A Derry man who admitted sexually assaulting a woman in a lift at Altnagelvin hospital has been jailed for eight months.
Christopher Woods, 53, of Pennethorne Court in the Waterside area of the city, has been charged that on Tuesday, February 27, he sexually assaulted the woman in a lift and behaved in a disorderly manner.
A Public Prosecution Service (PPS) representative said a report was made at 3.15pm on February 27 by a woman who had been sexually assaulted in a lift.
When the woman got in to the lift Woods told her, ‘I have healing hands’.
The woman ignored him as she believed he was intoxicated, but he then lifted his hands shouting ‘I have healing hands’ as he ‘grabbed both of her breasts’, the Public Prosecutor added.
The lift doors then opened and she immediately reported the incident to a member of staff.
Police arrived and found the defendant in the accident and emergency department where he began shouting at officers to ‘f***ing calm down’.
At Strand Road Police Station he gave a ‘no comment’ interview.
The court heard Woods has a previous record with several relevant entries for disorderly behaviour.
Defence barrister Stephen Mooney said it was an ‘exceptionally serious offence’ for which his client had pleaded guilty.
District Judge Barney McElholm said the courts had tried to deal with Woods in an ‘understanding’ manner in the past but he said it was time it ‘called a halt to his offending behaviour’. Suspended sentences would be taken into account, however, credit would be given for an early plea which ‘saved the woman’ from further ‘trauma’.
Three suspended sentences were activated bringing the 53-year-old’s total sentence to eight months in prison.
He was also placed on the sex offender’s register for a period of seven years.
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