byrne, who was expected to appear as a defence witness for the winger but failed to take the stand, has not been seen in public since the conclusion of the case. She is facing accusations that she knew shortly after Johnson’s arrest that he had kissed and sent explicit messages to his 15-year-old victim. The club has been asked repeatedly to explain why the £60,000-a-week winger was allowed to return to the team and earn £3m despite his private admissions. Sources told the Guardian that Byrne has been staying in a villa in Portugal. A Durham police detective is understood to have asked the club for her whereabouts, and was told that she was there. Byrne was not at her Sunderland home when the Guardian called on Friday, and she was believed to be absent from St Mary’s stadium for her team’s game against Southampton on Saturday. A spokesman for Sunderland AFC said: “There will be no further comment at the present time.” Byrne had been due to give evidence for the defence about what time Johnson arrived at the Stadium of Light on 30 January 2015, the evening he performed a child sex offence on the girl. However, she never appeared. Sunderland lifted Johnson’s suspension on 18 March last year – 16 days after his arrest – and he played until he was sacked 24 hours after he pleaded guilty to two child sex offences on 10 February. But the trial at Bradford crown court heard that Byrne, a former criminal lawyer, had copies of Johnson’s police interview – in which he admitted kissing the girl – and his sexually charged WhatsApp messages by 4 May 2015. The chief executive left Sam Allardyce, the club’s manager, to face a series of questions on the issue at a factious press conference on Thursday. In a carefully worded statement issued after the verdicts, the club said it would have sacked Johnson immediately had officials known he intended to plead guilty to two of the charges. However, the club did not comment on evidence heard in court that Johnson admitted privately to the club as long ago as 4 May 2015 that he kissed the teenage fan and sent her sexually explicit messages. In evidence to his trial, Johnson said he told “everything” to Byrne at a meeting and there was no suggestion he would be sacked. In the press conference before Sunderland’s game against Southampton on Saturday, Allardyce was asked repeatedly about the issue only for the media manager, Louise Wanless, to block questions. Byrne, a qualified solicitor who sits on the FA’s football regulatory authority committee, has refused to answer questions about her involvement in the case. She became chief executive of Sunderland AFC in summer 2011, four years after joining the club as secretary under the then-chairman, Niall Quinn, after she answered a job advert in the Sunday Times. She also sits on the Premier League’s legal advisory group and is company secretary of the Foundation of Light, Sunderland AFC’s charity arm that works with thousands of children across the region.
What I cannot understand is why, if they (the police etc.) knew for certain he was guilty from the beginning, was his little girl allowed to reside in the same house??
Well I don't think that her position is untenable at all. As far as i'm aware (without taking notice of the media witch hunt against our club) Sunderland AFC followed procedures agreed by lawyers and the PFA. Also, the police do not decide who is innocent or guilty of anything..That is decided in a court of law..
Realise that but surely if he is branded, but not yet tried, how do they know how far his alleged habits went until all avenues had been checked. For the record, I do not think for one minute he is that way inclined!!!!!
If they thought he was a danger to the public then it would have been the police who should have remanded him in custody..
If she knew something she should go without question. This would open a hell of a can of worms that goes some much deeper than SAFC, it would shake the whole of British football. Not sure if people know but SAFC isn't her only job. She's a member of the FA Council, the Premier League Legal Advisory Group (LAG), the Professional Football Negotiating and Consultation Committee (PFNCC), the Football Regulatory Authority (FRA), and the FA's International Committee. This is why I've been referring to conspiracies.
So when we talk about the 'club' in this case does that mean she passed all her knowledge onto Ellis etc? Or are we saying that she was the ONLY one at the club who knew?
