(Toronto) The prosecution at the Jacob Hoggard sexual assault trial suggested on Wednesday that the singer of the rock band Hedley lied about his encounters with a teenage admirer and another young woman, pointing to several other times he allegedly lied for get out of “a bad step”.
Posted at 2:24 p.m.
Updated at 5:41 p.m.
During more than a day of testimony, Hoggard, 37, admitted to lying to the young complainant in the weeks and months before they met at a hotel, telling her he loved her and dangling the idea of marriage and a future together, so he could sleep with her.
Hoggard also admitted that he lied to the second complainant — an Ottawa woman who was in her early 20s at the time — when he told her he cared about her and was there. for her, as she expected an apology from him in a phone call a few days after they met.
In fact, he hadn’t particularly enjoyed her company and he blocked her number after that call, he told the court.
He also lied to the plaintiffs to get them to leave his hotel room after each meeting, he told jurors. And he lied to his partners, including his now wife, to hide his infidelity during more than a decade of touring the Hedley band, deleting sex messages, photos and videos and recording under names of men from women’s numbers in his phone, he said.
During her cross-examination on Wednesday, Crown prosecutor Kelly Slate suggested that Hoggard’s account of consensual sex with the plaintiffs was just another lie.
“I’m only telling the truth at the moment,” he replied.
Hoggard pleaded not guilty to two counts of sexual assault causing bodily harm and one count of sexual interference, a charge that refers to sexually touching a person under the age of 16.
Prosecutors allege the singer repeatedly violently raped two women, one of whom was 16 at the time, in two separate encounters in the fall of 2016. The complainants had come from outside from town to meet him. The lawsuit alleges that the two women were left, bruised and bleeding, by their attacker.
Resistance and struggle
In their testimony, the complainants said they cried and said no during the meetings with Hoggard, which took place in Toronto-area hotel rooms.
The young plaintiff, who had first met Hoggard because she was a longtime admirer of Hedley, testified that he had vaginally and orally raped her and attempted to do so by anal in September 2016. She told the court that she tried to wrestle at various times, but he was stronger than her.
The second complainant met Hoggard through the dating app Tinder while the group was in Ottawa. She testified that she agreed to meet him in Toronto for sex in November 2016, but did not consent to what happened in the bedroom. She claimed in court that she had been anally, vaginally and orally raped.
Both women recalled Hoggard spitting in their mouths, slapping them, and calling them a “slut” and a “whore.” The first complainant alleged that he also buried his face in the pillows, preventing her from breathing.
The second plaintiff said Hoggard choked her so hard she feared for her life. At one point, she said, he dragged her by her legs into the bathroom and asked her to urinate on him, which she refused to do.
Hoggard is also accused of inappropriately touching the teenage complainant after a Hedley performance in April 2016, when she was 15.
“Consensual and passionate”
On the stand Tuesday, the singer flatly denied raping the plaintiffs, saying the two encounters were consensual and “passionate.” He further denied that either plaintiff cried or said no, and argued that he relied on verbal and non-verbal cues to gauge each one’s consent.
The musician acknowledged that it was possible that some of the acts described by the complainants took place – he admitted that spitting, slapping, insulting and urinating were part of his sexual preferences. But he said restricting breathing and causing pain were not practices he enjoyed.
Hoggard also admitted he had no detailed recollections of those encounters, but he is certain they were consensual.
Prosecutors suggested Wednesday that Hoggard, who had grown accustomed to stardom since Hedley’s rise to fame in 2004, was not used to people saying no to him — as the two plaintiffs did, according to the pursuit.
The defense, meanwhile, asked Hoggard how he could be sure the meetings were consensual, since he had no detailed recollections of them. The singer said he remembers a positive experience and it was his habit to communicate with his sexual partners.
The court also heard on Wednesday from the limo driver who drove the youngest complainant to the hotel in Hoggard and then later drove her home north of Toronto. Steven Wigoda said the teenager was “very quiet” on the way home, but otherwise seemed normal.
The Crown and defense are expected to present their closing arguments on Friday, and jury deliberations could begin as early as Monday.