At the High Court in Edinburgh on 29 September, Lord Harrower sentenced Graeme Dott to seven years in prison. A jury had convicted the former snooker world champion of sexually assaulting two children.
Lord Harrower said Dott had taken an important part of the victims' childhood. Dott, 49, denied the charges.
Lord Harrower said that, if sentencing separately, he would have imposed four years for each of the two charges. He set the overall sentence at seven years as a proportionate total.
Conviction followed testimony about abuse
A jury found Dott guilty in August of exposing himself to a boy and a girl and carrying out several assaults between 1993 and 2010. Both children were pre-teens at the time. During a five-day trial, the court heard evidence that he touched and kissed the children inappropriately. Reuters reported that the case followed proceedings in June and August.
The jury convicted him on two charges of indecent, lewd and lascivious behaviour. The Judiciary of Scotland said the seven-year sentence was backdated to 24 August 2026, when Dott was taken into custody.
Snooker bodies respond to the conviction
Police Scotland described Dott as a dangerous person after the trial. The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association permanently removed his membership following the conviction, Reuters reported. The court also ordered that Dott remain subject to registration requirements under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 for an indefinite period.
Dott won the world title in 2006. He finished runner-up in 2004 and 2010. Those results do not change the court's findings. The conviction brought a seven-year prison sentence and permanent exclusion from the sport's governing body.
Sporting honours did not shield Dott from accountability. The WPBSA has permanently removed his membership.
