Friends say Hoggard accuser ‘distraught’

An Ottawa woman who alleges she was violently raped by Jacob Hoggard appeared “distraught” and not like herself after going to meet the singer in Toronto, her friends testified Friday.

Three friends of the complainant, including siblings who were her roommates at the time, were asked to describe the woman’s demeanour after the Nov. 22, 2016, encounter.

Her close friend recalled that the complainant called her from a Tim Hortons while she was still in Toronto and laid out what had happened, sounding “quite distraught, very upset.” The friend went over to the complainant’s home the next day and was taken aback when she first saw her, she said.

“It was very bad,” the friend said, crying on the stand. “I didn’t recognize the person ... She was very different than when she had left. It was hard to see.”

The complainant’s female roommate, who joined them that evening, said she also immediately realized “something was not right.” The complainant was “distraught, not herself,” she said.

Both women said the complainant was limping and seemed to be in pain.

During cross-examination Friday, defence lawyers suggested the close friend hadn’t observed any injuries to the complainant and was simply repeating what the complainant had told her about being in pain.

They also noted that in her statement to police, the friend said the complainant seemed confused and embarrassed in the initial call from Tim Hortons, and seemed to have “mixed emotions.”

“She knew something wrong had happened,” the friend said.