- Yorkshire reached an agreement with Wayne Morton, who was suing the club
- Former chief medical officer fired in 2021 over unfounded sexual allegations
- Total severance bill to exceed £2m after 16 illegal dismissals
Yorkshire have reached an out-of-court settlement with former chief medical officer Wayne Morton, ending an extraordinary legal battle involving now-withdrawn allegations that he had sex with a prostitute in the dressing room.
Mail Sport has learned that an agreement has been reached between Morton and the club following the intervention of new chairman Colin Graves in a deal that raises the club’s total compensation bill for the illegal dismissal of 16 members of staff to more than £2 millions.
Morton was suing Yorkshire for £569,000 in a breach of contract lawsuit which has been ongoing since December 2021, when he was one of 16 members of the club’s medical and technical teams sacked via email by former chairman Lord Patel. in a brutal purge of staff who had raised concerns over his handling of the racist Azeem Rafiq saga.
Morton’s claim had threatened to become an explosive court case, as his submissions to the Yorkshire High Court made a series of extraordinary allegations against him, including that he “engaged in unprotected sexual activity and had sexual intercourse with a prostitute” in the dressing room. and he had a “sexual relationship with a senior employee of the club.”
Morton had always denied these accusations.
Yorkshire has reached an out-of-court settlement with former doctor Wayne Morton after he was sacked over unfounded sex scandal allegations.
Morton was suing the club for £569,000 after being one of 16 people sacked for raising concerns about its handling of Azeem Rafiq’s racism allegations (above) in December 2021.
At a pre-trial hearing last month, Yorkshire are understood to have dropped those two allegations of sexual misconduct, as well as three other allegations against Morton that the club were using to justify his dismissal.
Morton was also accused of covering up an alleged incident of indecent exposure by Rafiq during a Yorkshire tour of South Africa in 2012, an allegation which both men denied and was withdrawn by the club.
The allegations against Morton were first brought before the High Court in 2022. Lord Patel, who was the club’s director, resigned last March after a turbulent reign that cost the club millions in payments and saw it approach the brink of bankruptcy. the administration. .’
Yorkshire’s deal with Morton will take the total cost of their handling of Rafiq’s allegations of racist abuse at the club to more than £3.5m.
As well as finally admitting that the 16 dismissals were procedurally unfair, Yorkshire also spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on legal fees, as well as paying £200,000 to Rafiq in compensation.
Morton spent 38 years as a physiotherapist in Yorkshire and previously worked as part of the England medical team, but was unexpectedly made redundant along with five of his colleagues from Pavilion Physiotherapy Clinic.
The deal agreed with Graves will be ratified at a Yorkshire Board meeting later this month.
Yorkshire declined to comment.
