A 22-year-old man charged with sexually assaulting a woman in St. John's Sunday spent two nights in the lockup before he was released on bail.
Jake Conway held his head in his hands for parts of his bail hearing Tuesday, appearing upset as Crown prosecutor Paul Thistle read details from the police report to the court. Those details, along with Judge Pamela Goulding's reasons for granting Conway bail, are banned from publication at this point, to protect the integrity of a potential trial.
Conway, who has no criminal record, is facing a maximum of 10 years in prison if he is convicted.
Thistle described a sexual assault charge as "One of the most serious crimes we have in Canadian law," and Goulding agreed, looking directly at Conway as she reiterated the grave nature of such a crime and the public's acknowledgement of this. However, she deemed Conway eligible for release with a number of conditions given the specific circumstances.
Conway will be back in court at the end of the month.
