Tradie, 24, convicted of stealing a woman’s handbag at a popular tourist bar in Bali after being caught and beaten by locals flashes a beaming smile as he is released from jail
- Queensland carpenter, 24, released from Kerobokan prison after 4 months’ jail
- Matthew Richards Woods beamed a huge smile of relief, hugged his parents
- Taken by immigration officials to the airport on Friday to be flown home
- Hardest part about leaving Bali prison was missing the new friends he made
A Queensland man has been released from an Indonesian jail after serving four months for stealing a woman’s handbag – a crime he says he didn’t commit.
Gold Coast carpenter Matthew Woods, 24, was smiling from ear to ear as he walked out of Bali’s Kerobokan prison on Friday straight into the arms of his parents Richard and Michelle, who were waiting for him.
Carrying his personal belongings in an orange bag, Woods was clearly delighted to see his parents and hugged them both warmly along with a Balinese supporter as he was released from jail.
Matthew Richards Woods (right) leaves Bali’s Kerobokan prison beaming with happiness after an enormous welcoming hug from his father Richard (left) on Friday
Matthew Richards Woods, 24, pictured in June. The Gold Coast carpenter faced the daunting prospect of seven years’ jail but was instead sentenced to four months and released on Friday
Woods said he was feeling ‘on top of the world’ and was looking forward to eating ‘normal food’ again.
He said the hardest thing about leaving jail was leaving the friends he had made during his four-month sentence.
‘I made good friends here,’ he told a reporter as he got into a waiting immigration official car to take him to the airport for his flight home to Australia, later on Friday night.
Woods said he would come back to Bali.
‘Yep, when I’m allowed,’ he said, and laughed as the car door closed.
Woods faced a potential sentence of up to seven years’ jail after he was convicted of snatching a Canadian tourist’s bag in June near the Pretty Poison bar in Canggu, Bali.
During his trial, the Denpasar District Court heard that Woods was on a motorcycle with an Australian partner known only as ‘Dean’ who was driving when the pair approached 20-year-old Canadian woman and her friend on the street and introduced themselves as Australian.
After talking for a while, Woods pulled the victim’s bag and fled on the motorbike, with the Canadian woman giving chase, the court heard.
The pair on the motorbike were intercepted by a local man, Ahmed Riadin, and the bike fell, the court heard.
Local people searched Woods for the bag but found nothing, the court heard.
The bag was found by a man near a guesthouse a few metres from where Woods had fallen, the court heard in September.
Woods was chased down by a group of local Balinese who beat him before he was arrested.
The yellow bag (pictured) that was stolen
The tradesman has consistently maintained his innocence, and the Canadian woman, who other witnesses testified was drunk at the time, was the only one who saw Woods take the bag.
The maximum penalty for theft committed by two or more people under Indonesia’s Article 363 is seven years in jail.
Woods was sentenced on October 10 to four month’s jail, with just over two weeks remaining on top of time already served since June.
Woods’ parents who have staunchly defended him throughout the court case, said he was an innocent man caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.
‘He’s such a good kid, such a polite kid, very generous – that’s why everyone loves him,’ father Richard Woods told Seven News after the sentencing.
‘What he’s made out to be, he’s not … I know he didn’t do it. Everyone knows he didn’t do it – but, wrong place, wrong time,’ he said.
Woods was chased down and beaten by locals before being jailed for four months