Former Premier League referee David Coote has reportedly been sentenced following the discovery of a sexual film of a 15-year-old child on his laptop,.
Nottingham Crown Court sentenced the former sports official to nine months in prison suspended for two years.
Sentencing, Judge Shant told Coote, “you have had a spectacular fall from grace.”
Coote Was Arrested After Indecent Image Was Found In His Apartment
Following a Football Association (FA) inquiry into him, the category A video—the most serious kind—was found by authorities in February of last year, and the former official was charged with creating an indecent image of a young child.
The 43-year-old former referee from Woodhill Road in Collingham, near Newark, Nottinghamshire, entered a guilty plea at a hearing in October.
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Activities like downloading, sharing, or storing abuse images or films are included in the charge of creating an indecent image of a kid.
A magistrates’ court was informed in September that the video was discovered by the police during Coote’s FA investigation, and several gadgets were confiscated and examined upon his detention at his residence.
He was sentenced on Thursday at Nottingham Crown Court.
According to NottinghamshireLive, Laura Jane Miller, who was mitigating in court, asked the judge to think about suspending any immediate prison term.
She said: “This defendant had an outward persona as a very successul football referee.
“That outward persona did not reflect him as a person because behind that was an internal struggle with his mental health dating back to 2017 following the breakdown of a relationship.
“He now works in an adminstrative role and is trying to rebuild his life step-by-step. His life is a far cry from where it was at the height of his career and he knows he will never get that career back.”
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