The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has rejected a request from Bill Cosby to be released on bail while he appeals against his sexual assault conviction.

The order from the court issued Friday does not elaborate on the decision.

Cosby filed an appeal earlier this month saying that Pennsylvania trial Judge Steven O’Neill had a feud with a key pre-trial witness, the former county prosecutor who declined to arrest Cosby a decade earlier.

YE Bill Cosby
Bill Cosby is led away to begin his sentence (Jacqueline Larma/AP)

And they say his decision to let five other accusers testify among other alleged issues are grounds for a new trial.

A jury convicted the 81-year-old Cosby in April of drugging and molesting a woman in 2004.

The legally blind comedian is housed in a new state prison about 20 miles from his Philadelphia-area estate.