The occasionally dramatic if sprawling medical tribunal of the former British Cycling and Team Sky doctor Richard Freeman, which was due to be done and dusted last March, may not finish now until October 2020 after being adjourned yet again.
Dr Freeman, who faces being struck off after accepting 18 of 22 charges against him, including ordering 30 sachets of banned testosterone and lying about it to UK Anti-Doping, had been due to testify this week but had to pull out on Monday on grounds of ill health.
That has led to the case at the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service in Manchester, which had already been rescheduled from February 2019 after Freeman suffered stress issues, being pushed back probably until late April or May 2020 as both legal teams have other business to attend in the new year.
However the tribunal heard that if the case is not settled in a four-week window in the spring it may need to be adjourned again until October. The MPTS said it would confirm the timings at 10.30am on Tuesday.
Freeman has denied ordering testosterone to be sent to British Cycling headquarters in 2011 knowing or believing it was intended to enhance an athlete’s performance.
He maintains that he was bullied into ordering it to treat the erectile dysfunction of the former British Cycling performance director, Shane Sutton, a claim Sutton denies.
As Sutton told the tribunal last month: “I would have no problem in telling you it was for me. You are telling the press I can’t get a hard on – my wife wants to testify that you are a bloody liar.”
Last week Freeman’s QC Mary O’Rourke said her client, who has bipolar disorder, had seen his psychiatrist after a “crisis”, adding: “I’m not going to take risks or play games with his health.”
Freeman has attended the hearing for only one day since Sutton called him “a spineless individual” before storming out.
O’Rourke then tried unsuccessfully to have Sutton’s evidence struck from the record. However she has indicated she may go to the high court during the next few months in order to overturn the tribunal’s ruling.
