Man pleads not guilty to groping, harassment charges in Dartmouth court
A man accused of sexually assaulting a girl at a store in Fall River last June and criminally harassing another girl and a woman the following day has pleaded not guilty to all 11 charges he faces from the incidents.
Cole William George Fidgen, 26, of no fixed address is charged with sexual assault, sexual interference, two counts of criminal harassment, four counts of breaching an undertaking and three counts of breaching a recognizance.
Fidgen entered the not-guilty pleas Wednesday, when he appeared in Dartmouth provincial court via a video link from jail.
Crown attorney Mike Blanchard told the court that he and defence lawyer Giancarla Francis believe three days will be needed for the trial.
Judge Jill Hartlen scheduled the hearing for Dec. 13, 16 and 17.
Fidgen has not applied for bail.
RCMP responded June 21, 2023, at about 6:30 p.m. to a report of a sexual assault at a grocery store on Highway 2 in Fall River. Officers learned a man had groped a girl before leaving the area in a red Hyundai Elantra.
The next day, a girl was walking on Wilson Lake Drive in Middle Sackville at about 11:35 a.m. when a man in a red Elantra started following her. The man eventually got out of the vehicle and began photographing the girl while walking 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 noticed the man was taking pictures of the girl again. The man then drove away.
Later that day, at about 3 p.m., a woman was at a park on Highway 1 in Mount Uniacke when she observed a man in the bushes taking photos of her. The woman left the area in her vehicle and the man got into a red Elantra and began following her.
The woman tried to evade the man, but he followed her through Bedford and into Bayers Lake Business Park in Halifax before she managed to lose him.
Investigators located the Elantra, unoccupied, in a parking lot in Bedford at about 8 p.m. They arrested the suspect about 20 minutes later at a nearby business.
The identities of the three complainants are protected by a publication ban.
Fidgen was already facing eight charges in three different courthouses from earlier incidents. The Crown applied to revoke his release on those allegations after he was arrested last June.
Two of those sets of charges were adjourned Wednesday until March. One set includes two counts of trespassing at night and single counts of theft under $5,000 and breaching a court order. The other includes allegations of fleeing from police in a motor vehicle, dangerous driving and public mischief.
Fidgen stood trial in Kentville provincial court in November on a charge of sexual assault and was acquitted. Judge Ronda van der Hoek was not satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Fidgen was the man who grabbed a teenage girl on the buttocks as she was walking across the Acadia University campus during a visit to the Wolfville school with a group in May 2022.
