Musician who told female hospital patient that he had healing hands granted bail
Christopher Woods, 59, from Duke Street in the Waterside area of the city is to be sentenced next month for indecently assaulting a female staff member in a cinema
A musician who told a female hospital patient that he had healing hands as he indecently assaulted her by putting his hands on her breasts has been granted bail in what a judge described as "a line ball decision" at Derry Crown Court.
The defendant, Christopher Woods, 59, from Duke Street in the Waterside area of the city, who goes by the name Chris Kip Woods when performing, is to be sentenced next month for indecently assaulting a female staff member in a cinema in Derry in October of last year and for indecently assaulting a female patient in Altnagelvin Hospital's accident and emergency department on January 1 of this year.
He was remanded in custody earlier this month when he breached one of his bail conditions by being found intoxicated on the Craigavon Bridge.
Opposing the bail application a prosecution barrister told Judge Philip Babington that it was Wood's eighth breach of court bail conditions. He said Woods was unable to stand due to his level of intoxication when he was found on the upper deck of Craigavon Bridge five days ago.
The prosecutor said in the hospital incident Woods, who was drunk, approached a female patient in the accident and emergency department.
"He stood over her, spoke to her and made her feel uncomfortable. She walked to another nearby corridor. He followed her and grabbed her from behind without warning and grabbed her breasts", the barrister told Judge Babington.
Applying for bail barrister Sean Doherty accepted the offences were upsetting for the two women and said without trivialising the incidents he submitted they were "towards the lower end of the spectrum".
He said Woods, who was sexually abused when a child, had a complex psychiatric background and was an alcoholic. He said Woods could be managed on bail if banned from being intoxicated in a public case.
Granting bail Judge Babington told Woods, who, was in custody in Maghaberry Prison, "be under no illusions, this is a line ball decision. I am giving you this opportunity but you are not to be intoxicated in public. I am taking a risk with this and if the police find you in a similar state again you will be going straight to jail".