The trial of Adam Johnson (part 2)

Why would anyone have a go at SAFC for what's probably the least offensive post on the board this month?

 

Has anyone seen any pics of this bewer?

 

an idiot, whose long-term bird had just had their first sprog. what a nasty ****. i hope she takes him to the cleaners while he's looking for his soap...

 

so far today-
In a police interview played to the court, the girl told officers: “I didn’t believe it first but then the next night I had seen some messages where he had said something about just wanting to get her pants off.”

You can read the full report on the girl’s evidence here.

13:48 LAURA HILL
Friend: Johnson 'asked for naked picture'

The court heard that the alleged victim had told her friend she was ‘Snapchatting’ Johnson and he had asked for “a naked picture”.

The school friend also told the prosecution barrister: “She said that he’d been texting her and offered to meet for money.”

13:40 LAURA HILL
Friend 'didn't tell police' about alleged sexual activity

The friend told police: “When it all came out in the papers I texted her mam and asked if she was okay.”

She also admitted that she didn’t tell police about one of the alleged sexual activities the teenager had told her had happened with Johnson.

The girl said: “I didn’t believe it because she came out with it hours later.”

She added: “She told me not to say anything [to police],” when quizzed by the prosecution Kate Blackwell QC.

Cross examining the witness, Orlando Pownall QC asked the girl if she had a crush on Sunderland player Connor Whickham at the same time that Adam Johnson was the “object of your friend’s affections.”

The girl replied: “Yes.”

13:35 LAURA HILL
Girl acted 'differently' after second meeting

The 15-year-old was “different” after she allegedly engaged in sexual activity with the player in his car, the court was told.

“She seemed excited about it at first but after she started to realise what she had done because he had a girlfriend and a baby she started to act differently,” the friend told an officer.

“She wouldn’t go on about it as much, you could tell that something had changed.

“He was her favourite footballer she would always talk about him before he had even spoke to her. After all that happened, she acted different and wouldn’t talk about him as much.”

The court heard the school friend telling police the 15-year-old wore leggings when she met Johnson. The alleged victim previously told jurors that Johnson “unbuttoned her jeans.”

13:31 LAURA HILL
Messages almost everyday

Johnson exchanged messages with the teenager “near enough every day” her friend, added.

The court has previously heard that the pair exchanged 834 messages on Whatsapp.

The pal said she was worried and concerned about Johnson’s message to the teenager asking for “more than a kiss”.

“It didn’t really seem right that a 27-year-old would say that to her.

“She said she didn’t really want to meet up with him but she did meet up with him,” the teenager’s school friend went on to say of the pairs’ second meeting on January 30 when the alleged sexual activity took place.

13:27 LAURA HILL
'Excited' after first meeting with Johnson

The friend told officers that it was Johnson who initiated the meeting with the teenage girl and that “she didn’t want to at first in case it wasn’t actually him.”

The two girls recognised the player’s private registration number on his Range Rover car when he met the girl for the first time in January 17 in a County Durham car park near a takeaway, the court heard.

Julian Hamilton/Daily MirrorFormer Sunderland and England footballer Adam Johnson, arriving at Bradford Crown court
The friend said the teenager was “excited that it had all happened” following the meeting, when Johnson gave her a signed shirt.

The court heard the alleged victim left the shirt at a friend’s house so that her mum wouldn’t find it.

“She didn’t want her mam to find out, she was scared what her mam would think,” the school friend told police.

13:22 LAURA HILL
Posed for pictures with the players

The schoolgirl told police that her friend, the alleged victim, had agreed to get a signed shirt from Johnson after they made contact on Facebook.

Jurors heard Johnson asked for the teenager’s number to send her Whatsapp messages.

She said: “He [Johnson] was her favourite footballer, she didn’t actually believe it was him.

“Me and her go to the football matches and we always stay back for pictures with the players. After he messaged her to to say was the picture okay?”

13:18 LAURA HILL
Friend 'didn't believe' schoolgirl at first

The “best friend” of the teenage girl who allegedly had a sexual encounter with former Sunderland football player Adam Johnson told police she didn’t believe her friend’s story at first, a court has heard.

The jury of eight women and four men at Bradford Crown Court were today shown a video interview the school friend gave to police on March 5 2015.

In the video the girl told officers:

I didn’t believe it first but then the next night I had seen some messages where he had said something about just wanting to get her pants off. It’s not something I believed because he’s like a footballer and he’s famous and she’s only 15.

 

There's not a jury in the land that is going to find Johnson guilty of the other charges. There's far to many inconsistencies.

 

He'll be found guilty of the two he has admitted and that is it. He's still looking at probably 18 months- 2 years for those two offences.

 

Have to say I completely agree - unfortunately - would like him locked up for a long time! But he'll do a few months at most then be out and about.

Have to say this in Johnson's defence:

please log in to view this image

 

Have to agree with Marcus & Windy & 83. The prosecution are getting nowhere near proving their case.

Mind you the jury might just conclude he's a sick ****er and find him guilty of charges 3 & 4 anyway!

 

Really hope they do, but isn't looking likely.

Him apparently offering her money to meet him is ****ed up.

 

That's what we are all hoping for..

As it stands though, she didn't mention anything sexual happening, but then she did. The victim says he was undoing the button on her jeans, her friend says she was wearing leggings. The way it's going, I half expect the judge to say enough is enough and direct the jury to a not guilty verdict.

 

The jury will get its cue on how to find him from when the judge does his summing up of the case.

 

I think for me it's a case of seeing justice being done more than anything.

You can't convict someone of an offence when the evidence is circumstantial and wholly inconsistent. Forget the fact that Johnson is a bit sick going after a 15 year old. Forget that he 'googled' the age of consent. Forget that he offered the girl money. That may point to intent of committing an offence in the future, but it doesn't mean he is guilty of actually committing the offence at the time in question. It's a bit like someone really pissing you off and really wanting to smash their skull in but not actually doing it. There is an intention to perhaps commit the offences [mens rea] but the actus reus [doing the act] matters. There is no clear actus reus in this case based on the evidence.

He sent some pretty disturbing messages, we get that. He clearly wanted to have sex with the girl. He groomed her, kissed her and probably felt her up. He may have done more. We don't know and based on the evidence there is no proof that he did more and at the end of the day, any competent jury will realise that. Justice will see that he will be found guilty of the offences he's admitted and be found not guilty of the other two.

 

The judge may well decide there's no case to answer and tell them to bring a not guilty charge.

He'll do time for the grooming charges. That should knock some of the arrogance out of him.

 

I'd love it if the judge directed the jury to a not guilty verdict and they dismissed the judge to still find him guilty!

 

I think it is too early to tell .... we are only seeing written words ... the judge & jury are watching them being spoken & seeing the body language

It doesn't seem to me that the fact she didn't give the full story the first time is inconsistent for a young girl being asked about something she feels uncomfortable talking about. It isn't unusual for a young person to try and protect their abuser.

In my experience it isn't unusual for a story of sexual abuse to come out a bit at a time

 

I used to work in a kids home with teens who had been abused sexually and physically.
For a variety of reasons ( poor memory, stress, anger, denial, guilt, love, hate) their versions would be inconsistent but they were telling the truth.
I am not saying that this girl was abused in the same way but Johnson clearly manipulated and then used her for his own sick sexual pleasure (he admitted to grooming and sexual contact so we know this to be true) ... it doesn't surprise me that the girl's story has inconsistencies. .. under stress we say and do weird things as adults so it even more extreme for kids/young people.
Adults have admitted to crimes they have not committed simply because of the pressure they were subjected to and the stress they were under so her not being consistent is not surprising.
Johnson has not been even vaguely consistent (he changed his plea at the last possible moment before the trial on 2 charges) and that needs to be taken into account too...the jury will not be allowed to look at her inconsistencies and ignore his.
Imo it will come down to who the jury find more believable.

 

Here we go again.
Girlfriend nowhere to be seen, probably fiddling with that paper lad again.
He has his dad and sister in court with him today.
No live reporting again today.

 

Has Adam's sister got a hairy fanny?
Bet she hasn't, bet it's really smooth like a nectarine.

 

William, its really is getting so tiresome now

 

Sorry.