Former Premier League referee David Coote to be sentenced over child abuse video
By Sophie Robinson, Press Association
Former Premier League referee David Coote is due to be sentenced after a child abuse video was found on his device.
The ex-official was charged with making an indecent image of a child after the category A video, the most serious kind, was recovered by police in February last year following a Football Association (FA) investigation into him.
The 43-year-old former referee, of Woodhill Road in Collingham, near Newark, Nottinghamshire, pleaded guilty to the offence at a hearing in October.
The charge of making an indecent image of a child refers to activities such as downloading, sharing or saving abuse photos or videos.
The video came to the police’s attention when Coote was being investigated by the FA, and a number of devices were seized and analysed when he was arrested at his home, a magistrates’ court was told in September.
He is due to appear at Nottingham Crown Court on Thursday for his sentencing.
Coote was sacked by Professional Game Match Officials Limited in December 2024 after a video of comments he had made about ex-Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp in 2020 came to light.
In August last year he was given an eight-week suspension by the FA over the Klopp footage.
Coote came out as gay in an interview with The Sun last January and said a lifelong struggle to hide his sexuality had contributed to the rant about Klopp.
He was also banned by European football’s governing body Uefa until June 30th 2026 after a different video emerged of him snorting a white powder through a bank note while in Germany for Euro 2024.
