Police still powerless to tackle online grooming as Adam Johnson loses appeal
The Ministry of Justice has been urged to finally enact anti-child sexting laws after disgraced footballer Adam Johnson lost an appeal against his conviction.
The Ministry of Justice has been urged to finally enact anti-child sexting laws after disgraced footballer Adam Johnson lost an appeal against his conviction.
Johnson, 29, was jailed for six years last March for grooming and sexually touching a 15-year-old girl.
Throughout his abuse, the former Sunderland player was able to bombard the victim with more than 800 explicit messages.
However, he could only be convicted for physically meeting her because anti-sexting laws passed two years have effectively been sitting in a Ministry of Justice in-tray.
The NSPCC said this failure to act has left officers powerless to stop people grooming children for sex online, and called on Justice Secretary Liz Truss to take action.
An NSPCC spokesperson said: Its still not illegal for an adult to send sexually explicit messages to a child.
Johnson was able to bombard his young victim with hundreds of messages, but could only be prosecuted for physically meeting her.
Police in England and Wales are still powerless to intervene because anti-sexting laws created two years ago have yet to be enacted.
Hopefully today will remind [Ms Truss] to act urgently to fix this flaw in the law and stop abuse before it starts.
Bradford Crown Court heard last March how Johnson met with his victim in a secluded part of County Durham to kiss and sexually touch her.
He was found guilty of sexual touching but cleared of a second charge relating to another sexual act, and had previously admitted grooming the girl using social media.
Johnson was first refused leave to appeal his conviction and sentence last July, but launched a second bid later in the year.
On Thursday (March 16), his new appeal was rejected, as was an attempt to reduce his sentence.
Office for National Statistics data shows police recorded 1,122 offences of meeting a child following sexual grooming in the 12 months to last September.
The NSPCC claims that officers could prevent many of these encounters by prosecuting sexual communications to children if Section 67 of the Serious Crime Act were enacted.
The Ministry of Justice has been approached for comment.