Aviva Premiership
'Bloodgate' doctor admits shame
Scrum.com
August 24, 2010
Former Harlequins doctor Wendy Chapman, August 24, 2010
Wendy Chpman is facing the General Medical Council © Getty Images
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Players/Officials: Dean Richards | Tom Williams
Tournaments/Tours: Aviva Premiership
Teams: England | Harlequins

'Bloodgate' doctor Wendy Chapman has admitted being ashamed at her part in the scam. Chapman is attending a General Medical Council fitness to practise hearing in Manchester and faces being struck off if found guilty of misconduct.

On Monday she admitted cutting Harlequins wing Tom Williams' lip with a stitch cutter after the player had used a fake blood capsule to con officials in their Heineken Cup quarter-final loss to Leinster in April 2009.

A sobbing Chapman admitted that she couldn't understand why she had succumbed to "huge pressure" from Williams to cut his lip as part of the cover up.

"I was horrified, just horrified. This is a very huge game and they cheated," she said. "I was very ashamed that I gave into the pressure. I was too ashamed. I was desperate to ask for some help, I was so ashamed of doing the wrong thing."

She also revealed that a subsequent ERC hearing "spiralled into a complete nightmare" as the club, Williams, director of rugby Dean Richards and physiotherapist Steph Brennan stuck to their story that the blood injury was genuine.

"They were all saying that there was a real injury, that is all real blood," she said. "I was just desperate. To be the one person to stand up and say 'It was not'... I did not know what to do. There was no justification, it was the wrong thing to do."

Chapman has admitted almost all of the charges brought against her by the GMC, but does contest the accusation that she told match officials that Williams had a loose tooth in order to deceive them.

© Scrum.com

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