Sutton slams Team Sky doctor: ‘You are a spineless liar and you can’t look me in the eye’
SUTTON’S FURIOUS BLAST AT TEAM SKY DOCTOR FREEMAN
SHANE SUTTON sensationally stormed out of the Richard Freeman medical tribunal yesterday after branding the former Team Sky and British Cycling medic a ‘spineless liar’ who turned up for work drunk following a ‘messy divorce’.
On a bombshell day in Manchester, former technical director and head coach Sutton reacted furiously to claims he was a drugs cheat and that 30 sachets of banned Testogel ordered by Freeman and delivered to the Velodrome were for Sutton to treat alleged erectile dysfunction, rather than for an athlete to improve their performance.
‘You’re saying I can’t get an erection in the press,’ an incredulous Sutton thundered shortly after entering the room, in an indication of what was to come. ‘My wife wants to come here and testify you’re a liar.’
That was one of a number of volatile exchanges over an explosive two hours which reverberated through the sport, heaping scandal on the battered reputation of cycling’s Manchester medal factory.
A relentless back-and-forth came to an abrupt end when Sutton delivered an impromptu closing speech and headed for the exit.
After taking the oath following a delay due to legal arguments, the 61-year-old Australian hammered home his points and directed the blame for the delivery of the banned substance — which Freeman admits ordering — firmly at the door of the doctor, who was shielded from Sutton by screens at his request.
And at 4.10pm, the Australian, who also worked for British Cycling and Team Sky, decided to call time on an astonishing afternoon.
‘I want to look the defendant in the eye and tell him I am not lying,’ he declared.
He then turned his attention to Mary O’Rourke, the fiery QC representing Freeman, who had been responsible for carrying out a combative cross-examination.
‘She’s accused me of all kinds of things today,’ he said. ‘I am going to leave the hearing now. I don’t need to be dragged through this s***fight that this individual is trying to bring on me. I was asked to come here and answer whether I ordered Testogel. I did not. The person lying is the man behind the screen and hopefully one day he will explain why.’ Sutton, who is also due to give evidence when the hearing sits again tomorrow, then fired a barrage of closing shots at Freeman, the man who helped Bradley Wiggins to Tour de France victory in 2012. ‘I wish Richard all the best,’ said Sutton. ‘This is a guy who the joint head of cycling wanted out the door because he turned up drunk on several occasions. ‘Richard went through a messy divorce. He was like the Scarlet Pimpernel. I covered his backside while he was there. Two critical cases of athletes ill and we couldn’t get hold of him all weekend. ‘If you bring Steve Peters (head of medicine) in, he will verify it all. I want to thank you for letting me have my say. ‘I haven’t lied. I’m not going to be dragged through this by a mindless individual who is defending someone who has already admitted hundreds of lies.’ Before leaving, Sutton added: ‘He’s hiding behind the screen, which is spineless. Richard — you’re a spineless individual.’ Earlier in the day, O’Rourke had described Sutton as an ‘habitual and serial liar’, adding ‘he is a doper with a doping history’. She also said witnesses had given statements ‘to tell us you are a liar, a doper and a bully’. Sutton, with a nod to statements made about his character before he arrived, reacted furiously. ‘You have called me a serial liar and you don’t even know me,’ he said. ‘I think you are totally out of order... my 12-year-old son can read the crap you’ve put in the papers — you’re the bully.’
He added: ‘Who’s lying is the guy who is hiding behind the screen and who can’t look his friend in the eye.’
Sutton disclosed that he would swear on his three-year-old daughter’s life he was telling the truth and added that he was willing to take a lie detector test.
To add weight to her argument, and to counter Sutton’s claims he counted Freeman as a ‘friend’, O’Rourke read out a 2018 text she said he had sent to his former colleague.
‘Be careful what you say, don’t drag me in, you won’t be the only person I can hurt,’ it says.
She also accused Sutton of ‘having a laugh’ with his claim that he did not know what Testogel was until the scandal broke in the press.
‘There’s only one joke in this room and that’s you,’ was the New
South Welshman’s blunt response.
At one point during the cross-examination, Simon Jackson QC, for the General Medical Council, accused O’Rourke of firing ‘machine gun accusations’.
Pressing on, she revealed that she had spoken to an anonymous person who claimed to have seen vials of testosterone in ex-cyclist Sutton’s fridge at a house he lived at in Rowley Regis in the West Midlands and had witnessed him inject them ‘in the late Nineties or Noughties’.
‘This was a guy arrested for two years for growing dope in his house,’ responded Sutton. ‘He’s never been to my house.’
O’Rourke responded that she was not talking about the man Sutton named.
Directly accused of telling Freeman to order the testosterone, Sutton responded: ‘Tell Dr Freeman to take the screen down, man up and look me in the eye. Tell me to my face I ordered it. He won’t because he knows I didn’t... I have no idea why he was ordering it, to be honest, Miss O’Rourke — to this day I’m still racking my brains as to why he ordered it.’
When the Irish barrister persisted that he had told Freeman to get the gel, Sutton was again combative.
‘I’m sorry, Miss O’Rourke, but you’re lying through your back teeth — and so is your client.’
Outside the tribunal office later, on Manchester’s busy Oxford Road, Sutton told the gathered reporters and TV crews that he would speak to his family before deciding whether to return tomorrow.
The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service hearing, which will determine whether Freeman is fit to practise, is scheduled to conclude next month.
Freeman has already admitted 18 of 22 offences.