Former Premier League referee David Coote, 43, has pleaded guilty to making an indecent image of a child.

Coote appeared at Nottingham Crown Court over an allegation involving a category A video, the most serious type, which was recovered by police in February. The court heard that Coote had extracted the video from a hard drive to a laptop on 2 January 2020.

He was granted conditional bail and is scheduled to appear again on 11 December. Judge Nirmal Shant KC ordered a pre-sentence report, stating:

“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.”

The charge relates to activities including downloading, sharing, or saving images or videos of child abuse. The judge warned that Coote should not assume the guilty plea would prevent a custodial sentence.

Coote, from Collingham, Nottinghamshire, had previously pleaded not guilty at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court on 10 September.

Coote officiated his first Premier League match in 2018. He was sacked last year following the emergence of a video in which he made controversial comments about former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp in 2020. Earlier this year, he received an eight-week suspension from the Football Association related to the same footage.

In January 2025, Coote publicly came out as gay, revealing that his lifelong struggle with his sexuality contributed to his earlier outburst about Klopp.