Ex-Premier League Ref Faces Justice in Court Case
Former Premier League referee David Coote receives a suspended sentence after a court ruled on a child abuse video case, marking a dramatic fall from grace.
Former Premier League referee David Coote has been given a suspended sentence after a sexual video of a 15-year-old boy in a school uniform was found on his laptop.
Judge Shanti said Coote, 43, had suffered "considerable humiliation" after police charged him with possessing a Category A video of a 15-year-old schoolboy, the most serious type of offence. This charge includes activities such as downloading, sharing, or saving indecent images or videos.
The disgraced referee was also given a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order, which the judge said would restrict his "contact and interaction" with children and his living arrangements. He was also ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work.
Prosecutors said the two-minute and 11-second video found on his laptop showed the boy undressing, becoming completely naked, and then performing sexual acts on himself.
Sentencing Coote, Judge Shanti told him: "Those who commit this type of offence must understand that it involves the exploitation of real children, and all the harm that flows from that."
Coote was sacked by Professional Game Match Officials Limited in December 2024 after a separate video emerged in which he made comments about then-Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp. Prosecutor Jeremy Jones said: “He was filmed making comments about Jürgen Klopp – those comments went viral and brought him into the public eye.
“There was widespread interest and scrutiny of his conduct by various tabloid newspapers.” The court heard that police went to Koot's address in February 2025 and seized and analyzed his devices. They found that Koot had transferred a sexual video of a 15-year-old boy from a hard drive to a laptop on January 2, 2020.
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His defense lawyer, Laura Jane Miller, said that at the time Koot downloaded the video, he was struggling with personal and mental health difficulties, and that he was "deeply ashamed of his actions."
“At this time, he was experiencing personal difficulties and internal struggles with his mental health. Then the relationship broke down, and those personal difficulties escalated,” Miller said.
Miller asked the judge to consider a suspended sentence and a community order. She told the court: “Given the prospect of rehabilitation and whether an immediate custodial sentence is necessary, I would ask the court to consider a suspended sentence. This would avoid him becoming a burden on public funds in prison.”
Koot declined to comment on his suspended sentence as he left Nottingham Crown Court via a private exit on Thursday. The 43-year-old was ushered into an area usually reserved for witnesses and then exited through an entrance marked "Probation Liaison Office."
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