Shane Sutton testimony in Dr Richard Freeman tribunal delayed due to legal arguments
Monday 11 November 2019 15:33, UK
Shane Sutton's public testimony at the fitness-to-practise tribunal for former British Cycling and Team Sky medic Dr Richard Freeman has been delayed.
The Australian, a former head coach of the same organisations and who left British Cycling in 2016, was expected to give evidence at the tribunal on Monday but the hearing was held up by legal argument behind closed doors.
The tribunal is considering a legal application and requested the rest of Monday afternoon to hear it.
Dr Freeman has admitted ordering 30 sachets of a testosterone gel in May 2011 but has claimed in his witness statement that they were ordered for Sutton.
Freeman has claimed it was ordered to treat Sutton's erectile dysfunction.
Simon Jackson, QC for the General Medical Council (GMC) which brought the charges against Dr Freeman, said that Sutton will strenuously deny either suffering from the condition, or that he had ever heard of Testogel prior to the reporting of this case.
It is the GMC's case that Dr Freeman obtained the gel in the knowledge or belief that it was to be given to an athlete to enhance performance, something which Freeman denies.
When Sutton does appear, he is expected to be cross-examined by Dr Freeman's QC Mary O'Rourke.
Dr Freeman was a team doctor with British Cycling and Team Sky until his resignation in September 2017.
As well as admitting that he ordered the testosterone gel, Dr Freeman has also admitted trying to cover up the order by asking the firm who delivered it, Fit4Sport Ltd, to say it had been sent in error, returned and destroyed.
He now admits that none of what he asked Fit4Sport to say on the email was true and that he showed it to his colleagues, former British Cycling head of medicine Dr Steve Peters and former British Cycling physio Phil Burt, knowing it to be false.
He has also admitted charges relating to prescribing medicine to non-athlete members of staff at British Cycling and to charges related to record-keeping.
The tribunal will continue on Tuesday.
