LONDON - An English Football League assistant referee has been sentenced to prison for multiple child sex offences involving teenage girls, after prosecutors said he "preyed upon young women”, PA Media/dpa reported.
The 47-year-old man previously pleaded guilty to 16 counts, including sexual communications with a child, meeting with a child following sexual grooming, causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and engaging in sexual activity with a child.
The offences spanned three years between November 2021 and October 2024 and involved three girls aged 15, Snaresbrook Crown Court previously heard.
On Thursday, the defendant was handed a jail sentence of 13-and-a-half years with a further three-and-a-half years on extended licence at the same court.
Addressing the referee, Judge Caroline English said: "You did deliberately target these three young victims and you did so on account of their ages at the material time.”
She added: "I am therefore quite satisfied that in all three cases you preyed upon young women who were vulnerable.”
The judge said that despite his guilty pleas and expressions of remorse, there remained a lack of acknowledgement from the defendant that he had "a sexual interest in female children”.
This interest was clear from the contents of messages sent to his victims and a statement from the accused’s ex-girlfriend, which said he used to ask her to dress up in a school uniform.
The defendant, who appeared in the dock wearing a dark green sweatshirt, nodded as the judge read out her sentencing remarks.
He was an assistant referee at the time of offending, and the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), the organisation responsible for managing all Premier League and EFL matches across England, said he was suspended "as soon as the allegations came to light”.
He was not considered for appointments after his initial suspension, and PGMOL has since removed him from the organisation’s list, it is understood. - BERNAMA-PA MEDIA/dpa