Adam Johnson has admitted to sending "explicit messages" to a string of women behind his girlfriend's back.

The former Sunderland winger took to the stand for the first time today as his trial into allegations of sexual activity with a child entered its third week.

Johnson admitted that he had messaged the schoolgirl in question, but revealed that at the same time he was also sending "a lot more explicit" messages to other women aged in their "mid-twenties".

Speaking about his girlfriend Stacey Flounders, who was not present in court today, Johnson added: "Our relationship was not very good. It was all my fault. I was speaking to people who I shouldn't have been speaking to and I wasn't being a very good person to my girlfriend and my daughter who had just been born."

Johnson denies the allegations of oral sex and digital penetration with a minor.