‘Sutton told doctor to file false report’
FREEMAN’S VARNISH CLAIM
DR RICHARD FREEMAN refused to carry out a request from Shane Sutton to file a false medical report stating a rider had a bad back, a hearing heard yesterday.
Australian ex-head coach Sutton, who Freeman claims bullied him into ordering 30 sachets of banned testosterone for the Manchester Velodrome in 2011, is also alleged to have declared ‘I’ve got him where I want him’ after noticing the former team medic, who he had also reportedly threatened to ‘do’, had lost weight — according to former physio Phil Burt.
On another explosive day at a medical tribunal in Manchester which will determine whether the ex-British Cycling and Team Sky physician is fit to practise, Freeman’s barrister made the staggering allegation that, to justify the axing of Jess Varnish from the elite programme in 2016, Sutton asked the doctor to provide a note stating a back problem would keep her off the ‘podium’ at future events.
However, Freeman refused to bow to pressure from Sutton. Varnish took her case to an employment tribunal, which she lost, but Sutton subsequently quit as British Cycling’s technical director having been found guilty of using ‘sexist language.’ He was cleared of bullying.
Burt, the man who opened the package which contained the Testogel sachets, was shaking as he took his seat at the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service which could also raise serious questions over the cycling HQ which became known as the gold medal factory.
When asked by the panel to give an example of what he had described as a ‘monumental fall- out’ between Freeman and Sutton over a plane ticket Sutton had demanded Freeman pay for, Burt recalled an incident in a corridor.
‘Shane said the doc looks like he’s losing weight,’ explained Burt, saying Sutton added: ‘I’ve got him where I want him.’
Burt, who claimed he had been given a ‘veiled threat’ by Sutton, added: ‘It seemed Shane was riding Richard all the time. He was on his case permanently. They were at odds all the time.’ During the hearing, which sits again on Wednesday, argument was had over whether Burt, who left in 2018, would regularly open Freeman’s packages at the Velodrome, a key point with regards to whether Freeman could have requested the sachets without others finding out.
‘It would be quite normal for you to open packages from (supplier) Fit4Sport — there wasn’t a belief anything was secret?’ asked Mary O’Rourke QC, representing Freeman. ‘ Yes,’ was Burt’s response, although he later told Simon Jackson, QC for the General Medical Council (GMC), that he had only opened the package because he thought it may contain some tape he was waiting for.
In evidence, the physio, who had his own lawyer in the room, was said to have ‘resupplied lots of medicines’ on behalf of Freeman, who is alleged to have ordered banned testosterone to be given to an athlete in 2011. Should that be the case, it may well lead to further questions being asked by the Health and Care Professions Council.
It was also alleged that a member of staff — intimated to be Sutton — had made an unauthorised payment to send a masseuse he was allegedly having an affair with to do a BSc in physiotherapy at a university. However, an independent review found that while the initial invoice for the first year of a three-year course only had one signature, the following two were countersigned by three others and there was ‘no suggestion the course was not appropriate for the member of staff to attend’.
Freeman (left) has admitted 18 of 22 allegations including ordering the Testogel and orchestrating a subsequent cover-up. He denies that he ordered the gels ‘ knowing or believing’ they would be used to improve an athlete’s performance.