David Coote: Ex-Premier League referee dodges jail after pleading guilty to making child pornography
Former Premier League referee David Coote has been spared jail after pleading guilty to making a sexual video of a child.
Coote, 43, previously pleaded guilty to making an indecent moving image of a child, after a video of a 15-year-old boy was found on his laptop.
Prosecutors said the two-minute, 11-second video showed the boy undress until he was completely naked, before performing sexual acts on himself. Coote was interviewed under caution after being arrested in February 2025 but answered no comment to questions asked of him.
It came after Coote made comments about then-Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp in 2020, in a video that went viral online. He was suspended from his post as a Premier League referee while a wider investigation was carried out. That was when his electronic devices were seized and analysed.
Wearing a navy suit and dark tie, Coote showed no facial emotion in the dock at Nottingham Crown Court, but eyewitness accounts reported his hands shaking as Judge Nirmal Shant KC handed out his sentence.
Judge Shant said: “Those who commit this sort of offence must understand that they involve real children being abused, with all the consequent damage that comes from it.
“I am satisfied that this is a case where there should be a sexual harm prevention order.
“It is plain that such an order is necessary and proportionate in the circumstances. It will restrict your liberty - it is intended to.”
Coote was sentenced to nine months in prison, which has been suspended for two years. This means he will not go to prison right away, but if he is convicted of another crime in the next two years he will serve custodial sentences for both offences.
He has also been given a 10-year sexual harm prevention order, which will restrict his “contact and communication with children”.