Revealed: Adam Johnson was arrested for possession of animal porn but will not face action after he was jailed for SIX YEARS for grooming and abusing 15-year-old fan

Disgraced footballer Adam Johnson was arrested over possession of animal pornography, it can be revealed for the first time today after he was jailed for six years.

Johnson’s phone and laptop were seized after his arrest at home in County Durham in March last year.

The 28-year-old was then re-arrested on suspicion of possessing extreme pornography but was not charged with the offence as the police investigation focused on his meetings with the girl.

He has since been told he will not face action over the bestiality images, as he prepares for jail for the more serious child sex offences.

The former £60,000-a-week Sunderland winger showed no emotion today as Judge Jonathan Rose handed him the six-year sentence.

Details of Johnson’s stash of animal porn images could not be reported during his trial, but were revealed today after the case concluded.

It can also be revealed that medication for sexually-transmitted diseases was found at his home during a police search.

Adam Johnson, pictured in a court sketch with Judge Jonathan Rose, was jailed for six years today

Searches of his computers also revealed that Johnson regularly visited a website called ‘Nice Young Teens’, which shows pictures of girls just over the age of consent.

He also joked about having sex with women on the bonnet of his Range Rover.

Sentencing Johnson today, the judge said the footballer had shown no remorse for what he had done, adding: ‘This will be your first prison sentence, this is all entirely your fault.’

The judge said the offence was aggravated by the fact Johnson took the girl to a dark place, tried to conceal his crimes and the impact on his victim, who now suffers ‘night terrors’ and needs therapy.

The judge added: ‘You are trusted by young fans to behave properly… You were a respected Sunderland footballer, that is why you were able to commit these offences.’

Johnson, who stood chewing gum during the hearing, will serve half of his sentence in prison before being freed to spend the rest on licence. He will be on the sex offenders’ register for the rest of his life.

Johnson sprinted into court to avoid cameras this morning ahead of a sentencing hearing, which heard he felt he had a ‘right to sex’ and put this victim’s age ‘out of his mind’.

The judge said the victim had been a Sunderland fan who would wait after matches to take pictures of her ‘favourite player’, Johnson, who had known her age.

He said: ‘That was known to you – to put it another way she had only just turned 15 when you began grooming her, because as you were to admit you found her sexually attractive.’

The judge said Johnson had exchanged more than 800 messages with her, which had largely been innocent.

But he added: ‘You continued in your grooming of this girl even after you were engaged in sexual activity with her. You wanted no-one to know that you and she were exchanging messages.

‘You asked her to find a place to meet that was private and secluded so no-one would see you in her company.’

Johnson was guarded by a team of minders as he made his dash for the door of the courtroom this morning

Judge Rose told Johnson the offences happened at a time when he was ‘engaged in frequent sexual intercourse with multiple partners’.

He said: ‘You made a deliberate decision to engage in sexual activity with this young girl, no doubt in the expectation that you would get away with it.’

The judge said Johnson’s decision not to plead guilty meant that the girl was subjected to a year of being called a liar, including having this being chanted by football fans.

He said she reached her ‘lowest ebb’ after giving evidence in the trial.

Judge Rose added: ‘She speaks of entering many dark places in that year and said she had suffered bullying and stress and had underachieved at school as a result of the case.’

Earlier in the hearing, prosecutor Kate Blackwell QC had told the court today that Johnson has ‘a compulsive drive to have new sexual experiences’ and took advantage of the girl’s ‘adulation’.

She added: ‘This is not a fleeting contact or a fleeting offence. These offences were calculated, considered and carefully orchestrated.’

Dr Philip Hopley, a consultant psychiatrist giving evidence for the defence, told the court: ‘This is a man who, at the age of 28, is socially and psychologically immature.’

Dr Hopley said he believed that as a professional footballer he developed his confidence and self-esteem very quickly and this, combined with the availability of willing women, led to his ‘compulsive sexual behaviour’.

The doctor said he found no evidence in Johnson of an attraction to pre-pubescent children or ‘sexual perversion’.

The prosecutor, Ms Blackwell, also told the court that Johnson had a history of meeting women for sex on his way home from training, describing it as a ‘clandestine habit’.

Johnson’s lawyer Orlando Pownall QC asked whether Johnson told him that sending explicit messages was ‘common practice amongst his fellow professional footballers and associates.’

The psychiatrist replied: ‘That is correct.’

Defence QC Mr Pownall continued: ‘He has lost a lucrative career he will never be able to retrieve. He has been stripped of his England caps. He has been made the subject of national humiliation and these are all aspects of punishment that arise from his pleas and conviction.’

He added that Johnson’s conduct towards women ‘is, and could properly be described as deplorable’.

The QC added: ‘He does not pose a significant risk of harm to children, for (victim) was not selected on her age but despite her age.’

He said that despite the huge publicity surrounding the case, no other underage girls have complained about Johnson.

‘This is not the case of a predatory paedophile who has sought out children for sexual purposes,’ he said; ‘This was an aberration.’

Johnson’s sister Faye posted this message on his Appeal Fight Facebook group ahead of today’s hearing

Johnson had his car drive down one side of the courtroom when he arrived at court this morning. He then sprinted towards the door from another side, in a bid to avoid being pictured by photographers.

After Johnson arrived in the dock, his barrister told the court an appeal against his conviction is due to be lodged this morning.

Earlier this morning, Johnson’s sister Faye, who has set up a Facebook group in support of his appeal, said today is ‘the worst day of my life’.

She posted a photo of him with his daughter on the Facebook page and said neither she nor Johnson’s former partner, Stacey Flounders, will be at today’s hearing.

In the post, Ms Johnson said: ‘Today is the sentencing for my brother, the worst day of my life.

‘I just wanted to let all of the supporters know that I will not be attending Bradford Crown Court, the reason for this is Adam has always been my hero, my brother and my best friend, I just don’t want him to see the pain in my eyes!

‘Instead I will be at home with my little boy, Adam’s number 1 fan, Adam’s daughter and the mother of his child Stacey.

‘I remain proud of my big brother and I am 100% behind him and I always will be.’

The 28-year-old is planning an appeal against his conviction, but that is unlikely to be heard for several months.

The footballer befriended his victim at the end of 2014 before sending her hundreds of messages on Snapchat and WhatsApp.

His grooming began at the time his then-girlfriend Stacey Flounders was pregnant and continued after she gave birth their daughter.

Johnson twice met his victim in January last year. At the first meeting he gave her signed football shirts before pleading with her for a ‘thank you kiss’.

When the pair met up for a second time, they kissed and, the jury found, Johnson put his hands down the girl’s trousers.

He later sent her messages saying he had ‘wanted to get her jeans off’ and they should ‘get in the back’ of the car next time. Johnson also looked up ‘legal age of consent’ online, but claimed it was nothing to do with the girl.

The girl was later taunted online after telling her friends of her meeting with Johnson and broke down and told her parents.

Johnson was arrested in March last year but denied any wrongdoing for months and continued to play for Sunderland, earning millions.

He then admitted kissing and grooming the girl at the beginning of his trial before being found guilty of sexual activity with a child. He was cleared of another count of the same offence.

His denials meant his victim had to go through two gruelling days of giving evidence and the prosecution accused him of ‘playing games with the courts’.

Ms Flounders, who gave evidence saying she believed Johnson hadn’t done anything more than kiss than girl, revealed during the trial that they had split up.

After the trial ended, a row erupted over just how much Sunderland AFC knew about what its player had done when it 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 its 15-year-old fan after chief executive Margaret Byrne resigned.