{"id":676061,"date":"2026-01-05T19:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T19:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/676061\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T19:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T19:28:10","slug":"maddy-cusack-inquest-adjourned-as-sheffield-united-deny-lawyers-claims-of-totally-unacceptable-delays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/676061\/","title":{"rendered":"Maddy Cusack inquest adjourned as Sheffield United deny lawyers\u2019 claims of \u2018totally unacceptable\u2019 delays"},"content":{"rendered":"

The inquest into Maddy Cusack\u2019s death has been adjourned for over six months because of what the family\u2019s legal team have described as \u201ctotally unacceptable\u201d delays by Sheffield United.<\/p>\n

A six-day inquest was due to begin today but had to be adjourned after the club only delivered a 699-page bundle of documents to the family on December 15.<\/p>\n

In a pre-inquest hearing at Chesterfield Town Hall, the coroner, Sophie Cartwright, apologised to Cusack\u2019s family for \u201cthe additional upset and stress\u201d. However, the coroner went on to say she did not believe this was a \u201cproduct of Sheffield United not complying with directions\u201d.<\/p>\n

Dean Armstrong, the club\u2019s barrister, told the hearing \u201cwe reject entirely any suggestions of non-compliance\u201d. The complaint, he said, was \u201cwholly misplaced\u201d.<\/p>\n

Cusack\u2019s death, aged 27, in September 2023<\/a> led to her parents, David and Deborah, submitting a seven-page complaint to Sheffield United about her last seven months at Bramall Lane \u2014 coinciding with the appointment of Jonathan Morgan as their women\u2019s team manager the previous February.<\/p>\n

Morgan has always denied being to blame in any way, stating that they had a normal working relationship and that he had tried to help Cusack, a former England Under-19 international, combine her playing commitments with working at the club as a commercial executive.<\/p>\n

The inquest has been provisionally rearranged for June 29 and the latest hearing heard conflicting evidence about what was to blame for delaying proceedings.<\/p>\n

Dean Cartwright, the barrister representing Cusack\u2019s family, said the club had \u201ccompletely ignored\u201d a November 28 deadline and given the family insufficient time to prepare over Christmas.<\/p>\n

It was, he said, \u201ctotally unacceptable\u201d and \u201cextremely disappointing\u201d that the delays had meant the inquest could not begin, causing the family more anguish. But the club denied any non-compliance, and though the reason for the delay in providing the bundle was not made clear, the coroner did not appear to consider the club at fault.<\/p>\n

At a previous hearing in June<\/a>, evidence was presented that Morgan had subjected players to \u201cbullying behaviour\u201d, branded Cusack a \u201cpsycho\u201d and contributed to her deterioration in mental health.<\/p>\n

Morgan, who previously managed the women\u2019s teams at Burnley and Leicester City, was accused in one player\u2019s evidence of shouting during one game: \u201cYou\u2019re always been a f\u2014\u2014 fruitcake, Maddy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The player in question, Fran Kitching, United\u2019s former goalkeeper, told investigators: \u201cThis type of abuse was not uncommon for Jonathan Morgan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other witness statements were read out from some of Cusack\u2019s former team-mates, including one who accused Morgan of leaving certain players so unhappy they had formed a \u201ctrauma bond\u201d.<\/p>\n

Taome Oliver, who played alongside Cusack at Leicester, said in her evidence she was \u201csure (JM) was a contributing factor (to Cusack\u2019s death)\u201d and, speaking of her own experiences, that \u201che made me feel so alone\u201d.<\/p>\n

Appearing via video-link, Morgan told the June hearing that the Football Association\u2019s investigation had taken evidence from a \u201cone-sided selection of witnesses\u201d, adding that \u201cthere hasn\u2019t been anybody to challenge the credibility of the witnesses, or put forward to speak for me\u201d.<\/p>\n

Morgan, who has chosen to represent himself without legal counsel, claimed the witnesses had been sourced by Cusack\u2019s family and there had been \u201ca manipulation of information\u201d to create a narrative against him. The family deny this claim.<\/p>\n

Morgan went on to allege that Kitching held a grievance against him after a proposed transfer to Leicester fell through at the last minute while he was their manager. He also alleged that another player had stated she would never play for him, whereas he had evidence she had texted a member of his backroom staff to ask if she could join his team. Morgan, representing himself without legal counsel, said many of the witnesses giving evidence were players who had been released on his watch.<\/p>\n

Armstrong told the previous hearing the inquest would focus on Morgan\u2019s \u201cbullying behaviour\u201d and read out statements from ex-Sheffield players Nat Johnson and Nina Wilson, among others. Wilson said Cusack had \u201cno hope of anything changing while JM (Morgan) was in charge \u2026 Maddy would have felt helpless\u201d.<\/p>\n

The hearing was also told about a written statement from Callum Davidson, formerly a sports therapist for Leicester, who alleged that Morgan \u201cwould treat players so badly they would leave without (the club) having to pay up their contracts\u201d.<\/p>\n

Another player, Ellie Wilson, lodged her own grievance procedure at Sheffield United because of Morgan\u2019s alleged behaviour. The club dealt with that complaint in the form of a settlement involving a non-disclosure agreement, preventing her from speaking out publicly.<\/p>\n

She, too, linked Cusack\u2019s death to the manager: \u201cLooking back, I felt the club failed MC (Cusack) and me. If they had investigated the matter properly, MC might still be here today.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The inquest into Maddy Cusack\u2019s death has been adjourned for over six months because of what the family\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8817],"tags":[748,9030,393,4884,1620,4239,16,15,9201],"class_list":{"0":"post-676061","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sheffield","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-championship","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-sheffield","13":"tag-sheffield-united","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-womens-soccer"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115844147351462274","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=676061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}