An Illawarra man has confessed to abusing his role as a netball umpire to prey on an underage girl .
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Adam Johnson, son of former Dapto Netball Club president Jackie Johnson, was newly married when he groomed the teen via Facebook in late July 2016.
They initially spoke about netball, however the conversation soon turned to sex, with Johnson repeatedly asking the girl to sleep with him.
He was arrested on August 11 and charged with procuring a child for unlawful sexual activity after the teen reported the inappropriate communication to police.
He was also charged with sending explicit material to a child over, following an unrelated investigation which found he had explicit pictures of himself to a 15-year-old girl via Instagram in February 2016.
Before his arrest he’d written a code of conduct for himself to avoid being found out.
Johnson pleaded guilty to both offences in Wollongong Local Court this week.
However, the Mercury can reveal it is not the first time Johnson has committed such a crime.
The now-26-year-old narrowly avoided jail on seven counts of using a carriage service to transmit indecent communication with a person under 16 years in the ACT Supreme Court in 2012.
The acts occurred over four months in 2010 when Johnson was 19 years old.
He was handed a suspended prison sentence on the condition that he receive counselling.
The success of that counselling will no doubt be questioned when Johnson faces Wollongong District Court next month for sentencing.
Court documents reveal Johnson’s latest victim added him as a friend on Facebook believing he would mentor her as an umpire, however their conversation soon turned personal, with Johnson asking her why she didn’t bring her boyfriend to games.
The girl said she didn’t have one but did like a boy, however he was asking her for “sexual stuff”.
They then discussed the girl’s lack of sexual experience, at which time Johnson said “you need an experienced guy to help you through it [sex]”.
He joked about wanting to be “younger and single” before asking the teen “if I was younger would you let me f—k you … what if I showed you all about it?”
The teen said Johnson repeatedly asked her for sex during their subsequent conversations on Messenger and Snapchat.
On the day of his arrest, Johnson sent a text message to his wife saying “I think I have really f—ked up baby, I think the police are here for me. I spoke inappropriately to a girl again.”
Police seized Johnson’s laptop and mobile phone during their investigation. It was revealed he had deleted all non-netball related conversations with the teen.