A CHILDREN’S charity is calling on the Government to urgently fix a flaw in the law that means grooming children before meeting them is still not illegal.

The NSPCC’s call comes comes as former England footballer Adam Johnson’s second appeal against his conviction and his sentence is heard at the Court of Appeal on Tuesday.

Johnson was convicted of meeting a 15-year-old girl after grooming her. But the grooming itself was not a crime at the time.

This week marks the two-year anniversary of the Government creating an anti-grooming law to make it illegal to send a sexual message to a child, but this law still has not been enacted.

Before meeting the teenager, Johnson exchanged more than 800 messages with her, which included WhatsApp messages saying he wanted ‘more than a kiss’ and to take her jeans off.

The NSPCC is calling on the Government to urgently fix this flaw in the law, to allow police to intervene at an earlier stage.

An NSPCC spokesperson said: “You would think it would be illegal for an adult to send sexually explicit messages to a child. But the frightening fact is that it is not.

“This kind of message would be an offence if they were sent in Scotland, but in England and Wales police are still powerless to intervene because anti-sexting laws created two years ago have yet to be enacted.

“The Government’s delay in outlawing this kind of grooming is a disgrace. Justice Secretary Liz Truss must act with urgency to fix this flaw in the law and stop abuse before it starts.”

Johnson had a previous application for leave to appeal refused by a single judge in July.

Johnson’s trial heard that the former Sunderland and England winger had kissed and sexually touched the girl in his Range Rover in a secluded spot in County Durham.

He was also arrested for possessing extreme pornography, and pre-trial hearings heard that police found medicines in a safe when he was arrested which indicated he may have been suffering from sexually transmitted infections.

Trial judge Jonathan Rose was satisfied the girl had suffered “severe psychological harm” and that Johnson had taken advantage of “a young teenager’s adoration of a successful celebrity”.

He admitted another charge of sexual activity with a child and grooming the girl.

His conviction led Sunderland to say the club was “so very sorry” for letting down the 15-year-old fan.

Johnson also played for Middlesbrough and Manchester City.