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UKAD suspends Richard Freeman doping case while appeal heard

No date has been set yet for ex-British Cycling and Team Sky doctor's appeal against being struck off...

UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) says it has suspended proceedings against former British Cycling and Team Sky doctor Richard Freeman until the High Court has heard his appeal against the decision in March this year of the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) to have him struck off the Medical Register.

> Ex British Cycling and Team Sky doctor Richard Freeman to appeal being struck off Medical Register

The MPTS made its decision following a long-running hearing centred around Freeman’s ordering of Testogel testosterone patches to the National Cycling Centre in 2011, with its panel ruling that he had done so “knowing or believing” that they were intended for an athlete to improve their performance, a charge he had denied.

The tribunal ruled that his ability to practise medicine had been impaired due to his misconduct, with the MPTS saying that he had constructed an “elaborate falsehood” in an attempt to “conceal his conduct.”

In a statement today confirming that it had paused its own proceedings, UKAD, whose case is being heard by the independent National Anti-Doping Panel noted that no date has yet been set for the High Court hearing.

In February, ahead of the MPTS handing down its decision, UKAD charged Freeman with possession of prohibited substances and/or prohibited methods, as well as tampering or attempted tampering with any part of doping control, and provisionally suspended him from all sport.

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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Secret_squirrel | 2 years ago
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Good lord really?  If they are actually assessing him on the evidence the verdict of another body based on that evidence should be irrelevant. 
 

Anyone would think they are reluctant to get to the bottom of this stuff. 

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Dave Dave replied to Secret_squirrel | 2 years ago
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On the medical (especially ethics) front, they surely have to defer to the expert opinion of the medical profession?

Honestly, I'd love to know what's really behind all this, because nothing makes any sense here. The stuff we've heard so far just raises questions. The only thing it's strongly suggested is that if Sky were doping, Freeman was kept well away from it.

I half wonder if the real story isn't something as bizarre as providing testosterone to a transgender person who couldn't get treatment on the NHS. The kind of thing that would get Freeman in much bigger trouble if it came out.

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