Former Premier League referee David Coote has been handed a suspended prison sentence after admitting to making an indecent moving image of a 15-year-old boy. The 43-year-old was sentenced at Nottingham Crown Court on Thursday after pleading guilty to a charge of making a category A video, the most serious classification.
The court heard that the two-minute and 11-second video, found on Coote's laptop, showed the boy undressing and performing sexual acts. Judge Shant described Coote's actions as a “spectacular fall from grace” and imposed a 10-year sexual harm prevention order, restricting his contact with children and his living arrangements. He was also ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work.
Prosecutor Jeremy Janes told the court that Coote came under scrutiny after an unrelated video surfaced in December 2024, in which he made derogatory comments about then-Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp. That footage went viral and led to investigations by tabloid newspapers. Police subsequently seized Coote's devices in February 2025, discovering the video had been extracted from a hard drive to his laptop on 2 January 2020.
In mitigation, defence lawyer Laura Jane Miller said Coote was dealing with personal and mental health difficulties at the time of the offence, following a relationship breakdown. She described him as “deeply ashamed by his actions” and argued that a suspended sentence would allow for rehabilitation without burdening the public purse. Coote, who was sacked by Professional Game Match Officials Limited in December 2024, left court via a private exit and declined to comment.
