Ex-Premier League referee David Coote has been sentenced to nine months in prison, suspended for two years, after pleading guilty to making an indecent image of a child.
The court heard that police seized the disgraced former Premier League referee’s electronic devices. An explicit two-minute video of a 15-year-old boy, initially in a school uniform, from January 2 2020, was found on his laptop.
Coote was charged in October with an allegation relating to a category A video. This was the most serious kind, recovered by police in February.
The 43-year-old appeared for his sentencing hearing at Nottingham Crown Court on Thursday. Prosecutors said a clip was found after a separate probe into comments he made about ex-Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp in 2020.
The court heard the former referee answered no comment to relevant questions in a police interview in February 2025. Moreover, he was cautioned after officers found cocaine in his house in the same month.
Judge Nirmal Shant KC 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, Judge 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, which of course was your choice, but it had a direct effect on your thinking.”
Prosecutor Jeremy Janes said the offence of making a category A image can lead to a maximum sentence of three years in prison.
