WARNING: This article contains graphic content and may affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone affected by it.
Jacob Hoggard, the former frontman for the rock band Hedley, faces a new rape allegation related to a June 2016 encounter in Kirkland Lake, Ontario.
Hoggard was charged in March with sexual assault causing bodily harm on a woman who was 19 at the time.
Court documents indicate the alleged assault took place around June 25, 2016, when the gang headlined Homecoming week celebrations in the northern Ontario city, located about 300 kilometers northeast of Sudbury.
In an exclusive interview with CBC News, the whistleblower alleged that Hoggard forced himself on her six years ago at the Comfort Inn on Kirkland Lake, where the gang was staying.
“He knew what he was doing was wrong and he did it anyway,” said the woman, now 25 and living in British Columbia. Her identity is protected by a court-ordered publication ban.
After filing a formal complaint with police in February, the woman said she was “relieved” that she had taken a step to hold Hoggard accountable.
In an email, Hoggard’s attorney, Megan Savard, says her client denies the alleged 2016 assault.
“Mr. Hoggard is innocent,” wrote Savard, who declined a CBC request for an interview. “He will plead not guilty. He has no further comment as this case is before the courts.”
Hoggard’s next court appearance on the Kirkland Lake charge is scheduled for August 4.
Verdict awaited in another sexual assault case
In June 2016, the BC woman, a fan of Hedley, hoped to have a moment to talk music and play guitar with Hoggard. Instead, she claims that he raped and demeaned her.
“I did not consent to having sex. I kept telling him ‘No, don’t do it. For ‘, again and again, ”said the woman, recalling the alleged assault on her.
“I felt powerless.”
The new charge comes as Hoggard, 37, awaits a verdict in a Toronto trial where he faces two other counts of sexual assault with bodily harm.
One charge relates to an Ottawa woman and the other to a girl from the Greater Toronto Area who was 16 at the time. Those alleged assaults occurred in the fall of 2016. She also faces a charge of sexual interference in connection with the teen. She has pleaded not guilty to all three charges.
Hoggard took the stand in his own defense at the Toronto trial, which began on May 2.
Since he was first accused of sexual assault four years ago, Hoggard’s music career has come crashing down and Hedley is no longer together. He said that he now works as a carpenter and is married with a young son.
Hoggard told the court that he has acted cruelly in the past during numerous one-night stands, but claims he is not guilty of any crime. A verdict in the Toronto trial is expected soon.
Police did not name Hoggard.
According to Ontario Provincial Police, on March 2, 2022, Hoggard, accompanied by his attorney, turned himself in at the South Porcupine OPP outpost in Timmins, Ontario, about 90 miles west of Kirkland Lake.
He was arrested, charged and released with a promise to appear.
Although he was named in court documents, the OPP did not identify Hoggard in a March news release when they said they charged a 37-year-old Vancouver man in connection with a 2016 sexual assault.
The whistleblower provided the CBC with emails asking police to release Hoggard’s name. Instead, she said an investigator told her the singer would not be named to protect her identity. The woman no longer lives in Ontario and is not named in court documents.
Provincial police say the decision not to appoint Hoggard was made after consultation with senior management.
“The fact that the two people involved don’t live in the same community was a factor we looked into, but ultimately, the safety of the victim is our primary goal,” said Bill Dickson, interim manager of OPP. media relations, in an email.
“The profile or employment of a defendant is not the deciding factor.”
Hoggard’s attorney declined to answer questions from the CBC about the arrest.
“We do not litigate cases in the media and this case is no exception. What we have to say will be said in a court of law,” Savard said.
‘I should have reported it a long time ago’
The BC woman said she had previously considered reporting what happened to the police in 2018, when allegations of inappropriate behavior towards young female fans during the band’s Cageless album tour first surfaced on social media.
In February 2018, before other sexual assault allegations were published, the BC woman also spoke with a CBC reporter, but ultimately decided not to share her story.
“I should have reported it a long time ago, but I was worried that no one would believe me because I was a celebrity,” said the woman, who now feels more confident to come forward.
Since the alleged assault, he has graduated from college and found solace in a new relationship.
“Now I have a partner who supports me and is very helpful. It makes me feel stronger,” the woman said. But, she told her, she still has nightmares about what happened.
The CBC cannot independently verify the woman’s account of events, but has confirmed that members of Hedley’s gang stayed at the Comfort Inn when they visited Kirkland Lake in 2016.
CBC reporters have also seen a selfie of the then 19-year-old woman and Hoggard taken at a party after the concert that night.
From concert to alleged assault
On June 24, 2016, the woman attended Hedley’s concert at the Kirkland Lake Community Center with a family member. After the concert, they got into a van that was taking fans to the Comfort Inn to party with the band. The woman’s relative left before her.
While hanging out at a campfire in the woods behind the hotel, the woman said, she drank several Coors Lite beers with the band. She got drunk and said that was when Hoggard took her to her hotel room.
Once inside, Plaintiff saw several guitars and hoped that she and Hoggard could “play” together. She said he accused her of being “talkative, talkative,” took her phone away from her, and then assaulted her.
He acted like he owned me, like he could do whatever he wanted.– Complainant, who alleges that she was raped by Jacob Hoggard, when she was 19 years old.
Despite her attempts to rebuff his advances, she said, he removed her clothes and took a nude photo of her without her consent. She then undressed her, revealing tattoos of a snake and what looked like a panther on her body.
“He acted like he owned me, like he could do whatever he wanted,” she said.
The woman said that Hoggard wanted to know how old he was. She said that she told him that she was 19 years old and pushed the singer while he was trying to kiss her. She said that she fought against her attempt to penetrate her anally, but she was vaginally raped.
“I was fighting with him the whole time. I felt trapped while he was on top of me. He was very strong,” the woman said.
She told CBC that he yelled at her to stop.
Suffocation and slapping accusations
During the alleged assault, the woman said, Hoggard alternated between calling her “dirty little pig” and “good girl.”
The woman alleged that he strangled her during sex and slapped her, leaving a red mark on her thigh “that lasted for a week.”
After the alleged attack, the complainant said that she felt so nauseated that she went to the bathroom to vomit.
When she went into the shower to wash off, the woman said, Hoggard walked into the bathroom and asked if he could urinate on her. She said that she refused, but that he peed on her stomach anyway.
“It made me sick and sad,” the woman said.
“I was just an average girl who was going to meet a celebrity and talk for a few minutes and then that happens.”
To cope, the complainant destroyed her diary.
The complainant said Hoggard did not use a condom during the sexual assault.
When it was time to pay, the woman waited for Hoggard to pay for a taxi. Instead, she told her, he told her to stay in the room for 30 minutes after he left her and to go out the backyard door.
She said some members of the band and crew may have seen her walking home. Previous attempts by the CBC to track down those individuals to verify her account were unsuccessful.
In an attempt to cope with the trauma, the woman said she burned the diary where she wrote about her feelings in the days after the concert.
A few days after the alleged assault, the woman said, she went to the Center de Santé in Kirkland Lake to get an STD test, which she said was negative. CBC has not been able to verify if there is a record of her visit to the center.
Aside from police, the woman said she only discussed what happened with her current partner, a mental health counselor and the CBC.
The woman’s partner confirmed to CBC that she told him last summer what allegedly happened and that he encouraged her to go to the police.
She said she deleted the videos she took of the concert and the after party, but the memories keep resurfacing, sometimes manifesting in episodes of fitful sleep or startled waking her up in the middle of the night.
She said that she has flashbacks where she is transfixed by the look in Hoggard’s eyes during the alleged assault.
“They scare me. His blue eyes. Flashbacks of him make me feel trapped. I feel demeaned, like it’s just one thing.”
Support is available to anyone who has been sexually assaulted. You can access crisis lines and local support services through this Government of Canada website or the Canadian Partnership to End Violence Database. If you are in immediate danger or fear for your safety or the safety of those around you, call 911.
Reference-www.cbc.ca