A retired woman police inspector told a jury that a healer, accused of groping three female patients, had treated her for 18 years and had never touched her inappropriately.

Millie Wheelwright told Bradford Crown Court that George Boak had a gift for healing and she would have no hesitation in recommending others to him.

Mrs Wheelwright said she met Boak in 1993 when they both worked at Halifax police station. He was a traffic warden and she was a member of the community safety team. She learned he was a healer and began having treatment from him after suffering an abdominal injury.

She said she was quite happy for the defendant to make contact with her body over her clothing, and had confidence in him and his ability. Mrs Wheelwright said that during treatment sessions she agreed for the defendant to have skin to skin contact with her abdomen, hip, lower back and groin, and, on one occasion, her breast when she had been suffering severe pain.

She described a number of sensations she felt during treatment, including pain leaving her body like bolts of lightning; ripples going down her leg like an ocean wave; and her body floating in the air. On another occasion she felt as if her body was being pushed down, as if “a ton of concrete” was on top of her.

She told the court: “Everywhere he has touched me has been with my consent and he has never touched me anywhere where I did not believe he needed to.” Questioned by prosecutor Michael Smith, the witness said the defendant had a “rare and unusual gift” with the capacity to transform people’s health.

She said she had never felt him groping her during treatment sessions.

Mrs Wheelwright added: “I would never regard anything he has done as sexual or a grope.”

Boak, 70, of Aysgarth Avenue, Lightcliffe, near Brighouse, is alleged to have molested three women patients who had gone to him for treatment for chronic pain.

He pleads not guilty to two charges of sexual assault and one of indecent assault. The jury is expected to retire to consider its verdicts today.