Jacob Hoggard denies raping Kirkland Lake fan

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According to Jacob Hoggard, it was a Hallmark-style romance that began with former singer Hedley playing an acoustic guitar and serenading her in his room at the Comfort Inn in Kirkland Lake.

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His “hearts and flowers” account could not have been more shocking than the alleged brutal rape and strangulation that a young woman tearfully described to a jury last week.

Hoggard, 40, took the stand in his own defense during the trial in a courtroom in Haileybury in northeastern Ontario. Dressed in a black suit and thin black tie, with his wife of six years sitting in the gallery, he recalled his years as a Canadian pop star, with seven albums, a lot of cash and tours that took place on June 24, 2016 to the hockey arena in Kirkland Lake.

When asked about the peak of his career, he looked almost nostalgic – before the band broke up in 2018, when women hung around, recognizing him on the street and asking for his autograph. Now, he told the jury, he is a married father of a “little boy” and a carpenter in Burnaby who lives “hand to mouth.”

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Eight years ago he was on tour promoting their album Hi and had recently broken up with his girlfriend – whom he later married in 2018 – and was looking for comfort and company for one night. He found the 19-year-old he spotted at the afterparty attractive, and as night turned into morning, he testified that he flirted with her, gave her his jacket, and they exchanged phone numbers.

He testified that when he texted her a “sexual” invitation to return to his hotel, he said she agreed and they returned, kissing and holding hands.

She testified that she thought they were going to his room for “casual conversation”; Hoggard said he was sure they were going to have sex.

She testified that he stripped her naked and told her to pose with a guitar, then demanded to know her age in the recording. He testified that they undressed each other, he probably asked about their ages, but there was no photo or video.

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She testified that he tried to rape her anally and then raped her vaginally, and she told him “no”. She told the jury he called her a “dirty little piggy” and choked her until she almost passed out. She testified that he hit her hard and urinated on her.

When asked by his lawyer, Megan Savard, whether the sex was consensual, Hoggard repeatedly repeated the same phrase: “Of course it was.”

When presented with the complainant’s allegations, Hoggard mocked each of them: the sex was “nice”, she liked it “as much as I did”, she was “he moaned and said yes and kissed a lot while she was on top of me. There was no choking, no insults, the only act of urinating was her voluntarily urinating on him, he said in court.

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How did he know she was having so much fun? He said he kept asking “if everything was OK.”

During cross-examination, Crown prosecutor Peter Keen asked why he would “keep checking on her” when he had consented. “I will suggest to you that the reason you had to ask her from time to time if she was OK is because you saw that she was upset and crying,” the prosecutor suggested.

“She wasn’t upset and she didn’t cry,” Hoggard disagreed. “It’s my way of communicating with my sexual partner.”

She testified that after Hoggard allegedly raped her, he told her not to worry about sexually transmitted diseases because he “liked them when they were young” and his girlfriend Beck would never know about them.

He said that such a conversation never took place: he never mentioned Rebecca Asselstine by name, and they were actually separated at that point. Instead, according to Hoggard, he said he and the complainant enjoyed a post-coital cuddle and talked about the pop star’s career and how it wasn’t as glamorous as it looked.

She testified that he instructed her not to leave until at least half an hour after he left the hotel room. He testified that he never told her when to leave.

He agreed with one thing she said: he didn’t wear a condom.

She says. Says. Who will they believe?

Hoggard’s hearings continue on Wednesday.

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