Arrogant Johnson found trial ‘boring’

Adam Johnson was arrogant to the last, seemingly oblivious to the life behind bars which surely awaits this one-time England star.

Adam Johnson was arrogant to the last, seemingly oblivious to the life behind bars which surely awaits this one-time England star and now disgraced sexual predator.

During a break in proceedings in the early part of his three-week trial — which concluded yesterday with a jury finding him guilty of sexual activity with a 15-year-old schoolgirl — he was scolded by the judge for his ‘discourteous behaviour’, something we were unable to report at the time.

Johnson had been joking and chatting with the security officer who sat with him in the dock at the back of the court. His aloof and obtuse demeanour was entirely in keeping with a millionaire footballer who made a sober judgment to groom and sexually abuse a child. Outside the courtroom, and, as the trial approached its third week, he commented to a friend: ‘I hope this is finished by Friday. It’s a bit boring now.’

His phone — a major player in his demise — was never far from his grasp as soon as the judge had departed, at which point his misplaced swagger would invariably return. He even let a door swing in the face of his junior barrister as they left court during the jury’s deliberations.

In short, Johnson thought he was above the law. As he will learn if — and surely when — he goes to bed inside his prison cell for the first time, that he is not.

He remained devoid of emotion when the guilty verdict was returned, but the colour drained from his face. He was a man who had it all. Even the prosecution listed his ‘glittering career, beautiful girlfriend, healthy baby, millionaire mansion, handsome cars and more money than he could spend’.

Sadly, for Johnson’s partner Stacey Flounders and their baby daughter, it was not enough.

He could not resist the pursuit of a girl he knew from the outset was under-age, abusing his celebrity status to lure her in with the promise of a signed Sunderland shirt.

The money and material goods, of course, will probably be waiting for Johnson when his sentence is over. But his football career is finished.

Even if the 28-year-old has served his time in his early thirties with his skillset and fitness relatively intact, no football club in the land would — or should — employ a convicted child-sex offender.

That he extended his career by nearly 12 months, earning £3million in the process despite having said he told Sunderland that he had groomed and kissed the girl in March of last year, does not rest easy with supporters. The club responded last nightby insisting they did not know he intended to plead guilty — on February 10 — to grooming and one count of sexual activity.

Sunderland sacked their £10m winger the following day, but Johnson’s legal team have accused the club of playing him for nearly a year because they feared relegation from the Premier League.

In truth, however, Johnson’s best days were already behind him. The court heard how his victim — a Sunderland season-ticket holder who ‘idolised’ the player — would watch YouTube videos of ‘Jinky Johnson’, clips of the daring dribbles which earned him a reputation as one of the country’s brightest prospects following his graduation into Middlesbrough’s first team.

That, though, was where the best of Johnson resided in recent years — archived video footage.

For he never built on that early promise, be it at Manchester City — who paid Middlesbrough £7m for him in 2010 — or at Sunderland, the club where, back in his native North East, it was hoped he would recapture his sparkle after two-and-a-half years spent mostly on the bench at the Etihad.

It was in Manchester that Johnson rented a £4m mansion from Cristiano Ronaldo. The palatial Alderley Edge abode was complete with five bedrooms, indoor swimming pool, steam room, jacuzzi, gym and wine area.

It was the swanky wine bars nearby, however, which Johnson was said to prefer, much to the concern of staff at City. He was, for example, somewhat alarmed to learn that manager Roberto Mancini and assistant David Platt were neighbours and could keep tabs on his social activity.

It was a far cry from the terraced streets of Easington in which he was raised. Within three months of his arrival in Manchester he had made his debut for England at Wembley, where, in 1998, he had scored twice for Peterlee Boys before an international match.

The muddy adidas boots he wore that day remain a cherished possession of his parents.

Eighteen years later, however, that same boot manufacturer was the first to dump the shamed star when he pleaded guilty to two of his four charges at the outset of his trial.

That Johnson’s deal with adidas was worth as little as £10 000 a season served to highlight how far his star had fallen — the last of his 12 England caps was nearly four years ago and he had scored only twice for his club since his arrest a year ago yesterday.

Back in Easington, before the allegations of child sex, they celebrated the local lad. Johnson’s school, Easington Academy, were proud of the autographed Middlesbrough and England shirts which adorned the walls.Johnson was a local hero.

He drank in the Half Moon pub with friends and, closer to his £1.8m mansion in County Durham, he would buy a round for all of the punters at the Castle Eden Inn.Inside the Easington Colliery Club, watering hole of ex-miners and many of the town’s unemployed, they toasted the return of one of their own when Johnson signed for Sunderland in 2012.

His uncle was among the regulars and would take the supporters’ bus from the club to matches.For a lot of folk in Easington, football was an escape from the economic depression which had set in following the closure of the pit in 1993.

Johnson’s wealth — which he admitted in court was ‘unimaginable’ when considered in the context of the boy who left school at 15 with four GCSEs — had offered him and his family an escape of their own.

He bought his parents and sister luxury houses near to his own in Castle Eden and construction of another property was put on hold last year, shortly after his arrest.

It was on that day that Johnson — shaking and gripping a bar in his games room — said ‘his world was turned upside down’.For the next 12 months he made out that he was the victim of the girl’s untruths.

Johnson, in fact, was the liar all along.

His final journey before he receives what will surely be a substantial prison sentencewill take him past the casino at the entrance to the car park of Bradford Crown Court.

Johnson rolled the judicial dice — ‘confess and avoid’ was the tactic the prosecution accused him of employing — and lost. As the guilty verdict was returned and the realisation hit home that he is highly likely to lose his liberty, Adam Johnson finally lost his arrogance.– Daily Mail