{"id":13616,"date":"2025-04-24T17:32:40","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T17:32:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/maddy-cusack-inquest-into-death-of-sheffield-united-footballer-delayed\/"},"modified":"2025-04-24T17:32:40","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T17:32:40","slug":"maddy-cusack-inquest-into-death-of-sheffield-united-footballer-delayed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/maddy-cusack-inquest-into-death-of-sheffield-united-footballer-delayed\/","title":{"rendered":"Maddy Cusack: Inquest into death of Sheffield United footballer delayed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Maria Mulla, appearing remotely on behalf of the Cusack family, told the hearing: &#8220;One of the concerns is a perceived lack of transparency, particularly in relation to documents that are being provided to them [the family]. I am told the FA report in particular has missing pages and appears with a large number of redactions, whole pages.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">She later added: &#8220;The scope of this inquest is very much a work in progress. The family wants some transparency.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">However, coroner Sophie Cartwright said that disclosure had been made under &#8220;the Worcestershire principle&#8221;, which permits redactions according to matters such as relevance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Ms Cartwright added that while she was given &#8220;full, unfettered access&#8221;, both the FA and Sheffield United had sought redactions before onward disclosure, and she had considered additional ones necessary.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Legal representatives for both the FA and Sheffield United said they had acted in accordance with those principles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">However, Ms Cartwright did issue an apology to the Cusack family for the length of time it had taken to collate the disclosure bundle, which extends to more than 700 pages and was sent to them earlier this week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I apologise to the family, you have been waiting a long time for disclosure that is important to you,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Shortly after Cusack&#8217;s death, her family complained about &#8220;processes and conduct&#8221; at Sheffield United, including the conduct of former women&#8217;s team manager Jonathan Morgan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">An investigation commissioned by the club found no evidence of wrongdoing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But the FA launched its own investigation to establish whether &#8220;further action is required under our jurisdiction within football&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">At a previous hearing, the FA&#8217;s legal counsel said the organisation would file a report to the coroner by the middle of January. It is understood this took place.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Mr Morgan attended the hearing alone, while the FA&#8217;s legal counsel Stephen Walsh and head of integrity David Matthews were also present.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Sheffield United&#8217;s chief executive Stephen Bettis appeared remotely.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A fourth pre-inquest hearing has been scheduled for 3 June. The earliest date for the inquest is late July, but the coroner indicated it might not take place until the end of the year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/articles\/c75dklyyqy7o\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Maria Mulla, appearing remotely on behalf of the Cusack family, told the hearing: &#8220;One of the concerns is a perceived lack of transparency, particularly in relation to documents that are being provided to them [the family]. I am told the FA report in particular has missing pages and appears with a large number of redactions, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13616"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13618,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13616\/revisions\/13618"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}