Richard Freeman, the former British Cycling and Team Sky doctor who was struck off the medical register in 2021 after a tribunal ruled his ability to practise medicine had been impaired by misconduct, has lost his appeal at the High Court.
Mr Justice Fordham said there was “nothing within the tribunal’s approach, reasoning or conclusions” that was “wrong” and “still less any respect” that would undermine the decision.
Freeman was ordered to pay the General Medical Council’s (GMC) costs of £23,000 after unsuccessfully appealing his removal from the register having been found to have ordered banned testosterone in 2011 “knowing or believing” it was to help dope an unnamed rider.
During the lengthy tribunal Freeman had denied the central charge about the purpose of the Testogel order, but admitted 18 of the 22 charges against him, ultimately saying he disagreed “vehemently” with the ruling and lodging an appeal.
> Freeman fallout continues as Wiggins doubts a rider would have used Testogel for doping
That appeal, however, was today rejected, a High Court judgement his legal team said they were “disappointed by”.
The tribunal concluded in March 2021 that “it was clear that” the inference could properly be drawn that “when Dr Freeman placed the order and obtained the Testogel, he knew or believed it was to be administered to an athlete to improve their athletic performance”.
Neil Dalton, the chair of the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service Hearing, said that “Freeman’s behaviour is fundamentally incompatible with continued registration” and determined that “erasure is the only sufficient sanction which would protect patients, maintain public confidence in the profession and send a clear message to Freeman, the profession and the public.”
Once the tribunal was concluded, UK Anti-Doping (Ukad) charged Freeman with two violations, namely possession of prohibited substances and tampering or attempted tampering with any part of doping control.
The case was paused during Freeman’s High Court appeal, but proceedings may now continue following today’s conclusion.
3 thoughts on “Ex-British Cycling and Team Sky doctor Richard Freeman loses appeal against medical register ban”
I feel sorry for the bloke;
I feel sorry for the bloke; he has obviously made errors, allowed himself to be intimidated and bullied. But I have a feeling he is the patsy in this debacle. BC doesn’t care about its people so, will happily hang someone like him out to dry to cover their corporate backsides. Tackling the real villains will be too much grief, so let him dangle!
He has always had the choice
He has always had the choice of coming fully clean (lol). All these items are not about whether or not there is a Mr Big – its down to his personal choices.
He has chosen to lie, dodge and prevaricate. It would be worth auditing him to see where all the money for all these fruitless appeal attempts is coming from. He’s either delaying to avoid his own guilt or he’s been persuaded so hard to take the fall for the “Mr Big”. However Im struggling to figure out – that outside of cold hard cash – why he’d front for a conceptual Mr Big.
This is hardly life or death stuff given the people involved – none of whom are in “hire a hitman” territory.
I wouldn’t be so sure. This
I wouldn’t be so sure. This case falls into those good old days of UK fingerpointing multiple Russian doping scandals. And this case seems to have been part of the tit for tat, glass house response.
But, perhaps, you already knew that, SS!?!
Who knows how deep the rabbit hole goes…