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Adam Johnson verdict: Footballer faces up to 10 years in prison amid claims not guilty plea earned him an extra £3m
Adam Johnson verdict: England footballer faces 'significant' length of time behind bars
(35 minutes later)
Former England footballer Adam Johnson has been told there is a "very high probability" he will be jailed for a "significant" length of time after being convicted of one count of sexual activity with a child.
Adam Johnson faces up to 10 years in prison after being found guilty of sexual activity with a child but cleared of another count of the same offence.
Jurors at Bradford Crown Court found the former Sunderland FC winger guilty by a majority of 10-2 after Judge Jonathan Rose said he would accept a majority verdict.
The 28-year-old England footballer was cleared of having oral sex with the 15-year-old but the jury returned a majority 10-2 verdict to find him guilty of the second count of sexual activity with a minor relating to digital penetration.
The disgraced star was cleared by the jury on a second count - oral sex with a child - after the trial, which last more than two weeks.
Judge Jonathan Rose said Johnson faces up to 10 years in prison, with a starting point of five years.
Johnson, 28, admitted grooming a 15-year-old girl and sexual activity with the teenager, relating to kissing her in his Range Rover, but denied the two more serious charges of sexual activity with a child - one involving oral sex and another involving digital penetration. He was found guilty of the latter charge.
The charges against him arose from a meeting between Johnson and the girl in his car in County Durham on January 30 last year.
Judge Rose said a custodial sentence is "the almost inevitable outcome" but granted Johnson bail until the hearing, which will be held at a later date.
There was no obvious reaction to the verdict from Johnson, who was sitting in the dock with two security guards.
The judge said his preliminary view was that the case falls into the category of a five year prison sentence with a range of four to 10 years.
He said: "The defendant must understand there is a very high probability of a significant custodial sentence."
He said: "The defendant must understand there is a very high probability of a significant custodial sentence."
One of the key elements of the case was Johnson's decision to plead not guilty to kissing a 15-year-old Sunderland fan until the first day of his trial
In a statement issued after the case, Sunderland FC said it "refuted" any suggestion the club knew all along that Johnson was intending to change his plea just before his trial so he could continue to play for them, and that the club may have been involved in tactical discussions about the plea.
And it was this that has been repeatedly questioned during the three-week case.
The club said it was not advised in advance that Johnson would plead guilty to any offence.
He admitted the offence to police during his first interview and he said he made full and frank admissions to the football club a short time afterwards.
"Had the club known that Mr Johnson intended to plead guilty to any of these charges, then his employment would have been terminated immediately," the statement said.
But he continued to deny the charge in court and - except for a brief two-week suspension immediately following his arrest - bosses at Sunderland allowed the £60,000-a-week winger to continue playing.
"Indeed, upon learning of the guilty plea on 11 February 2016, the club acted quickly and decisively in terminating Adam Johnson's contract without notice.
During that time - from 18 March last year until he was sacked by the club on 11 February this year - he will have earned around £3 million.
"The club did not give evidence either for the prosecution or the defence in this case.
But were "commercial considerations" - on behalf of a multimillion-pound star footballer and a Premier League team facing relegation - the reason behind his failure to plead guilty earlier?
"It was therefore not present in court when it is understood that a suggestion was made that the club knew all along that Mr Johnson was intending to change his plea just before trial to enable him to continue to play football for the club and that the club may also have been involved in tactical discussions about the plea.
Or was it, as his defence barrister suggested, simply a "strategy and tactic" to avoid a "blaze of publicity" ahead of his trial on further child sex offences?
"This is utterly without foundation and is refuted in the strongest possible terms.
It is a question that may be asked of Sunderland football club following the conviction of their former player.
"The club never placed any pressure or demands on Mr Johnson to play football during this process."
The trial heard that police spoke to chief executive Margaret Byrne on the day of Johnson's arrest on 2 March last year.
By 4 May, when Mrs Byrne met with Johnson and his barrister Orlando Pownall QC, the club had all 834 WhatsApp messages exchanged between the footballer and the teenage girl and transcripts of police interviews with Johnson and the girl.
Johnson said he told the club he had passionately kissed the girl with tongues, that he had been aroused and that he had made no secret of the content of the messages between them.
He denied prosecution suggestions that he had "60,000 very good reasons each week" to delay entering his guilty pleas and said he had not pleaded guilty during initial appearances at Durham Crown Court because he had been advised not to.
During legal arguments, Johnson's barrister Orlando Pownall QC told the court he had been concerned about publicity in the run up to the trial.
He said: "We felt it may prejudice the outcome of the eventual trial if his plea was entered early."
Mr Pownall told the jury: "It has been suggested that he should have pleaded guilty earlier and he was playing games with the court and that he was just interested in earning more money.
"There is simply no foundation for that at all. He was given advice."
He continued: "It is plain Sunderland Football Club knew exactly what was going on.
"They had the statements, they had Mr Johnson's interview and they chose in that knowledge, rightly or wrongly you may conclude, whether for commercial considerations or in the knowledge they were facing relegation and did not want to lose one of their star players, to allow him to continue playing.
"It may very well be they regret that decision."
Johnson has been bailed and will be sentenced at a later date. He will be under curfew from 7pm until 7am.
