A teenage girl has told a jury that she is no longer trying to protect the footballer Adam Johnson following a sexual encounter in his car because he has made her out to be a liar.

The girl, now 16, has told Bradford crown court about sex acts that allegedly took place in the former Sunderland winger’s Range Rover when she was 15. She has said she did not mention some of the more serious activity at first because she was trying to protect the player.

On Tuesday she was asked by Orlando Pownall QC, defending Johnson, whether she was still trying to protect the 28-year-old. Appearing in court by videolink, the girl became upset as she said: “No, because he did nothing to protect me and he made me out to be a liar.”

Speaking through tears for much of her exchange with Pownall, the girl said she had been “bigging herself up” with some messages to friends on social media. Pownall asked her about a Snapchat message subsequently posted on Facebook that said: “He’s picking me up this week and I’m riding him.”

The teenager said: “I was trying to big myself up as any 15-year-old girl would.

When you idolise someone and that happens to you, you’re not thinking at the time.”

The girl told the jury she had not thought she would end up explaining herself in court.

Pownall again asked the girl whether she was just trying to protect herself. She said: “I wasn’t protecting myself. It made no difference to me whether they knew about me and Adam Johnson. It was him who was going to suffer for it.”

The girl got more upset and continued to insist she had not wanted to get Johnson into trouble. She said: “I didn’t want that to happen to him. I saw myself as playing a part in it as well, I thought I’d done wrong too.”

The girl began sobbing again and asked for a break.

Johnson, of Castle Eden, Co Durham, has admitted one charge of sexual activity with a child in relation to the incident in the Range Rover on 30 January last year. He has also pleaded guilty to grooming the girl.



He denies two further counts of sexual activity with a child, which prosecutors have described as more serious, relating to the same incident. The trial continues.