Introduction
We have looked previously (quite a bit in fact) at the case of Adam Johnson, the former Sunderland footballer who got six years for sexual activity with a child.
Mr Johnson, as is his right, tried to appeal against his conviction and sentence. At the time, we indicated that we didn’t hold out much hope for him.
Well, on 12th July 2016 we were told that he had lost his “appeal against child sex offences conviction”.
What happened?
We have a fact sheet here as to how appeals to the Court of Appeal work. What was reported in the news was the following from Mr Johnson’s sister’s Twitter feed “Absolutely devastated that the single judge has rejected my brother’s appeal against sentence and conviction”.
So what this actually means is that Mr Johnson’s application failed at the first hurdle, before even getting to the appeal stage.
Is that it from him?
He has the right to renew the appeal to the ‘Full Court’ and try to persuade a panel of three judges that the conviction is unsafe, or the sent unsuccessful.
He has very little to lose, and so he will probably do this. But for the reasons previously stated, we doubt that he will get very far if he does …
Does this impact on the anonymity for the victim?
Nope. It’s still a criminal offence to post her name, photo, etc. Don’t do it.