Former Premier League referee David Coote pleads GUILTY to making Indecent image of child

© Tom Blewitt – Predator Awareness

David Coote, a former Premier League referee once entrusted with officiating top-flight football matches, has pleaded guilty to making a Category A indecent image of a child. The plea was entered during a six-minute hearing at Nottingham Crown Court on Tuesday, October 14, 2025.

Coote, 43, appeared in court wearing a navy suit and black tie, speaking only to confirm his name and enter his guilty plea. The charge relates to a video classified as Category A—the most severe classification under UK law for child sexual abuse material. According to prosecutors, the video was recovered in February 2025 from a Toshiba external hard drive and had last been accessed via a Dell laptop seized from Coote’s home in Newark.

The offence dates back to January 2, 2020, when Coote was still actively officiating in the Premier League. The video depicted a 15-year-old child and was accessed on the same day.

Presiding Judge Nirmal Shant KC ordered a pre-sentence report and warned Coote that the offence could lead to a custodial sentence. “You have pleaded guilty to a serious matter,” she said. “Whether this means custody or not will be decided when all the information is before the court”.

Coote was granted conditional bail and is scheduled to return to court for sentencing on December 11, 2025.

This conviction follows a series of controversies surrounding Coote. In December 2024, he was dismissed by the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) after a video surfaced showing him making derogatory comments about former Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp. The Football Association later imposed an eight-week suspension in August 2025 over the same footage.

In January 2025, Coote publicly came out as gay in an interview with The Sun, attributing years of internal struggle with his sexuality as a contributing factor to his outburst about Klopp. While that revelation garnered sympathy, it now sits uneasily alongside the gravity of his criminal offence.

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