He’ll return to court docket to be sentenced
Former Premier League referee David Coote has pleaded responsible on the crown court docket to creating an indecent picture of a kid. The ex-official appeared at Nottingham Crown Court docket on Tuesday in reference to an allegation regarding a class A video, essentially the most critical sort, recovered by police in February.
The 43-year-old, who wore a navy swimsuit and black tie, spoke solely to substantiate his identify and enter his plea throughout the six-minute listening to in entrance of Decide Nirmal Shant KC. The previous referee, of Woodhill Highway in Collingham, close to Newark, Nottinghamshire, was granted conditional bail by Decide Shant and instructed he should seem in court docket once more on December 11.
The choose instructed Coote, who stood within the dock together with his fingers clasped in entrance of him, that she was ordering a pre-sentence report back to be carried out earlier than he was to be sentenced.
She stated: “You’ve gotten pleaded responsible to a critical matter. Whether or not this implies custody or not will likely be determined when all the knowledge is earlier than the court docket, which is why I’ve ordered a pre-sentence report.”
Coote was sacked by Skilled Recreation Match Officers Restricted in December after a video of feedback he had made about ex-Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp in 2020 got here to gentle.
In August this 12 months he was given an eight-week suspension by the Soccer Affiliation over the Klopp footage. In January, Coote got here out as homosexual in an interview with The Solar and stated a lifelong battle to cover his sexuality had contributed to the rant about Klopp.
