\THE girl groomed by Adam Johnson broke down in court yesterday and sobbed: “I didn’t want to get him into trouble.”
The 15-year-old wept as she was accused of changing her version of events over what happened in the footballer’s Range Rover.
She said she had covered up the full extent of the sexual activity with her Sunderland idol in her first police interview because she was trying to protect him.
The schoolgirl — who had initially told cops she was “well up for it” — told a jury: “I did not want the police to find out
“I was panicking in case everyone found out. I was covering the whole thing up. I didn’t want him to lose his career and everything.”
Johnson, 28, has admitted grooming the girl and one charge of sexual activity with a child by kissing her.
He denies two further charges of more serious sexual activity at Bradford crown court.
Videos of the girl’s two police interviews were played in which she told how he pulled down his Sunderland tracksuit pants.
Wearing her school uniform, the girl said her hero knew her exact age when he drove her down a dark, secluded lane to engage in sexual activity.
The Sunderland fan said: “He knows how old I am, what year I am in school, what school I go to. He knows when my birthday is.”
She told cops how Johnson messaged her on New Year’s Eve 2014 three days after she had sent him a Facebook request.
The girl said: “He said he could give me a shirt and was asking where was the best place to meet up.
“I had idolised him for a while so it was surreal. I agreed to it.”
Weeks later, the girl said, Johnson arranged to meet her after he had flown into Newcastle airport after an away match at Spurs.
She said: “I met up with him that night. He had a Range Rover sport with a private registration.
“He had his Sunderland training jumper and bottoms on.
“He asked me how to spell my name because he was writing it on the shirt.
“Then I got my own shirt and he signed that.
“The meeting was quite brief, about 15 or 20 minutes, because he had to go home.
“After, I got messages from him asking for a thank-you kiss. He texted me about half an hour later and said, ‘You owe me for this lol’.”
A woman police officer quizzed the girl over who had asked for the second meeting on January 30 last year.
The girl told the officer it was Johnson who requested the meeting, on his way to a Burnley match.
She said: “He was staying at a hotel before a home game and said he would come and see me on the way up there.”
She recorded part of the 30-minute meeting on her phone to prove to pals who he was.
She said: “You cannot see him because it was dark but you could hear his voice.
“He was parked at the same place and was wearing the same things as before.
“We talked about football and then he said, ‘I have come for my thank-you kiss, can I have it?’
“I said, ‘Go on then’. He took his seatbelt off and leaned over and kissed me.
“I was kissing him for quite a while. It was with tongues, he put his hands in my hair.
“Then he undid the button on my trousers and undid the zip.”
She said that Johnson then put his hand under her clothing.
She continued: “I knew what he was going to do because of the messages prior.
“He had said, ‘Was all he was going to get a thank-you kiss?’ I said, ‘What are you after?’ He said, ‘A bit of feeling lol’.
“He held my hand for a while and he tried to put it on his thingy.”
The girl described how Johnson — who has played for England — continued to get her to touch him, and put his hand on her back to push her downwards, without force.
She said: “It only lasted three or four seconds. He said if I kept going I would have to have sex with him. It was a bit awkward. I was disappointed in myself.”
The girl said Johnson, of Castle Eden, Co Durham, texted her to arrange further meetings but they never met again.
She said it had been “drastic” when she had to tell her father after other people started to hear what allegedly happened.
She said: “I couldn’t get the words out. I didn’t know if he’d believe me.”
The trial continues.
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