Girl’s mom testifies at assault trial of Hedley singer
Court hears complainant had nightmares, panic attacks in weeks following Toronto meeting
WARNING Contains graphic content
The mother of a then 16-year-old Hedley fan who has said she was raped by the pop-rock band’s lead singer, Jacob Hoggard, testified Monday that she was “heartbroken” when her daughter told her what happened days later in a phone call.
“She was crying and she was hyperventilating,” the complainant’s mother said.
She would “absolutely not” have let her daughter go to downtown Toronto to meet Hoggard alone on Sept. 30, 2016 — the complainant said she told her mother she was going shopping with her best friend.
“She’s young and she is impressionable and I would have been worried about her being with a grown man who was twice her age,” the complainant’s mother said. “I don’t see a reason why she would ever have needed to do a thing with him by herself.”
Hoggard, 37, has pleaded not guilty to sexual touching of a person under the age of 16 and two counts of sexual assault causing bodily harm, charges which relate to two separate complainants — a teenage fan and a young woman who met Hoggard on Tinder.
Hoggard has admitted to having a “sexual encounter” with each complainant in the fall of 2016, and his lawyer has suggested both fabricated their allegations of violent, repeated sexual assaults that left them with physical injuries.
Both women went to police in 2018 and have their identities protected by a publication ban available to sexual assault complainants.
On Monday, the Crown closed its case with three witnesses, all linked to the then-teenage girl who testified Hoggard raped her repeatedly in a hotel room near Pearson airport after exchanging romantic and sexual messages and photos for months.
The girl’s mother testified that in the days and weeks following her daughter’s meeting with Hoggard, she became withdrawn, and she had nightmares and panic attacks. She continues to need to sleep with a light on.
She did not know about the nature of the conversation between her daughter and Hoggard, she said, and did not know at the time that her daughter said Hoggard grabbed her buttocks and tried to kiss her after a concert when she was 15.
She agreed with the defence that she told police in 2018 that her daughter had told her Hoggard hugged her more tightly than usual while backstage at the concert but nothing else inappropriate happened.
She testified Monday that she was very nervous and overwhelmed at the police interview.
The complainant’s best friend testified Monday that at the concert she witnessed Hoggard try to kiss the complainant on the cheek or neck, that he grabbed the complainant’s buttocks and that the complainant tried to push him away.
She was aware of the complainant’s communications with Hoggard and that she was going to meet him on Sept. 30, 2016, but said she thought it was going to be a “fun day” in downtown Toronto.
Later that day, she said she got a confusing phone call from the complainant pretending she was speaking to her manager. The complainant earlier testified she sent a text to her friend asking to her call and pretend to be someone at work needing her early, so she could have an excuse to leave. The friend said she didn’t recall getting such a message from her friend.
She testified she saw blood in the complainant’s underwear when she returned and that the complainant was upset and seemed shaken.
“We were young, we didn’t know how to deal with these things,” she testified.
A family member of the complainant who knew about the complainant and Hoggard exchanging nude photos and sexual messages told police in 2018 she thought the complainant was going to meet Hoggard in a hotel room, that he was going to “wine and dine” her and that the complainant “was under the speculation that obviously they were going to go and have sex, but not to that extent.”
On Monday, the witness testified she did not think the complainant was going to see Hoggard to have sex, something the complainant has also denied.
The witness said her understanding was that the complainant was going to meet Hoggard and possibly other band members in downtown Toronto for lunch.
Savard said the witness never told the police anything about the complainant going to have lunch with Hoggard and suggested the witness is worried that if the jury thinks the complainant was meeting Hoggard to have sex, it would affect their decision-making.
The witness agreed. She also agreed that the complainant wanted to fulfil a “teenage fantasy” and was going to be meeting a celebrity crush but maintained that she didn’t think the meeting was for sex and therefore that she was not concerned about a possible sexual encounter.
On Monday, Superior Court Justice Gillian Roberts instructed jury members that they could not use evidence of sexual conversations and exchange of nude photos to conclude the women were more likely to have consented to sex with Hoggard or that are less worthy of belief for having had such communications.
“In an nutshell, there is no such thing as advanced consent,” Roberts said.
“Consent must occur at the time and in relation to the specific sexual act occurring.”
The trial continues next Tuesday.