Former Premier League referee David Coote has admitted to a criminal charge involving the creation of an indecent image of a child. The 43-year-old appeared before Nottingham Crown Court, where he pleaded guilty to an offence linked to a Category A video—the most severe classification of indecent content. The material was recovered by police in February during a digital investigation.
Coote, a resident of Collingham, Nottinghamshire, was granted conditional bail ahead of his next court appearance on 11 December. During the short hearing, Judge Nirmal Shant KC ordered a pre-sentence report, stressing the gravity of the case. “You have pleaded guilty to a serious matter,” the judge said. “Whether this means custody or not will be decided when all the information is before the court.”
Court documents revealed that Coote had extracted the Category A video from a hard drive to a laptop on 2 January 2020. The offence of “making” an indecent image includes downloading, copying, or otherwise saving exploitative material, even if it is not originally produced by the accused.
Coote spoke briefly during the six-minute hearing, confirming his name and entering his guilty plea. He had previously denied the charge at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court in September but changed his plea at this latest session. The presiding judge warned him not to assume that a non-custodial sentence would be imposed, stating, “You must not go away with the impression that this will not lead to a custodial sentence.”