REVEALED: The day Adam Johnson will find out his prison sentence

Disgraced ex-Sunderland footballer Adam Johnson will be sentenced for child sex offences on March 24, it has been announced.
Adam Johnson will be sentenced at Bradford Crown Court on March 24.Adam Johnson will be sentenced at Bradford Crown Court on March 24.
Adam Johnson will be sentenced at Bradford Crown Court on March 24.

Johnson was found guilty of a serious charge of sexual activity with a child at Bradford Crown Court on March 2.

A jury returned a 10-2 guilty verdict after a trial which lasted more than two weeks. He was cleared of another similar charge.

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Prior to the trial, Johnson admitted offences of kissing and grooming a 15-year-old girl, who is also at the centre of the more serious charge.

Last week, Judge Jonathan Rose warned Johnson that a jail sentence was "almost inevitable" - and he granted the footballer bail so he could say "goodbye to his daughter".

The starting point for Johnson's offending is around five years - but Judge Rose warned that the sentence could be between five and 10 years.

Throughout the trial, Johnson said in evidence that he "wanted to touch" the underage girl, who was a huge fan of Sunderland AFC, and "idolised" the 28-year-old, from Castle Eden.

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But he insisted to jurors that he had only kissed her, at a meeting which took place in his black Range Rover, and resisted from doing anything else when he realised what he had to lose.

The trial also heard that 834 WhatsApp messages were exchanged between the pair. In some of them, Johnson told the girl that he "wanted to get her jeans off" and that they should "get in the back next time".

He also asked her for a naked picture via SnapChat.

A spokesman for the Crown Prosecution Service in the North East has confirmed the sentencing date this afternoon.