Former Sunderland and England footballer Adam Johnson, arriving at Bradford Crown court
A schoolgirl claimed Adam Johnson asked her to send a naked photo of herself to him on Snapchat, a jury heard today.
Johnson,
28, exchanged messages 'near enough every day' with the
then-15-year-old girl, her friend told Bradford Crown Court on the
fourth day of the footballer's child sex trial.
On one occasion, she told a pal he asked the teenager to send a nude picture to him on the popular mobile app, the court heard.
She also told a friend he offered to meet her for money, the court heard.
Johnson, who was recently sacked by Sunderland FC, had admitted to two charges of grooming and sexual activity with a child.
However, he denies a further two charges of sexual activity with the same teenager.
Today,
the alleged victim's friend told the jury via videolink: “She (the
girl) said that they talked on Snapchat and he’d asked her to send a
naked picture and that’s all I can remember about it.”
Julian Hamilton/Daily Mirror
England footballer: The court heard today that the
schoolgirl at the centre of the case was 'excited' after her sexual
encounter with Johnson
The girl said this after she was asked by Kate Blackwell QC,
prosecuting, to tell the court about additional matters she had told
police last week.
She also described how she told
officers that her friend had told her about more serious sexual activity
and she had not told police about this earlier.
The girl said: “She told me not to say anything.”
She also told the jury: “She told me that she’d been texting him before she went away and he offered to meet her for money.”
Also
today, a video-recorded police interview with the friend was played to
the court, claiming the alleged victim was 'excited' after her sexual
encounter with Johnson.
The friend - who cannot be named
- told police in the interview that the teenager was in a 'good mood'
after she met with in his Range Rover last January.
Julian Hamilton/Daily Mirror
Accused: Johnson and the teenager allegedly engaged in sexual activity in his Range Rover on January 30 last year
However, she said the girl's excitement soon waned after she
started to think about what she and the ex-Sunderland star, who was in a
relationship, had done.
"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,” said the
interviewee, known as Friend 1.
The
police interview, conducted on March 5 last year, was shown at Bradford
Crown Court today to the jury of eight women and four men.
In the footage, the friend tells officers she did not believe the girl's story at first.
"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," she said.
"It’s not something I believed because he’s like a footballer and he’s famous and she’s only 15."
The
girl then goes on to say that it was Johnson who initiated the meeting
with her friend, now 16, 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 Johnson's Range Rover when he met the
girl for the first time in January 17 in a County Durham car park near a
takeaway, the court heard.
Andy Stenning / Daily Mirror
Couple: There was no sign of Johnson's girlfriend, Stacey Flouders, today (above: the pair arrive at court together yesterday)
It was the second time that the teenager met Johnson on
January 30 that the pair allegedly engaged in sexual activity in his
vehicle.
Johnson, from Castle Eden in County Durham, last week pleaded guilty to kissing and grooming a schoolgirl.
However, he denies two further charges of sexual activity with a child and is currently on trial.
The latest claims by the girl's friend comes a day after the jury heard from the schoolgirl at the centre of the allegations.
The
teen told the court how Johnson - who was capped for England 12 times -
managed to unfasten her jeans and perform a sex act on her despite
having one hand in plaster.
The alleged victim, who was
15 at the time she met the footballer, denied claims from the defence
she was lying about their meeting in Johnson's car.
Defending, Orlando Pownall QC said: “He didn’t undo the button and undo your zip.”
Colin Lane
On the pitch: Johnson has been sacked by Sunderland FC after pleading guilty to two of the charges
The girl replied: “Yes he did I’m not lying about it the only person who has lied through this is him.”
Mr Pownall QC said: “His hand was in a cast.”
The girl responded: “It didn’t take two hands.”
Defending Johnson, Mr Pownall QC asked if she now had “absolute hatred” for Johnson.
She replied: "Yes I do after all he has put me through.
“He
made me out to be a liar and told everyone he was innocent. He let
people cheer him on for matches and call me all the names under the sun.
“He
knows for a fact that he did that to me. He lied about the others (the
grooming a less serious sexual activity charges) for a year and now he
has admitted it.”
The girl told her school friends about the
sexual encounter the day after it allegedly happened in Johnson’s car,
the court heard.
Andy Stenning / Daily Mirror
Court appearance: Johnson denies two counts of sexual activity with a child
Mr Pownall QC said: “The fact of the matter is you were bigging it up at the party.”
When
discussing the pair’s first meeting on January 17, the teen said she
didn’t know how Johnson would react to her calling the meeting to an
end.
“To me he was still a stranger. I wasn’t aware of what type
of person he was. Obviously for someone to be texting a 15-year-old girl
they’re not a completely normal person,” she said.
She also admitted 'bigging herself up' to a friend on Snapchat.
She said: "I was doing it to big myself up. As any 15-year-old girl would.
“Because I know a lot of people who did what I did. When you idolise someone, it happens to you, I was not thinking at the time.
“It made no difference to me that they knew about Adam Johnson. It was him who was going to suffer from it.”
The
girl has already told the jury that she felt 'compelled' to engage in a
sex act with him after he groomed her with a series of messages to come
and meet him.
The ex-Sunderland footballer, who denies two
counts of sexual activity with a child, arrived at Bradford Crown Court
with his girlfriend Stacey Flounders yesterday.
Andy Stenning / Daily Mirror
Claims: The prosecution accused Johnson (pictured with Flounders yesterday) of abusing 'his revered position in society'
The prosecution accused Johnson of abusing 'his revered
position in society' when he had sexual contact with the teenager "in a
way that he knew was both morally and legally wrong".
The alleged victim admitted that she had an 'enormous crush on him' and idolised him.
Johnson
was contacted by the girl via Facebook on December 30, 2014, and the
two began exchanging messages before they finally met so he could sign
shirts for her in his Range Rover in Co Durham.
Prosecutor Kate
Blackwell QC said after this first meeting the two joked in their
messages about whether Johnson deserved a "thank you kiss and more" and
they met again.
She then described how the two engaged in sexual activity in the player's black Range Rover during second meeting on January 30.
The
dad-of-one, 28, dressed in a dark blue suit, white shirt and dark tie,
stared straight ahead in the dock as the girl gave her evidence via
video link to the jury.
The ex-Sunderland star, of Castle Eden,
Co. Durham, has admitted one count of sexual activity with a child and
another of meeting a child following grooming.
The trial continues.
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