Graeme Dott expelled from snooker hall of fame after child sex abuse guilty verdict

The World Snooker Champion in 2006, Dott was found guilty on Monday at the High Court in Glasgow for sexually abusing two primary school age children.

The 49-year-old subjected a girl and a boy to multiple incidents of abuse, with the girl targeted between 1993-1996 and the boy between 2006-2010. Dott will be sentenced on September 29th in Edinburgh.

Just hours after Dott’s verdict, the sport’s governing body - the World Professional Snooker and Billiards Association - released a statement on its website stating that following an emergency board meeting, the former world number two has had his membership permanently revoked, and he should be “removed from the sport”.

The statement read: “Following his conviction today (24 August 2026) at the High Court in Glasgow, for two charges of lewd and libidinous behaviour that relate to historic sexual abuse, the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) has permanently revoked Dott’s WPBSA Membership with immediate effect.

This is following an emergency board meeting held earlier today where the board unanimously agreed to this course of action and that he should be removed from the sport.

The WPBSA has also written to World Snooker Tour (WST) to request his immediate removal from the WST Hall of Fame.

Dott was previously suspended from all professional snooker activities on 9 April 2025 pending the outcome of his trial, immediately after the WPBSA became aware of the ongoing legal proceedings.

He was subsequently relegated from the professional ranking list at the conclusion of the 2025/26 season.

Under the WPBSA constitution, Dott retains the right to appeal this decision within 21 days.

Early the following day, the World Snooker Tour - essentially the sport’s promotional arm that puts on professional events - published a very short statement on its website saying that Dott had been removed from its Hall of Fame.

It read: “Following his conviction yesterday (24 August 2026) at the High Court in Glasgow, WST has taken the decision to remove Graeme Dott from the World Snooker Tour Hall of Fame with immediate effect.”

Established in 2011, the World Snooker Tour Hall of Fame includes individuals who have made ‘an outstanding contribution’ to the sport during their lifetimes.

Not just limited to players, the roll of honour includes all of the sport’s professional world champions (Wu Yize is not currently in it, but is expected to be when its next revised at the end of this season), but now minus Dott.