Former Premier League referee Coote gets suspended sentence for indecent image

Former Premier League referee David Coote was given a suspended prison sentence on Thursday 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 the boy undress until he was completely 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 in 2020.

His electronic devices were seized by police in February last year, 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 by referees’ body Professional Game Match Officials Limited in December 2024 after the video showing remarks about Klopp came to light.

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.