(Toronto) Jacob Hoggard, the frontman of the Canadian band Hedley, was convicted of sexually assaulting an Ottawa woman, but acquitted of the same charge against a teenage girl.
Posted at 3:12 p.m.
Updated at 6:57 p.m.
Hoggard, 37, was also found not guilty of sexual interference, a charge related to sexually touching a person under the age of 16, in an incident involving the same fan when she was 15.
Prosecutors alleged Hoggard groped the teenager backstage after a Hedley show in Toronto in April 2016, then savagely raped her in a Toronto-area hotel room later that year, after his 16 years.
They alleged he violently raped an Ottawa woman at a Toronto hotel in November 2016. Both complainants testified that they were bleeding and bruising.
Hoggard testified during the trial that he had consensual and “passionate” sex with the plaintiffs and that he did not sexually touch the teenager until after she was 16.
Defense attorneys alleged that the plaintiffs made up the allegations after Hoggard dismissed them.