Judge Dartmouth denies bail for assault and harassment
A man accused of sexually assaulting a girl at a Fall River store last Wednesday and harassing another girl and woman the following day has been denied bail.
Cole William George Fidgen, 25, of no fixed address, is charged with assault, sexual interference, two counts of criminal harassment, four counts of breach of contract and three counts of breach of an affidavit.
A bail hearing took place in Dartmouth County Court on Friday. Crown Attorney Paul Niefer opposed Fidgen’s release on the allegations and filed a petition to have his release related to previous cases withdrawn.
There is a publication ban on the evidence and submissions heard by Judge Alanna Murphy, and on her reasons for denying Fidgen bail.
The charges will return for election and plea on July 18.
RCMP responded to a report of a sexual assault at a grocery store on Highway 2 in Fall River around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. Officers heard a man groped a girl before leaving the area in a red Hyundai Elantra.
A girl was walking on Wilson Lake Drive in Middle Sackville around 11:35 a.m. Thursday when a man in a red Elantra began following her. The man eventually got out of the vehicle and began photographing the girl as he walked towards her.
A witness intervened and drove the girl to a nearby gas station, where she dropped her off. When the witness returned to the station a short time later, she saw that the man had found the girl and was taking pictures of her again. The man then drove off.
Later that day, around 3 p.m., a woman was in a park on Highway 1 in Mount Uniacke when she saw a man in the bushes taking pictures of her. The woman left the area in her vehicle and the man got into a red Elantra and began to follow her.
The woman tried to avoid the man, but he followed her through Bedford and into Bayers Lake Business Park in Halifax before she managed to get rid of him.
Investigators found the red Elantra, empty, in a parking lot in Bedford around 8 p.m. They arrested the suspect about 20 minutes later at a business in Bedford.
The identities of the three accusers are protected by a publication ban.
Fidgen already faced eight charges in three different courthouses from previous incidents.
Those cases include two counts of trespassing at night and several counts of theft of less than $5,000 and violation of a court order, which are also due July 18 in Dartmouth county court; charges of fleeing police in a motor vehicle, dangerous driving and public mischief, expected to return to Halifax Provincial Court in August; and an assault charge set to be tried in Kentville County Court in November.
