Ex-Premier League referee David Coote gets suspended sentence for indecent image
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Former referee David Coote (left) arriving at Nottingham Crown Court in Britain on Jan 8.
PHOTO: REUTERS
- David Coote, a former Premier League referee, received a suspended nine-month prison sentence for making an indecent image of a child.
- The video of a 15-year-old boy was found during a probe into derogatory comments Coote made about Jurgen Klopp.
- Judge Nirmal Shant cited Coote's "spectacular fall from grace," loneliness, mental health issues, and cocaine use as contributing factors.
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LONDON - Former Premier League referee David Coote was given a suspended prison sentence on Jan 8 after admitting making an indecent image of a child, with the judge describing his “spectacular fall from grace”.
Coote, 43, previously pleaded guilty to making an indecent moving image of a child of the most serious kind.
Coote’s arms and hands trembled as a sentence of nine months, suspended for two years, was passed at Nottingham Crown Court.
Prosecutors said the two-minute, 11-second video found on his laptop showed a 15-year-old boy undressing until he was naked, before performing sexual acts on himself.
The court heard the clip was found after a separate probe into derogatory comments he made about ex-Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp
His electronic devices were seized by police in February 2025, and the video of the schoolboy, from January 2020, was found on the hard drive of his laptop.
Sparing Coote an immediate prison sentence, judge Nirmal Shant told the former referee: “You have had a spectacular fall from grace.”
She told him videos such as the one Coote had downloaded “involve a real child being abused”, adding that those viewing similar material should bear in mind the “consequent damage that follows from it”.
Speaking about his state of mind, Shant told him: “You were a lonely man. You had a relationship that had broken down recently.
“You had mental health difficulties and you were consuming cocaine.”
Coote was sacked
He was also banned from officiating by European governing body UEFA until June 2026 after a different video emerged of him snorting a white powder through a bank note while in Germany for Euro 2024. AFP
