She accuses Hoggard of rape – his lawyer claims she’s a liar

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At his sexual assault trial, she used the same precise words each time when describing how Jacob Hoggard invited her to his Kirkland Lake hotel room following the all-night bonfire afterparty in June 2016.

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Frail and tremulous on the witness stand, she testified that after drinking five to eight beers provided by the band, the former Hedley frontman told her that they’d go to his room to play music and have some casual conversation – and that it was not a sexual invitation at all.

But Hoggard’s lawyer Megan Savard accused her of concocting an innocuous invitation to cover for what she knew was a a straight up sexual proposition.

“It’s made up,” Savard charged. “You don’t actually remember the wording that Jake used to invite you to his room.”

“That is not true,” the young woman hotly replied.

“The reason I suggest that this wording is made up is because you’ve been experimenting with the right way to tell this particular lie for years now,” Savard continued.

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The woman first reported Hoggard to Kirkland Lake OPP in 2018 but declined to lay charges, she said, after the police erroneously told her there wouldn’t be a publication ban on her name.

Savard asked if she’d also published her allegations anonymously on Twitter that year – which she eventually conceded was “possible.”

Court heard the woman came forward again in January 2022, first in a 911 call and then in person to the RCMP. In none of her police statements, the lawyer said, did the complainant quote Hoggard’s “music and casual conversation” invite to his hotel room.

“The first time you’ve ever said you remember the exact words of this invitation were here in this courtroom,” Savard insisted. “I’m going to suggest to you it’s because you want the jury very badly to think that you had no idea and no wish to engage in sex in that night.”

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“That’s false,” she repeated, again and again.

In tearful testimony the previous day, the woman said that once they were in his room, Hoggard almost immediately assaulted her against her will – first taking off her clothes and then trying to kiss her. While she resisted and told him to stop, she claims he bent her over the bed, unsuccessfully attempted anal intercourse and then raped her vaginally.

She also accused him of slapping her so hard on her buttocks that it left a red mark and choking her so that she could hardly breathe. Hoggard, she testified, called her a pig and urinated on her in the shower.

In Thursday’s testimony, she also told the jury she remembers seeing tattoos on his behind: HED on his left butt cheek and LEY on the right, as well as a panther and snake on the side of his ribs.

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After the sexual assault, she said Hoggard acted as if nothing had happened and told her to leave 30 minutes after he’d packed up and gone. Terrified, she left a short time later and decided the famous pop star was too powerful to report to the police.

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At the trial in northeastern Ontario, Hoggard, 40, has pleaded not guilty to sexual assault. In an agreed statement of fact, he admits having sex with the woman in his Comfort Inn hotel room after the bonfire but will argue that it was consensual.

Savard picked away at the complainant’s emotional evidence, accusing her of setting her sights on the “flirty” Hoggard at the bonfire.

“He made me feel special so that’s what I mean when I say flirty,” the woman explained.

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Hoggard’s lawyer suggested that during the party, the singer held her hand, touched her legs and buttocks and even told her she’s a sweet girl and that he loved her before she agreed to sleep with him.

“That definitely did not happen,” she retorted.

Savard said the woman even turned down a sexual proposition from one of the band’s sound crew because she wanted to hook up with Hoggard.

“You were hoping to get some VIP time,” the lawyer continued. “And my suggestion is the one-on-one time that you wanted and expected was a one night stand with the leader of a band you liked.”

“No,” the woman said wearily in a voice worn down to a thread.

The cross-examination is expected to continue Friday.

mmandel@postmedia.com

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