Hedley singer Jacob Hoggard admits he lied to get sex, hide infidelity
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Loading... - Gloria Vega
- 26 May 2022
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Prosecutors in Jacob Hoggard's sexual assault trial suggested Wednesday that the Hedley frontman lied about his encounters with a teenage fan and a young woman, pointing to several other instances in which he lied to get out of "difficult situations."
Over more than a day of testimony, Hoggard, 37, acknowledged he lied to the younger complainant in the weeks and months before their encounter at a hotel, telling her he loved her and floating the idea of marriage and a future together so that he could have sex with her.
Hoggard also agreed he lied to the second complainant — an Ottawa woman who was in her early 20s at the time — when he said he cared about her and was there for her as she sought an apology during a phone call a few days after their encounter. In fact, he didn't particularly enjoy her company and blocked her number after that call, he said.
He lied to the complainants to get them to leave his hotel room after each encounter, he told the court. And he lied to his partners, including his now wife, to hide his infidelity over more than a decade of touring with Hedley, deleting messages, sexual photos and videos, and saving women's numbers in his phone under men's names, he said.
In her cross-examination Wednesday, Crown attorney Kelly Slate suggested Hoggard's account of consensual sex with the complainants was just another lie.
"I'm only telling the truth right now," he replied.
Hoggard, born and raised in B.C.'s Lower Mainland, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of sexual assault causing bodily harm and one of sexual interference, a charge that refers to the sexual touching of someone under 16.
Prosecutors allege he repeatedly raped two women, one of whom was 16 at the time, in two separate incidents in the fall of 2016. The complainants, who had travelled from out of town to meet him, were left bleeding and bruised, the Crown alleges.
Did not consent
The complainants have testified they cried and said no during the encounters, which took place in Toronto-area hotel rooms.
The younger complainant, who first met Hoggard because she was a longtime Hedley fan, testified he raped her vaginally and orally and attempted to do so anally in September 2016. She told the court she tried to fight him off at various points but was overpowered.
The second complainant met Hoggard through the dating app Tinder while the band was in Ottawa. She testified she agreed to meet him in Toronto to have sex in November 2016, but did not consent to what happened in the hotel, telling the court she was raped anally, vaginally and orally.
Both recalled that Hoggard spit in their mouths, slapped them and called them "slut" and "whore." The first complainant alleged he also pushed her face into the pillows, making it difficult for her to breathe.
The second complainant said Hoggard choked her so hard she feared for her life. At one point, she alleged, he dragged her by the legs into the bathroom and asked her to urinate on him, which she refused to do. Read More...
