Disgraced ref David Coote beforehand cleared by police over indecent picture allegation in 2017
David Coote admitted to making an indecent image of a child back in 2020, but unearthed documents have found that he was cleared of an incident by police three years earlier
Disgraced football referee David Coote was previously reported to the police regarding allegedly possessing indecent images in 2017. This came some three years before he pleaded guilty to the offence on Tuesday (October 14).
Coote, 43, was brought before Nottingham Crown Court this week on charges of making indecent images of children back in January of 2020. Appearing before the court, he admitted to downloading a video of a 15-year-old boy.
However, while Coote is now preparing for a potential jail sentence after admitting to the crime, a previous allegation has now surfaced. It has since emerged that eight years before he pleaded guilty to the crime, he had been cleared by police for a similar allegation.
The Telegraph reported that Coote, then aged 35, was subject to an investigation by the referees’ authority and the Football Association in 2017. The investigation was prompted over a similar claim of making an indecent image of a child; the investigation was passed to police, who ultimately found Coote had not committed an offence.
At the time, Coote had been taken off the PGMOL list of officials within the referees’ authority, with no details around the decision being made public, due to his lack of notoriety at the time. During the course of the investigation, Coote had temporarily stopped refereeing, but returned within just a matter of weeks.
Speaking to the Telegraph, Paul Armstrong, who is Coote’s lawyer at AW Law, said: “David was never even spoken to by the police and no criminal charges came from the allegations.”
Within one year of the allegations being made, Coote was then promoted to refereeing Premier League clashes, which saw his career begin to take off. But he was also chosen to give a talk to young people at a junior referees’ conference in 2018.
In the wake of the current allegations against Coote, it emerged that West Yorkshire Police, who were handling the case, conducted no formal investigation into the suspect. Instead, the concerns surrounding the image were passed onto a specialist officer who deemed no offense had taken place.
After the police decided he would face no further action, David went on to become a well-known referee, helping to officiate major matches, such as the League Cup final between Manchester United and Newcastle United. But after another spate of allegations came up in November 2024, his career began to take a hit.
A series of videos were leaked to the Sun which appeared to show him badmouthing then-Liverpool boss Jürgen Klopp, before snorting a white powder. He later revealed his sexuality with the newspaper, admitting that he had felt a “deep sense of shame” about his sexual identity, which had only worsened his behaviour.
But nine months after the interview, in September of 2025, he was officially charged with making an indecent image of a child after a category-A video — the most serious kind — was recovered by the force. After initially pleading not guilty in September, David ultimately admitted the crime in court.
Presiding judge Nirmal Shant KC has since advised David to prepare for a custodial sentence, as the maximum punishment for making category-A videos can be a 10-year stint in jail. She added: “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.”
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