Pictured for first time: Disgraced child sex offender footballer Adam Johnson and his partner Stacey Flounders look barely recognisable as they are spotted after ‘typical suburban parents’ makeover – as we reveal new life
Pictured enjoying a round of golf in a bobble hat and gilet, the only remarkable thing about this suburban dad is just how unremarkable he seems.
Yet this is child sex offender footballer Adam Johnson, whose stellar career ended in disgrace ten years ago when he was jailed for grooming and engaging in sexual activity with a girl aged just 15.
With the big bucks and adulation long gone, it seems Johnson prefers the quiet life these days.
These exclusive photographs show the former England winger out on the golf course with his father, Dave, while long-term partner Stacey Flounders heads out on a shopping trip.
The couple’s domestic routine is certainly a far cry from the storm that engulfed them in 2016, when Johnson was sentenced to six years in prison.
Once one of English football’s brightest prospects, he had been earning up to £80,000 a week, living at one point in a £4million mansion during his Manchester City career.
Before his spectacular fall from grace, Johnson and Flounders had been living in a £1.8million gated property in the North East set in two acres of woodland. It featured six bedrooms, Italian stone flooring and a spiral staircase to a mezzanine level.
Today, the former Sunderland and Manchester City player has embraced a more modest existence, with locals describing the 38-year-old as a ‘Mr Average type’ as these new photos might suggest.
This exclusive photograph shows the former England winger Adam Johnson out on a golf course in County Durham with his father, Dave
While Johnson was on the golf course, his partner, Stacey Flounders, was spotted returning to the couple’s detached home from a trip to the local Co-op in her 4×4
Johnson was playing at the £1,500-a-year Wynyard Club in the Tees Valley, County Durham, when he was pictured. Meanwhile, Ms Flounders was spotted returning to the couple’s detached home from a trip to the local Co-op in her 4×4.
The house, bought for £470,000 in 2021, is said to back directly on to the golf course – a helpful detail for a man whose life now appears to revolve around the school run and regular rounds at the club.
Johnson was vilified and his professional career shattered when details about his sex crimes were laid bare at Bradford Crown Court in 2016.
The girl, a Sunderland supporter who had idolised Johnson, first came into contact with him after waiting outside matches to catch a glimpse.
They later connected on Facebook, where Johnson exchanged hundreds of messages with her despite knowing she was 15 and below the legal age of consent.
The court heard he gave her a signed shirt before pushing for sexual contact in return.
Johnson later claimed he stopped the sexual activity because he felt guilty about Ms Flounders and their young daughter, but for the victim – who attempted to overdose after being cross-examined for two days – the effects were long-lasting.
The judge in the case said she had been left suffering night terrors and needed therapy following the abuse.
It emerged that Johnson and the teenage girl first began communicating on New Year’s Eve, 2014. Ms Flounders had become pregnant with the couple’s daughter that same year and had already started to suspect that Johnson was cheating.
The victim had made her age clear from the start, telling him she was a Year 10 student and just one month past her 15th birthday.
In a series of exchanges, which Johnson told her to delete, he asked her to send him a topless picture and made clear ‘this thank you [for giving her a signed shirt] had better be worth it’.
She replied: ‘Depends on what you are after.’
Johnson replied: ‘I don’t know, it depends what you are up for… a little bit more.’
The girl then responded: ‘Like?’, to which Johnson texted: ‘A bit of feeling, just see no pressure, lol.’
They met again on January 30, 2015, as Johnson joined his team before a match the following day.
Having kissed ‘with tongues’ again, they then engaged in sexual activity.
Within minutes of parting, Johnson was messaging the victim. He told the girl that ‘next time’ they should go in the back of his Range Rover, adding: ‘It was class. Just wanted to get your jeans off.’
Yet some 30 seconds earlier, he had received a picture from Ms Flounders of their baby daughter. He had replied: ‘She looks class.’
In the weeks that followed, news of the girl’s liaison with Johnson spread among her friends. In the end, she told her parents and the police were informed.
Johnson, who remains on the sex offenders register, was said at his trial not to pose a danger to children.
Johnson, pictured playing at the £1,500-a-year Wynyard Club in the Tees Valley, is now a father of two with Ms Flounders
Johnson is said to spend much of his time at home, on the school run driving his BMW and at the golf course
Experts deemed him ‘socially and psychologically immature’, and it was said that Johnson was in the ‘clandestine habit’ of meeting girls after training for sex.
The court heard that he saw the teenage season-ticket holder as ‘just another girl, another opportunity, she was attractive enough, another one to get with’.
A psychiatric specialist told the trial that Johnson had ‘a cognitive distortion due to being a footballer and the attention he received from women as a result’.
His trial and conviction seemed to mark the end of Johnson’s relationship with Ms Flounders, a former flight attendant from Hartlepool.
The pair first became close in 2011 during the final months of his Manchester City career and moved in together following his £10million switch to Sunderland the following year.
Ms Flounders stood defiantly by Johnson at the start of the trial but as the extent of his lies and deception emerged in court, she decided to leave him.
The trial heard that Johnson had been texting other women, while Ms Flounders later said she discovered he had cheated on her with at least 12 other women.
She later spoke about her anger and humiliation, saying: ‘I realised who Adam really was – an arrogant man who lied and lied to me. It destroyed me.
‘He knew her age. He’d sent her hundreds of messages. He’d message her, then me, then someone else. Then there’d be another message from me to him asking when he was coming home. It was horrific.
‘When his messages were read out, I felt sick, I wanted to get up and punch him, but I tried not to react because everybody was watching.’
After Johnson’s release from prison in 2019, however, the pair gradually got back together.
They had a son in 2021 and are now said to have settled into the ordinary routine of family life. Friends say lockdown gave them the chance to rebuild the relationship in private.
Ms Flounders has insisted that, though furious about his betrayal, she has never viewed Johnson in the same terms as many members of the public.
‘To be honest, I don’t see Adam as a paedophile,’ she told the Daily Mail in 2019. ‘For me, a paedophile is somebody who abuses tiny young children. I think that he was a sex addict. He told me he was a sex addict.’
A friend from her schooldays told The Daily Mail this month: ‘Stacey knows her own mind and grew up in a very close family and, if anything persuaded her to give him another chance, it will have been to give their children a stable upbringing.
The couple arriving in court in 2016, when Johnson was sentenced to six years in prison for grooming and engaging in sexual activity with a girl aged just 15
‘After he was released, it didn’t look as though they were going to get back together, but the pandemic struck a year after he got out. That gradually changed things.
‘He was anxious to make up for lost time with his daughter, having missed the early part of her life in jail. He’s a committed dad and that’s why they were able to try again. They now have a second child, and they are very much a happy family.’
Johnson is said to spend much of his time at home, on the school run driving his BMW and at the golf course.
After a recent visit to a local pub, one woman said she saw him dressed casually, with his face shaded by a baseball cap, commenting:
‘It was only when he left that my sister said to me, “It’s that footballer! You know, the one who went with the 15-year-old”.
‘I have seen him a few times round here since then, mainly with his family, and he seems a regular guy, a Mr Average type.’
Johnson’s conviction cost him millions in lost wages and sponsorship deals, but he hasn’t worked since then, according to one family member: ‘He put away enough money during his playing career that they can live a very good lifestyle without worrying.
‘They have a nice life, the children won’t want for anything.’
Johnson’s aunt, Irene Welsh, 66, said: ‘Adam is happy and he’s been able to rebuild his life after everything he has been through.
‘He has been back with Stacey for a while now and they concentrate on their children. He keeps himself busy and has a lot of friends. He likes his golf and being with his family, and he has a close family around him.’
A former teammate, meanwhile, described Johnson as ‘a typical suburban dad’ with a new sense of ‘calm and acceptance’.
Perhaps, as another friend concluded, he has ‘finally been tamed’.
