TORONTO — Defence lawyers are suggesting a young woman made up a “rape story” about Canadian musician Jacob Hoggard because she was embarrassed to have fallen in love with a rock star who used her for sex.
During cross-examination Monday, defence lawyer Megan Savard suggested Hoggard and the woman, who was 16 at the time, had consensual sex in the singer’s Mississauga, Ont., hotel room in September 2016, after he sent a limousine to pick her up in her hometown north of Toronto.
Savard suggested the teen became upset at the end of the encounter because Hoggard called the driver to pick her up, and she was too embarrassed to tell her friend – one of two people who knew where she’d gone – why she was leaving hours earlier than planned.
“The thing that upset you is the fact that after having sex with this rock star, he called the car to pick you up earlier,” Savard told the woman at Hoggard’s sex assault trial in Toronto.
“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. That’s what upset me,” the woman replied.
“I was very happy to get out of that room, I could not wait to get out of that room,” she said, adding she was the one who asked to be picked up early after pretending she was being called in to work.
The woman said she wasn’t embarrassed to tell her friend what happened, but was feeling “emotional” in light of what she had just experienced.
At a different point in her cross-examination, Savard suggested the teen gave the same “story” to her mother more than a week later in order to gain her sympathy and get a ride to the hospital to get tested for pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.
She also suggested the teen felt “like a fool” for believing Hoggard’s lines and having consensual sex that was “meaningless to him.”
“You were upset that you had fallen in love with a rock star and that he used you for sex,” she said.
The woman acknowledged being upset but said she felt “betrayed” because she was raped. She realized she had been manipulated into trusting Hoggard, she said. She previously told the court she was a big fan of Hedley, the band Hoggard fronted, and had a “fangirl crush” on the singer from a young age.
The woman, who is one of two complainants in Hoggard’s sex assault trial, alleges the singer repeatedly raped her vaginally and orally in his hotel room, and attempted to do so anally. She told the court he called her a “slut” and a “whore,” and that she deserved what was happening.
An agreed statement of facts says Hoggard had a sexual encounter with her at a hotel on Sept. 30, 2016. The document says he also had a sexual encounter with another woman, the second complainant in the case, on Nov. 22 of that year.
Hoggard has pleaded not guilty to two counts of sexual assault causing bodily harm and one of sexual interference, a charge that relates to the sexual touching of someone under 16.
In her cross-examination on Monday, Savard questioned how Hoggard could have held down the complainant throughout the hotel encounter, including while removing her clothes and his own, as the woman alleges he did.
The defence lawyer also suggested the woman wasn’t screaming or making a lot of noise during the encounter, as she testified, nor did she appear dishevelled or in pain when she left the hotel room afterwards. Savard noted Hoggard escorted the teen out to the lobby and didn’t try to hide her presence in public.
Savard suggested no one at the hotel intervened because the complainant looked like she had just had “normal” and consensual sex.
Earlier Monday, Savard suggested the woman was “reciprocating” Hoggard’s sexual interest as they exchanged messages in lead-up to the hotel encounter. She pointed to the fact that the two had traded nude photos.
The woman replied that while she may “potentially” have expressed sexual interest in Hoggard, they weren’t “sexting” or describing sexual acts they wanted to do.
“There was never a message that said that I wanted to have sex with him,” or discussing having sex on the day they met up, she said.
The defence later noted that, while getting ready to go meet Hoggard on Sept. 30, the teen asked her friend to help her pick out clothes, including underwear.
“I am 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 denied that suggestion, saying she regularly wears matching undergarments.
Savard also suggested the woman made up that Hoggard repeatedly touched her buttocks after a Toronto concert in April 2016, just a few weeks after they started texting.
The woman began her testimony last Thursday, saying she met Hoggard on a few occasions at concerts and fan events for Hedley and they began messaging each other after a meet-and-greet when she was 15.
She testified the messages grew romantic and sexual over time, and Hoggard told her he loved her and saw a future with her.
The other complainant is expected to take the stand Tuesday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 9, 2022.
Paola Loriggio, The Canadian Press
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