Hoggard a ‘monster’ in sex encounter, young witness says
TORONTO — A young woman who alleges she was sexually assaulted by Canadian musician Jacob Hoggard when she was a teenager told a Toronto court the singer turned into an unrecognizable “monster” after taking her to his hotel room.
The woman, who is one of two complainants in Hoggard’s sex assault trial, at one point broke down in tears Friday as she described her encounter with him on Sept. 30, 2016.
She told the court she tried to fight off Hoggard as he began to kiss her in his Mississauga, Ont., hotel room, where he had taken her after sending a limousine to pick her up from a friend’s house in her hometown north of Toronto. She was 16 at the time.
She said he pushed her onto the bed as she tried to back away, held her down and undressed her and took his own clothes off. Then, she said, he repeatedly raped her over several hours.
At various points, she testified, Hoggard pushed her face into the pillows so she couldn’t breathe, spit in her mouth and slapped her, called her a “slut” and a “whore,” and told her it was what she deserved. He didn’t use a condom, she said.
“I’m lying there crying, on my back and telling him to stop and he wouldn’t stop,” she said tearfully, adding that she tried to break free on several occasions but was over- powered.
Her mind eventually “shut down” as she focused on surviving the incident, she testified.
For months earlier, and up until they reached the hotel room, Hoggard had been affectionate and caring, stressing that he saw a future with her and she should trust him, the woman said in her testimony. This sudden change felt like a “betrayal,” she said.
“That’s where the biggest shift was,” she said.
“This person who makes you believe this fairy tale about love and romance and softness and gentleness [turned in] to this monster of a human who has no compassion, no empathy.”
Prosecutors allege Hoggard, the frontman for the rock band Hedley, violently raped two women after bringing them to Toronto-area hotels in separate incidents in 2016.
Both complainants had travelled from out of town to see him.
An agreed statement of facts says Hoggard had a “sexual encounter” with each of the complainants on the days they came to his hotel.
The singer 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 the age of 16.
In its opening statement on Thursday, the Crown said the second complainant met Hoggard in November after crossing paths with him on Tinder while Hedley was in Ottawa.
Later that month, they made plans to meet in Toronto, and the Crown alleges Hoggard raped her “over and over” during an hours-long encounter in a downtown hotel.
Both complainants were left bleeding, bruised and sore, prosecutors allege. Neither can be identified under a publication ban.