A COURT freed rock star Bryan Ferry's son on bail after he spent four months in jail while awaiting trial on charges of ‘nobbling’ witnesses set to testify in a case involving the alleged assault of a fox hunt monitor near Stow.

Otis Ferry, 26, of Eaton Mascott, near Shrewsbury, was freed after a bail application was made behind closed doors at Gloucester Crown Court.

Judge Martin Picton re-opened the court to the public to tell fox-hunt-fanatic Ferry that his mother, former model Lucy Birley, had provided £25,000 surety.

The judge told Ferry he must stay out of his home county of Shropshire, live with his mother in Kensington, report to Earls Court police twice weekly and refrain from contacting prosecution witnesses and Adrian Simpson, Oliver Dale and John Deutsch.

Ferry, joint master of the South Shropshire Hunt, saw four previous bail applications fail but Judge Picton agreed to release him after being told his trial cannot proceed on its scheduled date of March 9 and may be delayed until autumn.

It has been delayed because Ferry's girlfriend Francesa Nimmo, 22, is among four other people who police arrested and bailed until January 28 while investigating an alleged conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

The prosecution says it needs more time to consider whether any of these four should be charged and tried jointly with Ferry.

Ferry denies intending to pervert the course of justice by telling his former groomsman, David Hodgkiss, not to testify against him when he faced robbery and assault charges at crown court last September.

He also denies robbing hunt monitor Helen Ghalmi of a camera and assaulting her during a meeting of the Heythrop Hunt, near Stow, in November 2007.