Bloodgate doctor reveals her shame as she admits cutting player's lip as a ruse

The matchday rugby doctor at the centre of the 'Bloodgate' fake injury scandal said yesterday she was "ashamed" of her role in the event.

Dr Wendy Chapman said she still could not understand why she succumbed to "huge pressure" from Harlequins winger Tom Williams, who asked her to cut his lip as a cover-up after he bit into a fake-blood capsule.

His so-called injury meant a specialist goal kicker could come on in the dying minutes of April 2009's Heineken Cup quarter-final tie against Irish side Leinster, who held on to win 6-5.

The doctor admitted for the first time yesterday that she cut the player with a stitch cutter in the changing room after match officials had started to make inquiries.

Yesterday Chapman told General Medical Council counsel Michael Hayton that the situation in the changing room was the most stressful she had ever encountered despite working many years in accident and emergency.

Williams "raised his voice" as he demanded she cut him, she said.

"I remember the extreme pressure. He just kept going on."

Hayton asked: "How were you feeling at this point in time?"

She replied: "Distressed, ashamed, horrified. I just wanted out of there."

"Immediately after you cut him, did the enormity of what you had done dawn on you?" the barrister asked.

Chapman said: "Not the consequences for me. The fact that they cheated was high in my mind. I just could not believe it." She said she regretted not telling the truth to the rugby authorities. "That is the thing I struggle with the most - why I just did this. It is all wrong, there is no way of getting round it."

Sobbing as she gave evidence before a GMC disciplinary hearing, Chapman described the moment she realised she had been "duped". "I was horrified, just horrified. This is a very huge game and they cheated," she said.

"I was very ashamed that I gave in to the pressure."

She said she was so embarrassed about what she had done that she felt she could not confide in anybody. Her counsel, Mary O'Rourke, asked: "Why did you cut him?"

She replied: "I don't understand. It sounds really feeble. I knew there was huge pressure but normally I would just walk out."

Yesterday, she also admitted that she falsely stated at a subsequent European Rugby Cup (ERC) hearing last July that Williams' injury was real and that she had not cut his lip.

She said the hearing "spiralled into a complete nightmare" as the other parties involved in the case - the club, Williams, director of rugby Dean Richards and physiotherapist Steph Brennan - all stuck to the original story. She admitted almost all the charges against her from the GMC which says her conduct on the match day and at the subsequent ERC hearing was likely to bring the profession into disrepute and was dishonest. The only matter Chapman contests is that she told match officials that Williams had a loose tooth in order to deceive them.

The accident and emergency consultant was suspended on no pay from Maidstone Hospital in Kent following the incident and has since left her post. She cannot practise until the outcome of the scheduled two-week fitness to practise hearing in Manchester where she could be struck off.

The married mother-of-three was one of two matchday doctors, who was a fan of the west London club. Chapman said she had treated Williams in the past and was friendly with him. The case continues tomorrow when Leinster team doctor Professor Arthur Tanner is due to give evidence.