Jacob Hoggard is jailed for five years for raping woman in Toronto hotel room in 2016
>
Canadian Idol winner Jacob Hoggard sentenced to five years in prison for sexual assault: Victim raped in hotel room says he strangled her so hard she thought she would die
- A judge sentenced Jacob Hoggard, the frontman of Canadian band Hedley, to five years in prison for assaulting an Ottawa woman
- Ontario Superior Court Justice Gillian Roberts called it a ‘particularly humiliating rape’ – where he is charged with choking, spitting and beating the woman
- The unidentified woman was in her twenties when she was raped in the hotel room
- She said Hoggard strangled her so hard she thought she was going to die
- Hoggard’s band, Hedley, rose to fame in Canada after finishing third on the reality show “Canadian Idol” in 2004.
<!–
<!–
<!–<!–
<!–
<!–
<!–
A Canadian Idol winner and frontman of indie rock band Hedley has been sentenced to five years in prison for raping a woman. in what the presiding judge called a “particularly humiliating rape.”
Jacob Hoggard, 38, pleaded not guilty to the charges when he was on trial this month in Toronto for raping the woman in a hotel room in 2016.
Ontario Supreme Court judge Gillian Roberts said she accepted the woman’s testimony in its entirety, saying it involved “gratuitous demotion” and “gratuitous violence.”
The assault took place in a Toronto hotel room, and the Ottawa woman told Hoggard’s sentencing hearing that what happened will haunt her for the rest of her life.
The woman, then in her early twenties, said Hoggard strangled her so hard she thought she was going to die. She testified that the assault lasted for hours.
Hoggard was also charged with assault for bodily harm in the case of a teenage fan, as well as sexual interference involving that complainant, but was found not guilty.
Jacob Hoggard, 38, pleaded not guilty to the charges when he was on trial this week in Ottawa for raping the woman in a Toronto hotel room in 2016. He is seen in court with his wife Rebekah Asselstine
During his trial, Ontario Supreme Court judge Gillian Roberts said she accepted the woman’s testimony in its entirety, saying it involved “gratuitous demotion” and “gratuitous violence.” He has been sentenced to five years in prison
A jury deliberated for six days and found themselves deadlocked on “some counts” twice before finding Hoggard guilty of assault with bodily harm in the Ottawa woman’s case in June.
Hoggard said at trial that he had consensual, “passionate” sex with both complainants.
He denied strangling the Ottawa woman, but said the other elements described, such as spitting and hitting, were part of his sexual preferences — and could have happened.
At a hearing earlier this month, the Ottawa woman told the court that the incident had left her paralyzed with fear and despair for months.
The woman, who cannot be named by name due to a standard publishing ban, said the assault robbed her of her confidence, her dreams and changed her life.
“I was never the same after that day,” she said. “Part of me died that day I’ll never get back.”
Hoggard’s band, Hedley, rose to fame in Canada after finishing third on the reality show “Canadian Idol” in 2004.