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Adam Johnson


Hendo

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  • 2 weeks later...

Seems Sunderland were aware for around a year that Johnson had been grooming a 15 you but they waited until he plead guilty before sacking him.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/mar/04/sunderland-pfa-adam-johnson?CMP=share_btn_tw

Very good article. I've been very concerned by the attitudes of the PFA throughout this saga. Did they bring pressure to bear on Sunderland to lift the suspension and allow him to play? It was hinted at when the suspension was lifted on the "innocent until proven guilty" standpoint, which is a fundamental tenet of our legal system. However, if as the Guardian seem to be suggesting, all parties were aware of the grooming and that Johnson had admitted it to police before the PFA and the club reasoned that lifting the suspension was a fair way to treat the player then neither, frankly, has a leg to stand on. The statement issued yesterday by the PFA simply beggars belief - it's as if they had no involvement before the court case at all.

I expected that Johnson's legal team would pull every dirty trick to put pressure on the girl as sadly the legal profession is full of money grubbing scum who care not a jot for honesty, truth and justice. It is perhaps a sad indictment of our society that both the Chief Executives of Sunderland and the PFA (combined annual pay and benefits of over £4.2M) seem to be complicit is such shabby and underhand behaviour. Did you know that Gordon Taylor is the highest paid trade union official in the world?

Edited to add: My wife has just told me that a female secondary school teacher in the North East, a self-confessed Sunderland fan, appeared on the Jeremy Vine show yesterday expressing sympathy for Johnson and heaping loads of blame on the girl involved. She even went as far as to claim that that he was only found guilty because the majority of the jury were women and he would have been let off if the majority had been men. That must give parents in the North East full confidence in the Education system there.

Edited by rabuddies
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Guest TPAFKATS

Yeah, must've been cause the jury were women. I'm sure it qas nothing to do with him admitting to grooming the child.

If this f**kwit was a teacher at my kids school I'd be looking for her to be removed until she can demonstrate some knowledge on how to protect a child.

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The concept of innocent until proven guilty is an fanciful notion. It is laudable enough, but has no weight in real world situations.

We're I accused of/charged with something akin to what Johnson was, I would be suspended immediately pending investigation. Likewise, if I were a teacher, nurse, etc. Perhaps a different benchmark is applied to public servants, but I am not convinced that a football club doesn't have a responsibility to err on the side of caution in such circumstances.

Sunderland's protestations are feeble at best.

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Well first off I am a Sunderland fan - so I am biased. However the only person who committed a crime here is Adam Johnston. The PFA didn't, Sunderland FC didn't and school teachers from the North East didn't either. The tar all allegations are a bit over the top in my opinion.

However, if my memory serves me correct I remember the allegations being made and the charges being brought. Johnston was suspended by the club. Now the way I remember it was that Johnston didn't deny having had some sort of "encounter" with the girl but that he had met her in a nightclub, was unaware of her age and that he had assumed that she was over 18, and that he only met her once. My attitude to the whole story at the time was that if he had had sex with this girl he was guilty regardless of excuse because the girl was under age but I know others had sympathy for Johnston in the way the story was developing at that time. If that was the extent of Sunderland's knowledge of the case then I can understand their stance, and indeed on this thread I gave the credit for how they had handled it. Letting the player play and having the courts decide on the evidence seems justifiable as did sacking him when he admitted his guilt over two of the charges prior to the case starting.

However if they knew the events as they have transpired at court then I'd have to admit there's no justification for having let him continue at the club last year. After all he had used his position as a Sunderland player - and an autographed Sunderland shirt - to get what he wanted from this girl.

Edited by Stuart Dickson
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  • 3 weeks later...
Guest TPAFKATS

The judge commented that Johnson was obsessed with finding new and extreme sexual experiences.

I think the judge might just have granted his wish over the next 6 years.

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If this had been my daughter then I'm not sure if I'd have gone to the police about this.

This only seems to have made things even worse for the girl in question.

I'm not defending Johnson btw. Fcuk him, what an erse. Only has himself to blame.

Cue a Sunday paper exclusive and a big fat cheque.

Or am I just a tad cynical?

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Cue a Sunday paper exclusive and a big fat cheque.

Or am I just a tad cynical?

Possibly...

IMO, they didn't think it through.

How could they have possibly thought that going to the Police with this would be a good idea?

How did they think this would help their daughter?

On an aside, the sentence range was 4 to 10 years. What happens if the male is, say 16? Surely he wouldn't get 4 years?

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