Adam Johnson to be sentenced for child sex offence

Former England footballer Adam Johnson is expected to be jailed later today for engaging in sexual activity with a besotted 15-year-old fan.

Johnson was told by a judge he faced a "substantial prison sentence" after he was found guilty of one offence of sexual activity with a child by a jury at Bradford Crown Court earlier this month.

The winger had already admitted another count of the same offence and also grooming the girl, who idolised the former Sunderland and Manchester City player.

Judge Jonathan Rose made the warning after granting the 28-year-old, telling him: "You can say goodbye to your daughter. A prison sentence will mean you will not see her for some time."

Judge Rose told the player - who earned £60,000-a-week with Sunderland - his preliminary view was that the case falls into the category of a five-year prison sentence with a possible range of four to 10 years.

All the charges relate to an incident in Johnson's Range Rover when he met up with the girl in County Durham on January 30 last year.

The jury heard how the player began exchanging hundreds of messages with the girl on social media at New Year 2015. He eventually agreed to meet her to sign football shirts.

But it was when they met for a second time that he asked for his "thank you kiss".

Johnson admitted kissing the girl but denied any further sexual activity. The girl told the jury how the player digitally penetrated her after putting his hands down her pants and that she then gave him oral sex.

The jury cleared Johnson of the count relating to oral sex but found him guilty on a majority of 10-2 on the count relating to the digital penetration.

After he was found guilty, his teenage victim said she felt "so broken". She said she had endured a year of being called a liar as Johnson continued to proclaim his innocence.

The player made his guilty pleas just before his trial began in February.

After the trial ended, a row erupted over just how much Sunderland AFC knew about what their player had done when they let him play on before finally sacking him earlier this year after his guilty pleas.

The club later said it was "so very sorry" for letting down their 15-year-old fan after chief executive Margaret Byrne resigned.

Ms Byrne admitted "a serious error of judgment" in advising the board that the star winger could carry on playing after he was initially suspended last March.

Johnson, a £10 million signing, helped the Wearside team to narrowly avoid relegation from the Premier League last year.

The player - who was capped 12 times for England - has a one-year-old daughter with Stacey Flounders, who supported him during the court case but who told the jury they were now just friends.