Doctor Richard Freeman’s fitness to practise medicine is ‘impaired by reason of misconduct’

Former British Cycling and Team Sky chief doctor Richard Freeman’s fitness to practise medicine is impaired, a Medical Practitioners Tribunal has ruled.

Dr Freeman admitted 18 of 22 charges against him at the start of the long-running hearing in 2019 and on Friday was found guilty of all but one, including ordering testosterone to British Cycling headquarters ‘knowing or believing’ that it was to be given to a rider for doping purposes.

Dr Freeman’s QC Mary O’Rourke offered no submissions on his behalf when the hearing resumed on Wednesday and, after a day’s deliberation, the tribunal gave their verdict on his fitness to practise.

Richard Freeman was found guilty last week of ordering banned testosterone ‘knowing or believing’ it was to be used to dope a rider

The conclusion read: ‘The Tribunal bore in mind that Dr Freeman’s misconduct involved a number of significant elements, including serious dishonesty, as well as behaviour which could have placed patients at unwarranted risk of harm.

‘It concluded that public confidence in the profession would be undermined if a finding of impairment were not made.

‘The Tribunal has therefore determined that Dr Freeman’s fitness to practise is impaired by reason of his misconduct.’

Dr Freeman had claimed that he ordered Testogel in 2011 to treat former performance director Shane Sutton’s erectile dysfunction.

Freeman worked for Team Sky (pictured) and British Cycling between 2010 and 2017

That was strenuously denied by the Australian and dismissed by the tribunal as being untruthful.

‘The Tribunal considered that Dr Freeman’s conduct surrounding the order of the Testogel amounted to a long and considered pattern of very serious dishonesty,’ the impairment ruling continued.

‘In the course of that dishonesty… Dr Freeman abused the professional trust of colleagues and friends, publicly traduced the reputation of another professional (Mr Sutton), and deliberately misled UKAD, among other matters.

‘His dishonesty continued up to and during the hearing itself. This, too, was serious misconduct.’

Freeman, in an interview with the Mail on Sunday on the weekend, spoke out for the first time following his guilty verdict, still insisting ‘I have never doped a rider in my life.’ 

‘It’s so disappointing,’ he said. ‘It’s unbelievable. I have never doped a rider in my life. I’m still to see any evidence of who this rider supposedly was. I accept there are people who don’t believe me. They will say I’ve lied and changed my story and can’t trust anything I say. I’ve admitted to those lies.

‘And, yes, I deserved the GMC tribunal [a General Medical Council probe into whether he is fit to be a doctor]. But I can say with a clear conscience that I didn’t order Testogel knowing or believing it was for cheating.’