It was a story that melted hearts and scrambled minds. Two years ago Robert Young was sitting on his sofa watching Mo Farah in the London Marathon when his girlfriend bet him 20p that he could not run 26.2 miles. The next day he proved her wrong. Then he repeated the trick, only faster. Incredibly, by his telling, a year later he had completed 370 marathons, often getting up at 2.45am to run round Richmond Park in London before he went to work.

Soon there were flattering articles in national newspapers – as well as substantial amounts raised for charity – while his book, Marathon Man, was published in April. In it Young explained that he had learnt to block out pain after enduring horrific abuse from his father as a child, including having a nail hammered through his foot and being zipped in a suitcase and pushed down the stairs.

There was another painful chapter to come. In May Young began his greatest feat yet: an attempt on the Trans America record. To succeed he had to run around 60 miles a day for 46 days. But 34 days and 2,000 miles later his adventure ended in an emergency room in Indianapolis. He was exhausted, had a fractured toe and was suffering from cellulitis, a painful bacteria skin infection. But his torture was not over.

During his record attempt Young had been accused of cheating. But instead of stone-walling, his sponsor Skins did something unusual: it turned to two independent experts, Roger Pielke Jr, of the University of Colorado Boulder, and Ross Tucker, of the University of the Free State, and told them to get to the truth, whatever the consequences.

On Sunday morning Pielke and Tucker did just that, releasing a 101-page report based on interviews with most of the key protagonists and a deep scrutiny of the data. It leaves little doubt that Young had received, in their words, “unauthorised assistance – most likely in the form of riding in or on a vehicle for large parts of the attempt”.

Suspicions about Young’s attempt started when a member of the popular Let’s Run website, who had hoped to jog alongside the 33-year-old Briton in rural Kansas, posted images of his race vehicle moving slowly but with no runner nearby. Quickly the issue blew up to such an extent that Young found himself watched day and night by ultra-running experts. Yet until Sunday there were only suspicions – but no definite proof. However Pielke and Tucker found the smoking gun, using the cadence data on Young’s GPS watch to show he had often cheated. For instance on Young’s 66th session, where he covered 25 miles in just under three hours, he somehow had a stride rate of 31 steps per minute – about 130 to 160 steps per minute fewer than he would expect. “The data will always tell the truth, that’s the thing,” Tucker said. “And here it tells it loudly and clearly.”

Young accepted he made mistakes with tracking his run but still insists he did not cheat, despite admitting there were times when his GPS watch might have been inside his running vehicle. However, he had no answers for these discrepancies when pressed by Pielke and Tucker in an interview.

There are a couple of points worth making here. While the results were greeted with glee by much of the ultra-running community, the Skins chief executive, Jamie Fuller, said he was worried about the abuse Young was getting. “The findings are clear and we absolutely accept them,” said Fuller, who has ended the sponsorship deal. “But we must remember that beyond being a runner he’s a human being. In my view his background means there are special circumstances.”

Only the stone-hearted would dispute that. Young has suffered enough cruelty in his life and, though he has been the author of his own misfortunes here, there is no need for others to glory in them. While cheating is cheating, the only person Young has destroyed is himself. There were no rivals on the road to cheat out of medals.

A second point to stress is that Pielke and Tucker both praised Skins’ “transparency and integrity” – and contrasted it with how other sports companies tend to behave in similar situations. It’s not hard to see their point. Wouldn’t it have been refreshing for Sky, having spent millions funding Team Sky, to bring in independent experts to check everything is above board with their TUE requests? Meanwhile, as Pielke points out, when the BBC and ProPublica made serious allegations against the Nike Oregon Project, Nike’s reaction was to withdraw rather than open its doors to scrutiny.

Not that it has been easy for Skins, and Fuller admits to a tricky few months. “We were extremely naive,” he said. “If we did it again we would have cameras 24/7 and instant tracking from multiple sources rather than just relying on a GPS and two people following Rob. It was a difficult situation when the shit hit the fan but the most important thing for us isn’t the initial problem – because problems will always happen – it’s what you do when they arise. In our view there are no half measures when you apply and live by your principles.” It is a motto one wishes other companies would heed.