Richard Freeman, the doctor who previously worked with Team Sky and British Cycling, said he feared Shane Sutton because he had once seen him “knock someone out” at a Team Sky training camp in Mallorca.
Sutton, a former pro rider and former coach with Team Sky
and British Cycling, is central to Freeman’s explanation for why a testosterone
product was delivered to the National Cycling Centre in Manchester in 2011.
Freeman claims Sutton bullied him into ordering the
product so he could treat his, Sutton’s, erectile dysfunction; all of which
Sutton denies, including that he suffers from erectile problems.
Freeman has told a General Medical Council hearing – into
his continued fitness to practice as a doctor – that he departed from good
medical practice and ordered testosterone on Sutton’s orders because he was
afraid of him.
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However, he has strenuously denied the central allegations against him; that her ordered testosterone knowing it was going to be used to boost athlete performance.
Freeman accepts he lied about the testosterone previously in initially telling British Cycling staff - specifically head of medicine Steve Peters - it was an accidental delivery and was returned to the suppliers.
He accepts he lied at the time and also lied to UK Anti
Doping when it carried out an investigation.
Freeman told the hearing in Manchester today that he took
the testosterone gels – 30 Testogel sachets - home on the day they were
delivered and that he destroyed them. Freeman had “no answer for that” when
asked why he had done so.
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“I took it home that night. This is my regret, which I
keep replaying again and again. I regret it. I had no thought of an audit
trail," he said.
When it was put to him that one choice he had on the day
was to bring them home so he could secretly administer them to cyclists, he
said: "I find that offensive in every respect".
He insisted he “believes in” WADA’s anti doping code and
had a role in introducing anti-doping into the FA and “European Golf” and had
strong views on drug abuse in sport.
However, he claims he did not read the “small print” in
anti doping rules, specifically that possessing a banned substance without a
TUE or other good reason was a doping offence.
"I admit to poor medical judgement. I was getting,
ordering and prescribing the Testogel for a man I considered my patient,” he
said in reference to his explanation that he ordered the testosterone for
Sutton because he was afraid of him.
Freeman’s claim today that he destroyed the Testogel product is the first time that explanation has been aired. It comes 24 hours after he said he used a screwdriver or other blunt instrument to destroy beyond use a laptop containing rider records.
However, he said the destruction of the laptop – a replacement
for one he says was stolen from him in Greece in 2014 – was done to ensure
nobody could ever access the medical records on it.
He insisted his concern was one based on medical privacy
rather than destroying the laptop to hide anything untoward.
The hearing continues.
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