Following Sunderland footballer Adam Johnson’s arrest last year, I reported upon how many had sought to “name and shame” his alleged 15-year-old victim, posting her personal information online and suggesting that she was to blame for the child sex charges leveled against him. At the time he was convicted of no crime, so I argued that while we shouldn’t leap to conclusions in regards to whether or not he was guilty until he stood trial, it was obscene that many were automatically pointing fingers at the young girl.
Today, Adam Johnson has admitted to sexual activity with a child and child grooming, but – shock horror – there are still an alarming amount of people defending his actions online. This is despite Johnson having stood in front of a jury today, openly stating that he knew that the girl he had sexual activity with was under 16 before he committed the crime, and also pleading guilty to grooming this girl online before having sex with her.
Despite this information, there are an unfortunate wealth of individuals on Twitter who are once again firing off the bizarre rhetoric that Johnson is somehow less at fault because girls under 18 “go to clubs all the time” (Johnson has never been accused of meeting the girl in a nightclub, with the pair having met after he groomed her online), that “you shouldn’t have to ID every girl you sleep with” (Johnson admitted that he knew the girl was under the age of consent prior to engaging in sexual activity with her), and that “girls these days look a lot older than they” (which doesn’t exactly fucking matter when the guy has actually admitted he knew the age of the girl he sexually pursued).
It’s telling that upon hearing that someone has been charged with engaging in sexual activity with a minor, their first response is to search for the caveat, actively looking for loopholes for a guy who has actually admitted to the crime he’s been convicted of. This isn’t some Making a Murderer legal dubiousness; Adam Johnson has stood before a court and stated he was guilty – TWICE – of two separate child sex offences.
Yet here are a selection of the plethora of tweets that followed his sentencing:
This guy, who’s an “electro goth punk” musician with over 400,000 followers, asked the “big question” of “did they know the girl was under 16?” despite that question having already being answered in court, by Johnson himself. Spoiler alert: Yes. Yes he did fucking know that she was under 16.
The electro goth punk then followed it up by raising another point – maybe the 15-year-old girl was just pissed off that she wouldn’t become a WAG. Maybe this whole thing is her fault for trying to embark upon a relationship with a footballer. He’s the victim in all of this! If anything, she groomed him! Who will defend the rights of 28-year-old Premier League footballers?!
Then there’s this guy, who decides to swiftly ask his followers for their personal definition of a paedophile, using that familiar imaginary scenario of Johnson and the girl meeting in a club.
Then there’s “I’m not condoning Adam Johnson’s behaviour, but now I’ll go on to condone Adam Johnson’s behaviour” over here.
Looking at Twitter, I feel like a lot of guys this guy’s age secretly want to sleep with children.
Yeah, the media spun this story, alright. They spun it so much that Johnson actually wound up being guilty, admitting that he had groomed and engaged in sexual activity with a minor in front of a court. Bloody media!
Since the story broke, the 15-year-old victim has received almost as much hateful vitriol lobbed in her direction as Johnson. But while Johnson was allowed to continue playing for Sunderland, earning thousands upon thousands of pounds, the young girl was forced to try to keep a hold of her anonymity after her personal information was revealed online. She’s been subjected to a torrent of abuse from those jumping to unsubstantiated conclusions regarding the crime she was a victim of, and has had people somehow blaming her for Johnson’s actions. Worse still, even now that it’s been revealed that Johnson was guilty, the baseless accusations have continued.
Unfortunately, the number of people who are quick to blame the female victims of sexual crimes seemingly only continues to increase, and with this abuse now circling the ‘net, there’s not a lot that can be done to protect the identities of the victims who are targeted. It can only be hoped that those responsible for the abuse the young girl has faced in the Johnson trial do not wind up having children themselves.
