A schoolgirl who had a sexual encounter with the England footballer Adam Johnson said that he offered her money to meet up with him, her friend claimed in court yesterday.
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The witness said: “She [the complainant] 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”.
Orlando Pownall QC, defending Johnson at Bradford Crown Court, asked the girl whether she “absolutely hated” Johnson now.
The witness, who can not be identified because of her age, told the jury her friend showed her messages on her phone from the father of one.
“He [Johnson] was her favourite footballer, she didn’t actually believe it was him”.
The witness, described as the girl’s best friend, told police in an interview she was initially sceptical.
Adam Johnson would be a “bit of a paedophile” for going after a 15-year-old girl, a court heard.
Mr Pownall continued to say that when other people started to find out the girl was faced with an opportunity – whether she admitted she had made it all up, “or exaggerate and hope she would get sympathy”.
The alleged victim’s dad in the trial of Adam Johnson has been telling the court about the moment his daughter told him about how she met the former Sunderland footballer.
Her friend was “not very happy with him”, the jury heard.
“He made a new snapchat account for her because Stacey looks at his friends [on Snapchat]”, a friend of the schoolgirl said in a police interview, which was played in court on Thursday morning when Miss Flounders did not attend.
Johnson previously pleaded guilty to one charge of meeting with a child after sexual grooming and one charge of sexual activity with a child involving kissing last week.
The court also heard that the girl had posted messages on a social media account of another Sunderland star, Connor Wickham, who passed them on to police.
But the footballer denies two further charges of sexual activity, relating to alleged more serious sexual conduct with the same girl.
A second friend of the girl also gave evidence.
She then explained how her friend described a sex act that had allegedly taken place between her and Johnson.
Her best friend told police she did not believe her at first “because he’s a footballer, he’s famous and she’s only 15”.
She said it was sent with a caption of “something like “bae’s house” or something stupid like that”.
“She had come over to see Adam and then he did not show up”.
In her second interview, she also said she performed a sex act on Johnson for three or four seconds.
The court has heard the pair exchanged 834 messages on WhatsApp and met for the first time on January 17 previous year.
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At school, the girls told the boys about alleged sexual encounter, and soon the gossip spread throughout the year.
