Former Premier League referee David Coote has pleaded guilty at Nottingham Crown Court to making an indecent image of a child. The ex-official appeared at Nottingham Crown Court on Tuesday October, 14, having been charged with one count of making one indecent image of a child of category A on January 2, 2020.
Category A refers to the most serious kind of videos. The image was recovered by officers in February. The Newark born man had pled not guity at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court on September 11. However, his plea has since changed to a guilty one.
He appeared in court wearing a navy suit and black tie and only spoke to confirm his name enter his plea to Judge Nirmal Shant KC. Coote was granted conditional bail and told he must appear in court again on December 11.
It was also decided by Judge Shant that a pre-sentence report must be carried out before he is to be sentenced. Informing Coote of this Judge Shant said: “You have pleaded guilty to a serious matter.
“Whether this means custody or not will be decided when all the information is before the court, which is why I have ordered a pre-sentence report.”
Last December, Coote was sacked by the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) after a video of him making foul-mouthed comments about former Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp had come to light. He was heard describing Klopp as a “German c***.”
In August, he was suspended for eight weeks by the Football Association for his comments. One month after his sacking, Coote came out as gay during an interview with the Sun, claiming a struggle to hide his sexuality had played a role in his rant about the ex-Merseysiders manager.
Coote had
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