Former world snooker champion Graeme Dott jailed for seven years for child sexual abuse

Edinburgh, Scotland. Former world snooker champion Graeme Dott was sentenced on Tuesday to seven years in prison for historical child sexual abuse offences. Lord Harrower imposed the sentence at the High Court in Edinburgh.

Trial and conviction

A jury found Dott, 49, guilty of two counts of lewd, indecent and libidinous behaviour after a five-day trial in August at the High Court in Glasgow. The offences involved a primary school-aged girl and boy and spanned the period from 1993 to 2010.

The woman, now in her 40s, testified about multiple instances of abuse in Glasgow during the 1990s. The man, now in his late 20s, described abuse in South Lanarkshire between 2006 and 2010 that began when he was about eight.

Dott denied the allegations throughout the trial, calling them “lies”, but the jury rejected his defence. Following his conviction, he was remanded in custody, placed on the sex offenders register and removed from the World Snooker Hall of Fame.

Sentencing

Defence counsel Euan Dow told the court that Dott acknowledged his personal and professional reputations had been completely destroyed. Lord Harrower called the offences a “gross violation of trust” that had robbed the victims of a major portion of their childhoods. Dott showed no visible emotion as he was led away to begin his sentence.

Dott won the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield in 2006 and reached the final again in 2010.