Former snooker world champion Graeme Dott has been jailed for seven years for sexually abusing a girl and a boy. The 49-year-old subjected the two primary school age children to multiple incidents of abuse, with the girl targeted between 1993-1996 and the boy between 2006-2010.
Abuse details heard in court
The High Court in Glasgow previously heard how Dott exposed himself in front of both children, touched them inappropriately, and kissed them. In August a jury found him guilty of two counts of lewd, indecent and libidinous behaviour towards them. The abuse took place in the Glasgow area.
One of Dott’s victims, a woman now in her 40s, described how Dott had sexually abused her on multiple occasions while she was a child. She said the abuse started with Dott “caressing” her bottom over her clothing while giving her a piggy back.
Victims' testimony
She said he asked her to play a “guessing game” where she had to guess what he was doing. She told the court she lay down and he exposed himself to her and then began touching her with different parts of his body, including his penis. She said Dott told her not to tell anyone he was sexually abusing her.
The second victim - a man who now in his late 20s - told the court he was sexually abused by Dott on multiple occasions, with the snooker player touching him inappropriately, kissing him, and performing sexual acts. He said some of the abuse took place while he was in a shower, when Dott would come in either partly or completely undressed.
“He would… come into the shower and put soap on my body and wash me in the shower,” the man told the court. “While he was washing me he would touch me in inappropriate places.”
He said looking back at it now, Dott was “clearly getting sexual gratification from it”, and he was “pleasuring himself” while this was taking place. The man said that because of his age at the time, he “did not know what was going on”, and it was only later he realised the interaction “wasn’t right”. The witness also described abuse which took place in a car, where he said Dott would kiss him on the face, head and lips, and “push himself up against me”.
Career and aftermath
Dott, who turned professional in 1994, won the World Snooker Championship in 2006, defeating Peter Ebdon in the final at the Crucible in Sheffield. He reached the final in two other years but was beaten by Ronnie O’Sullivan in 2004 and Neil Robertson in 2010. Following his conviction, Dott’s name was removed from World Snooker’s Hall of Fame.
