Bradley Wiggins (left) has taken issue with being accused and challenged by journalist David Walsh (right) against the background of Walsh speaking up for Tom Humphries.
Irish journalist David Walsh challenged Bradley Wiggins on ethics but had himself “defended a paedophile”, Wiggins has said.
Speaking to Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws, Wiggins said Walsh had accused him of cheating during his career.
And Walsh had challenged him “about ethics and the gray area” – apparently in relation to therapeutic use exemptions.
However, Wiggins has now questioned Walsh’s credibility as he had spoken up on behalf a friend – fellow sports journalist Tom Humphries – when he was in court charged with sex crimes against an underage girl.
“Walsh went on to tell national TV channels I was a cheat,” Wiggins said, claiming Walsh “felt like an idiot” after giving Team Sky a clean bill of health in a book he wrote.
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“His best friend is convicted of having sex with a fourteen-year-old. Walsh stated in court that his friend was a good person.
“He defended a convicted paedophile. Walsh always talks to me about ethics and the gray area. I say: ‘wait a minute, you have just defended a paedophile’. "
Walsh said last year he felt he could not abandon Humphries, but he apologised for his comments and condemned his friend’s crimes.
The comments by Wiggins relate to a controversy in October, 2017, when noted former sports journalist Humphries was jailed by a Dublin court for 2½ years for the grooming and defilement of a teenage girl.
It emerged Walsh was one of two people who gave the court a character reference for Humphries.
And in an interview in 2012, when Humphries was under investigation but had not been convicted or charged, Walsh said he knew more than most about the case.
He insisted Humphries was a “fine man”, adding it would be proven in time. Those remarks were made in a 2012 radio interview with Today FM broadcaster Matt Cooper.
However, because the allegations were under investigation and Humphries was not convicted and could not be named, the comments were not broadcast at the time.
Back then, in December, 2012, Walsh was bringing out his book on Lance Armstrong; Seven Deadly Sins. The abuse allegations against Humphries had been published in the media at the time.
Walsh described in his book how Humphries was the most talented journalist he had known. And said he was “a fine man too”.
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When he was being interviewed by Cooper at the time about the book, Walsh brought Humphries into the conversation.
The exchange with Walsh from 2012 in which Cooper introduces Lance Armstrong into the Tom Humphries story is just below. And you can hear the full interview by clicking on this link.
Matt Cooper: Would it not appear strange, perhaps, to people that you’re defending (Tom Humphries) in that some respects he is; it’s a bit parallel to the whole Lance Armstrong situation.
If somebody had defended Lance Armstrong in the way that you’re defending him you would not have believed them.
David Walsh: No, Matt, no. I think the comparison you have made is odious, I really do. I think it’s completely inappropriate.
And all I would say about the Tom situation is that I know a damn sight more about it than most people. I believe Tom is a fine man. And I believe in the end, that will come out and people will understand he’s a fine man.
I guarantee you; anybody who knows Tom and has remained in touch with him over the last 2½ years will offer you exactly the same view that I’m offering.
They will have no doubts. And Tom has shown himself to be a fine man through this.
In 2017 when the Humphries case was concluded with his jailing and it also emerged Walsh gave a character reference for Humphries to the court, Cooper played the comments on his Today FM show.
Walsh then issued a statement apologising and clarifying why he had given the character reference for Humphries, who admitted his guilt.
“As justice has now run its course I want to say that I unequivocally condemn what Tom Humphries did and have every sympathy for the victim in the case,” he said in 2017 after Humphries was convicted and sentenced.
“I have read her victim impact statement and have some sense of the terrible ordeal she has been through.
“Furthermore, in a radio interview five years ago I spoke about the case in a manner that was insensitive and ill-judged, I apologise unreservedly for that.
“In writing a character reference for Tom I was not in any way condoning the crime for which he has now been sentenced.
“I have been a friend of his for 30 years and since his arrest in 2011 I continued to be his friend because I believe a friend is there through thick and thin.
“Tom did a terrible wrong for which he has now been given a custodial term.”
However, Bradley Wiggins has now taken issue with the fact Walsh challenged him on ethics in the period after he had defended Tom Humphries and then later gave a character reference.
The submission of character references in court is not unusual in the Irish justice system. However, over the past decade it has been seen as more controversial in sex crimes cases.
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