16-year-old Jacob Hoggard fan ‘made up’ rape claim out of embarrassment, defence says

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This article was published 09/05/2022 (1587 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Hedley fan “made up” being raped by the band’s lead singer Jacob Hoggard when she was 16 because she was embarrassed and upset that she fell in love with a rock star who just wanted to have sex with her, Hoggard’s defence lawyer suggested Monday.

The young woman, now in her early 20s, firmly denied this.

“I felt betrayed, I felt used because I was raped by him,” she said.

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. One of the sexual assault charges is linked to a second woman who has not yet testified. Hoggard has admitted to having a “sexual encounter” with each complainant in the fall of 2016.

The identities of both women are under a publication ban available to sexual assault complainants.

In cross-examination Monday, Hoggard’s defence lawyer suggested that the former teenage fan lied about both Hoggard sexually touching her after a concert in April 2016 and about him raping her in September 2016.

The woman testified last week that she and Hoggard began exchanging increasingly romantic and sexual messages starting in April 2016 when she was 15. She said that he told her to come to a concert at the Air Canada Centre with two friends, not her parents, and that he grabbed her bum and attempted to kiss her on the neck after the show. It is admitted Hoggard knew she was 15 at the time.

She testified that on Sept. 30, 2016, Hoggard sent a car for her that brought her to his hotel in Mississauga. Instead of the day out in downtown Toronto she said she expected, she said he raped her in the hotel room for between an hour to two hours, causing her serious injuries.

She told her best friend that day, and a week later, her mother, she said. She filed a police report two years later in 2018.

During cross-examination on Monday, Savard suggested the complainant was upset and hurt that Hoggard called the car for her to leave hours earlier than planned after they had sex.

“The thing that upset me was that he had unconsensual sex with me, where he hit me, I was bleeding and I continuously told him no and was crying,” the woman responded. “That’s what upset me. I was very happy to get out of that room, I could not wait to get out of that room.”

She denied that she made up the sexual assault because she was embarrassed to tell her friend why she was leaving early.

“I wasn’t embarrassed to tell her, I was emotional to tell her because of what happened,” she said.

Savard also suggested that the complainant told her mother she had been sexually assaulted so that she’d be on the complainant’s side and not be mad that she lied about going to meet Hoggard to have sex with him, and because she needed her help to go to the hospital and get checked for sexually transmitted diseases.

The woman said this was not at all true.

“I told her just because I was upset about it and she was the one who suggested we should go to the hospital,” she said.

She also said she never planned to have sex with Hoggard on that day and that, while they exchanged naked photos and he sent her a video of himself masturbating, they never discussed doing any sexual acts in their messages.

Savard, however, suggested that then 16-year-old did send messages including “verbal expressions of sexual interest” in Hoggard.

“Potentially,” the complainant said.

However, she rejected Savard’s assertion that she expressed agreement or interest in consensual sexual acts proposed by Hoggard, and said that was not part of their communication in the weeks leading up to Sept. 30, 2016.

“I’m going to suggest to you (that) you were careful that your underwear match your bra because you were planning on having Mr. Hoggard see it that day,” Savard said.

The complainant said she always matches her bra and underwear.

Savard also suggested that it would not have been possible for Hoggard to be holding down the complainant while undressing her and himself, as the complainant resisted with her full strength, and that complainant was not screaming loudly because no hotel staff knocked on the hotel door.

The complainant said she could not recall exactly how he was holding her at that point but maintained that she was crying and clearly resisting as he sexually assaulted her, but was much weaker than him. She also maintained that she looked visibly dishevelled and like she had been crying after leaving the hotel room, which Savard suggested was untrue because no one asked if she was OK and because Hoggard openly went with her to the lobby and hugged her goodbye.

Savard suggested the complainant fabricated the alleged sexual touching after the Air Canada Centre concert, adding that the complainant continued to communicate positively with Hoggard afterwards, and did not tell Hoggard he “crossed a line” when he texted her the next day that he wanted her in his bed.

The complainant said, at that point, she didn’t want his mistake to “taint” their communication going forward and that she saw him as a friend.

The trial continues.

Alyshah Hasham is a Toronto-based reporter covering crime and court for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @alysanmati