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news
Dr Richard Freeman (picture credit Team Sky)Dr Richard Freeman tribunal adjourned on medical grounds – unlikely to resume before May
The tribunal into the former British Cycling and Team Sky doctor Richard Freeman has been adjourned until the New Year due to his health and is unlikely to resume before May and perhaps as late as October.
The hearing, originally due to be have been held last February, eventually started in October and had been due to conclude by this Friday 20 December.
However, delays have been caused by legal adjournments and due to the health of Freeman, who has bipolar disorder.
On Friday, his lawyer Mary O’Rourke QC told the hearing that there had been “a crisis [in his mental state] in the last three or four days.”
The adjournment, needed because O’Rourke will be working on a case that starts in January and is scheduled to last 62 days, was agreed by the General Medical Practitioners Tribunal (GMPT) today following representations from the lawyer and the General Medical Council, which brought the case.
The GMPT, which is sitting in Manchester, says it will announce tomorrow the dates when the hearing is planned to resume, which may be in May but could be as late as October.
Freeman has admitted 18 of the 22 charges brought against him, in a case that could result in him being declared unfit to practise medicine.
Of the four charges he denies, the most serious is that the Testogel sachets he has admitted ordering and which were delivered to British Cycling’s headquarters in 2011 were intended to be used to enhance an athlete’s performance.
Freeman – who has not yet given evidence, nor been cross-examined by the GMC) – insists instead that he was bullied into ordering the patches by former British Cycling and Team Sky coach Shane Sutton to treat the Australian’s alleged erectile function.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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6 comments
I'm old enough that this reminds me of the Guinness fraud case where one of the defendants Ernest Saunders had his sentence reduced on appeal on account of him suffering dementia. Miraculously, shortly after his early release, he made a recovery, the first such reported recovery in medical history!
The GMC are a right disgrace here. If you cannot get them to recognise that mental health is an issue what hope for the rest of us? If he isn't bi-polar and having a series of mental health crisies then perhaps they should charge Freeman's Doctors and get them struck off.
If they accept Freeman is bi-polar and has serious mental health issues then they should show some humanity and shut this case down. Freeman is not going to practice again, he has admitted most of the charges; the ones he is contesting are only important to those who want "proof" of doping in Team Sky/BC, however nebulous that proof may be.
They are relying on evidence of an individual who many believe is a bully, a liar and a cheat. Sutton may be none of those things, but I'd suggest that nobody would be surprised if it was found out that he is all of them?
Time to put this to bed in my view.
^ This, totally agree.
If the purpose of the tribuneral is to whether doctors are fit to practise medicine, and if Dr Freeman is not going to practise again it seems like it doesn't need to go further.
At the moment it seems like an endless saga, which isn't going to get to the bottom of any other issues.
Having a crisis about telling the truth about these testosterone gels, given Sutton's ego wouldn't allow Shane to go along with the "it was for my ticky dicky" excuse - leaving Freeman holding the can...
8 years and counting since the alleged behavior. Good job it's a victimless "crime"