Former Premier League referee David Coote has been given a suspended sentence after he was found to have a sexual video of a 15-year-old boy in school uniform on his laptop.
Coote, 43, previously pleaded guilty to making an indecent moving image of a child of the most serious kind, and his sentencing judge said he had had a “spectacular fall from grace”.
Coote’s arms and hands trembled as a sentence of nine months, suspended for two years, was passed at Nottingham crown court on Thursday.
Prosecutors said the 2min 11s video found on his laptop showed the boy undress until he was completely naked, before performing sexual acts on himself.
Passing sentence on Coote, Judge Shant told the sacked referee: “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.”
Defence barrister Laura Jane Miller invited the judge to consider a suspended sentence and an order to perform unpaid work.
She told the court: “Looking at the prospect of rehabilitation and whether there needs to be an immediate custodial sentence, I would invite the court to impose a suspended sentence of imprisonment. It would save him being a burden on the public purse in the custodial setting.”
Miller said Coote was “deeply ashamed of himself and his actions”. She said: “This offence took place, looking at the date the image was downloaded and last accessed, on 2 January 2020, which is some six years ago.”
She told the court Coote’s “outward persona of a very successful football referee” did not “accurately reflect him as a person because there was an internal struggle in terms of personal difficulties”.
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