icouldtelltheworld

By all accounts, the girl had a rough time of it when knowledge of what happened spread around her school and the local area. Without Johnson being a local celebrity and very high profile player for the football team she supported, would rumours have spread so quickly, or been so emotionally distressing for the girl? Maybe not, but it's clear that the girl has had a rough time of it the last year and endured some horrific abuse. It's really not beyond comprehension that she didn't realise that she was a victim until after the event when the negative consequences became apparent. Yes, lots of 15 year olds sleep with lads who are 16+, but that really isn't comparable to a 28 year old multi millionaire footballer (who the 15 year old idolised) deliberately using his status and influence to groom an underage girl into engaging in sexual activity. There are mitigating circumstances in cases such as this, such as the age gap between the two parties (Johnson is almost double her age), and whether the guilty party can be judged to have abused a position of trust or responsiblity (definitely applies to Johnson IMO). So, if an 18 year old lad engaged in sexual activity with a 15 year old and charges were pressed, yes he would have a case to answer, but no he probably wouldn't be in line for anything like the sentence that Johnson will receive. The deliberate nature of Johnson's actions will be taken into account as well - he groomed her over a period of nearly two months and met up with the girl more than once, it's not like he can claim it was a momentary lapse of judgement or a mistake, he knew exactly what he was doing and what he wanted. He googled the age of consent and encouraged the girl to delete their messages, he knew she was in Year 10 and had only just turned 15, right from the start of their communications. 15 year old girls may well be physically ready for sex, but when it comes to sex with a high profile celebrity double their age, the vast majority are nowhere near emotionally ready. Regardless of how old she looked and may well have acted, the onus is on the adult to have a bit of self control and know that it's wrong. The age of consent is a difficult thing because not everyone matures at the same rate, but it's there to protect children and is necessary. If you had a 15 year old daughter, and it turned out that Gabby had been messaging her sexually explicit things for 2 months, and had met her on more than one occasion in his car, engaging in sexual activity with her, would you honestly not press charges and want to see some justice for your child? Especially if rumours had got around the local area/school and your daughter was being subject to vile abuse, impacting her life in negative ways we can only imagine. Would you honestly be ok to see Gabby continue playing football, having people cheer his name and collecting £60,000 a week? Meanwhile your daughter, a previous season ticket holder and fanatic has become too terrified to attend matches in case people in the crowd recognise her and give her abuse. Johnson only thought of himself throughout this whole affair, and deserves everything he gets IMO.

Saw this last night, looks like it's his actual account. Great captain.

Utterly, utterly woeful as a CB and as a captain. How many games had he managed to play in the few seasons before coming here, and how many were at CB? He has been dreadful, and as others have said it was madness to put all our faith in this guy organising our defence and leading by example. I joined in with the ill advised enthusiasm whilst we were signing players last summer, but I was never convinced by this one and unfortunately I was right not to be. I will be absolutely amazed if any PL team coughs up 5m for him this summer, I think we'll be hard pressed to find one willing to pay half of that. Unless Sherwood finds himself a PL job between now and the end of August, I guess

The stars are aligning for Leicester if all 3 of the other teams lose tonight. Good luck to them, only thing keeping me interested in PL football this season

Spurs and Man City losing, Arsenal drawing, good night for them as it stands

Saw an article on the Guardian site earlier that stated the judge said it was always AJ who moved the conversation towards sex, and used it to highlight that his actions were "classic grooming"

Saw an article on the Guardian site earlier that stated the judge said it was always AJ who moved the conversation towards sex, and used it to highlight that his actions were "classic grooming"

I think he's admitted to grooming and the least serious of the sexual activity charges in an attempt to reduce the rest of the trial to a case of one person's word against another, with the hope of making it hard to prove beyond reasonable doubt that anything else happened. If he's found guilty of anything else I'd imagine he's getting locked up, but as it is he could probably get away with a suspended sentence. It's really hard to fathom why he did it, or how he imagined he'd ever get away with it. Not just a nonce but an idiot too. Meanwhile, Sunderland are minutes away from beating Man U, bad news for us

On the chips m'lord

I didn't see the Palace game but I thought we looked much, much better yesterday. Signs starting to show of how he wants us to play, and seems like the players are gaining some belief back as well. Pleased with the reaction after Wycombe by the manager and players. I still don't think we will stay up, but I could see us put a run together and not finish bottom. If Garde can get us playing better football and have on a bit of a run towards the end of the season then I think he deserves the chance to try and get us promoted.

You can't like, own a player, man...

Gabby "Impact Sub" Agbonlahor

Inspirational stuff from Garde... Not impressed with how long we waited to make changes. Poor

We are dreadful, not really sure why I'm watching. It's not enjoyable in the slightest

Just me who got Grealish then, yeah?

we are shocking

SHERWOOD OUT

FUCKFUCK ****!!! I've been critical of Bacuna in midfield, but he's had a very good game

Hutton is playing well but just can't be expected to act as an attacking outlet

MOVE INTO **** SPACE

honestly doesn't bother me, showing he actually cares. a little silly to get a yellow but making an example that we are in a fight here, that's what we need. Rubbish. If he gets himself sent off there, kicking off over nothing, then he isn't going to be able to help with the fight is he? Richards has done well for us and is probably our best choice for captain, but he's acted like a **** idiot there. but he didn't do anything to get sent off for? if he's raised his hands then yeah, I'd agree with you. He's carried on arguing, looking pretty angry, for much longer than was necessary. Our captain and best centre back is now on a yellow for the rest of the game for something innocuous and stupid. I still have memories of teams winding Benteke up and him getting sent off. We need our captain to be showing a bit of calm and maturity, not screaming and pushing poeople.

honestly doesn't bother me, showing he actually cares. a little silly to get a yellow but making an example that we are in a fight here, that's what we need. Rubbish. If he gets himself sent off there, kicking off over nothing, then he isn't going to be able to help with the fight is he? Richards has done well for us and is probably our best choice for captain, but he's acted like a **** idiot there.

Great maturity from our captain.

I'm a big fan of Westwood, and have a hard time understanding the stick he gets from the fans at times, but he was absolutely hopeless yesterday. Probably our worst outfield player IMO, has to (and can) do better.

Thought Gestede had a decent game yesterday, played as well as could be expected without any service and he is looking a lot more mobile. Held the ball up decently and won most things in the air as well. I like him, and as others have said, he definitely isn't the problem