Snooker world champion Graeme Dott jailed for seven years for child sex abuse

Former snooker world champion Graeme Dott has been jailed for seven years after being convicted of sexually abusing two children. The 49-year-old was sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh on Tuesday after being found guilty last month of two counts of lewd, indecent and libidinous behaviour towards children. Dott was convicted following a five-day trial at the High Court in Glasgow. The court previously heard that Dott subjected a girl and a boy to multiple incidents of abuse.

The girl was targeted between 1993 and 1996, while the abuse against the boy took place between 2006 and 2010. Jurors heard Dott exposed himself in front of both children, touched them inappropriately and kissed them. The first victim, a woman now in her 40s, told the trial that Dott had sexually abused her on multiple occasions when she was a child. She said the abuse began when Dott "caressed" her bottom over her clothing while giving her a piggy back.

The woman also described an occasion when Dott suggested playing a "guessing game". She said she lay down and Dott exposed himself before touching her with different parts of his body, including his penis. She told the court Dott instructed her not to tell anyone about the abuse. The second victim, a man now in his late 20s, described multiple incidents of abuse by Dott. He said the snooker player touched him inappropriately, kissed him and performed sexual acts.

The man told the court that much of the abuse happened while he was in a shower, when Dott would enter either partly or completely undressed. "He would… come into the shower and put soap on my body and wash me in the shower," he told the court. "While he was washing me he would touch me in inappropriate places." The man said that, looking back, Dott was "clearly getting sexual gratification from it", and that he was "pleasuring himself" during the incidents.

He said that because of his age at the time, he "did not know what was going on", and only later realised the interaction "wasn't right". He also described an incident in a car in which Dott kissed him on the face, head and lips and "push[ed] himself up against me". Dott denied all allegations during the trial. Giving evidence, he said there was "absolutely no way" he had sexually abused the two children. Under cross-examination, Dott denied being attracted to the first victim when she was young, describing the suggestion as "disgusting".

When prosecutor Lindsey Dalziel put it to Dott that he had touched the first victim and told her what to do, he denied the allegation and called it "lies". Dott also denied the allegations involving the second victim, saying the man was "never in my company". In her closing speech, Ms Dalziel urged the jury to find Dott guilty of both charges. "The Crown's case is that Graeme Dott subjected vulnerable children to the worst kind of abuse with a course of conduct which relied on opportunity, for his own gratification," she said.

Dott's lawyer, Euan Dow, had asked the jury to clear his client of both charges. However, Dott was found guilty on August 24 following the trial, which began on August 18. He has now been sentenced to seven years in prison at the High Court in Edinburgh.