WHEELY BAD
FORMER Team Sky and British Cycling medic Dr Richard Freeman ordered testosterone knowing or believing it was to be given to a rider for the purposes of doping, a tribunal has found.
Dr Freeman admitted 18 of 22 charges against him relating to the ordering of a package of Testogel to British Cycling headquarters in 2011 but denied the central charge regarding its purpose.
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After a hearing lasting more than two years, decisions on the contested charges were issued by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service on Friday.
Dr Freeman claimed the testosterone had been ordered to treat former performance director Shane Sutton's erectile dysfunction, which the Australian strenuously denied on an explosive day of testimony in 2019.
The tribunal also determined it had been proved that the motive for Dr Freeman's actions was to conceal his conduct.
The one charge that was found to be not proved was that Dr Freeman knew the Testogel was not clinically indicated for Sutton.
The tribunal will sit again next week to determine what sanctions Dr Freeman will face and whether he will be deemed unfit to continue to practise medicine.
It was announced last month that Dr Freeman is also facing two UK Anti-Doping charges relating to the ordering of the testosterone.
Several of the charges related to an interview the medic gave to UKAD in 2017 where he subsequently admitted he had lied.
Freeman was suspended by British Cycling in 2017 and resigned after saying he was too ill to face disciplinary action for poor medical record-keeping.
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SunSport reported in 2019 how an investigation which began with the 'jiffygate' scandal at the top of British cycling descended into 'Stiffygate' as Sutton hit back at the claims from Freeman’s barrister, Mary O’Rourke QC.
Freeman, who had initially denied any knowledge of the testosterone, admitted ordering the drug but claimed it was for Sutton’s personal use to combat his erectile issues.
That idea was angrily dismissed as Sutton turned on O’Rourke and blasted: “You are telling the press I can’t get a hard on.
“My wife wants to testify that you are a bloody liar.”
At the height of the furious exchanges, Sutton, who slammed his fist down on the table in front of him at one point, claimed he was being 'dragged into a s***-fight'.
Sutton said it was O’Rourke, not him, who was the 'bully' and was 'accusing me of all kinds of things'.
O’Rourke told the hearing that Sutton was 'a habitual and serial liar, a doper with a doping history'.