(Toronto) An Ottawa woman said Tuesday morning in a Toronto court that musician Jacob Hoggard choked her hard enough to make her fear for her life when he sexually assaulted her in her bedroom. hotel, more than five years ago.
Posted at 1:40 p.m.
The woman, who is the second plaintiff in Jacob Hoggard’s sexual assault trial, said she agreed to meet the singer in Toronto in November 2016, nearly two weeks after the two crossed paths on the app of Tinder dating.
With tears sometimes welling in her eyes on the stand, she said she knew they were meeting to have sex, but that Jacob Hoggard raped her anally, vaginally and orally, and that at a point, he dragged her out of bed and into the bathroom by her legs.
The woman testified that during the incident, the musician choked her to the point that she could not breathe, causing her to fear that he would kill her and that no one would know where she was.
Hedley lead singer Jacob Hoggard has pleaded not guilty to two counts of sexual assault causing bodily harm and one of sexual interference, a charge related to sexual touching of a person under 16.
An agreed statement of facts says he had a sexual relationship with each of the complainants after they visited his hotel on separate occasions in the fall of 2016. Neither woman can be identified by virtue of a publication ban.
The plaintiff, now in her late 20s, testified on Tuesday that Jacob Hoggard acted “like a psychopath” during the encounter and that she was afraid of him. “His eyes were absolutely terrifying,” she claimed.
She said it was like he had become “a different person”, noting that he had been nice in all of their conversations before that day. She would not have gone to meet him if she had expected him to act like this, she added.
The other complainant, who was 16 at the time of the alleged incidents, testified that Jacob Hoggard repeatedly raped her vaginally and orally, and attempted to do so anally, on September 30, 2016.
She told the court she was taken to Jacob Hoggard’s hotel by limo and expected them to spend part of the day together shopping and sightseeing.
She also testified that the singer touched her backstage after a show in Toronto in April 2016.
The defense suggested they had consensual sex and the teenager made up a ‘rape story’ because she was embarrassed to have been ‘used’ by a rock star she had developed feelings for lover.
Defense attorneys have also suggested that the alleged touching did not take place.