Former Premier League referee David Coote was given a suspended prison sentence on Thursday after pleading guilty to making an indecent image of a child.
Coote, 43, was fired last year by PGMOL, the English football refereeing organisation, after a video of him making derogatory comments about former Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp circulated on social media.
That incident sparked further investigations which led to Coote’s electronic devices being seized by police in February 2025, prosecutor Jeremy Janes told Nottingham Crown Court.
Janes said that in January 2020, Coote downloaded a single Category A video, the most serious type, which showed a 15-year-old boy dressed in school uniform performing a sex act.
The charge of making an indecent image relates to the downloading, sharing and storing of material, and Janes said there was no suggestion Coote was involved in the making of the video.
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Coote pleaded not guilty during his first court appearance in September, but changed his plea to guilty the following month.
His lawyer Laura Jane Miller said Coote had been using cocaine while struggling with his mental health and “deeply ashamed” at the time of the offence.
“He has lost his career and his reputation has been lost, and those have been lost amid … intense media scrutiny,” she said.
Judge Nirmal Shant, however, said: «Some might say he has himself to blame.»
The judge told Coote: “You have had a spectacular fall from grace.”
Shant imposed a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered Coote to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work.
Published on January 8, 2026
