Former Premier League referee David Coote has been handed a suspended prison sentence after pleading guilty to making an indecent moving image of a 15-year-old schoolboy. The 43-year-old was sentenced at Nottingham Crown Court on Thursday, where Judge Shant described his actions as a “spectacular fall from grace”.
The court heard that Coote had a video on his laptop, lasting two minutes and 11 seconds, which showed the boy undressing and performing sexual acts. The charge related to a category A video, the most serious classification, involving the downloading, sharing or saving of abusive content. In addition to the suspended sentence, Coote was given a 10-year sexual harm prevention order, restricting his contact with children and his living arrangements, and ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work.
Coote was sacked by Professional Game Match Officials Limited in December 2024 after an unrelated video emerged in which he made derogatory comments about then-Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp. Prosecutors said that video went viral, leading to media investigations that prompted police to visit Coote's address in February 2025. Officers seized and analysed his devices, discovering the indecent video, which had been extracted from a hard drive to a laptop on 2 January 2020.
Defence lawyer Laura Jane Miller said Coote was dealing with personal and mental health difficulties at the time of the offence, including a relationship breakdown, and was “deeply ashamed by his actions”. She argued for a suspended sentence to allow for rehabilitation and avoid burdening the public purse. Judge Shant, however, emphasised that such offences involve real children being abused, with lasting damage.
Coote left court via a private exit, avoiding comment on his sentence.
