Ex-Premier League Referee David Coote Pleads Guilty To Child Image Offence

Former Premier League referee David Coote has pleaded guilty to making an indecent image of a child, one classified as category A, the most serious kind.

Coote, 43, appeared before Nottingham Crown Court on Tuesday, where he admitted to extracting a video from a hard drive to a laptop on January 2, 2020. The footage was recovered by police during an investigation in February.

Judge Nirmal Shant KC ordered a pre-sentence report and granted Coote conditional bail ahead of his next court appearance on 11 December.

“You have pleaded guilty to a serious matter,” Judge Shant told the defendant. “Whether this means custody or not will be decided when all the information is before the court. You must not go away with the impression that this will not lead to a custodial sentence.”

The court heard that the charge of making an indecent image of a child covers activities such as downloading, sharing, or saving photos or videos containing child sexual abuse material.

Coote, dressed in a navy suit and black tie, spoke only to confirm his name and enter his guilty plea during the brief six-minute hearing.

He had initially pleaded not guilty to the charge at a previous appearance before Nottingham Magistrates’ Court on 10 September.

LEADERSHIP reports that the former referee’s career has been marked by controversy in recent years. Coote was sacked in 2024 after a video resurfaced showing him making offensive comments about former Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp in 2020.

The Football Association later handed him an eight-week suspension in August, 2025 over the incident.

In January, Coote publicly came out as gay in an interview with The Sun, revealing that a lifelong struggle to conceal his sexuality had contributed to his outburst about Klopp.

His sentencing will take place after the pre-sentence report is reviewed in December.