Hedley frontman Jacob Hoggard was sentenced Thursday morning to five years behind bars for sexually assaulting a woman six years ago in a Toronto hotel room.
He will also be on the sex offender registry for 20 years.
Ontario Superior Court Justice Gillian Roberts stated that she believed the woman. "I accept her evidence in its entirety," she said.
Noting that Hoggard is a good family man with strong community ties and support – which bodes well for his rehabilitation – the judge said he has not accepted responsibility and has shown no remorse. Roberts said Hoggard has not resolved his "highly manipulative" behaviour and she can't be sure he is no longer a risk to women.
The judge said what Hoggard did involved planning and she said he “gaslighted” the woman.
After the sentence was read, Hoggard was allowed to hug and kiss his wife Rebekah before he was handcuffed and taken into custody.
The 38-year-old singer might not be heading directly to prison, though. His lawyers have filed a Notice of Appeal and are seeking to have Hoggard released on bail pending an appeal of the case. A hearing at the Ontario Court of Appeal is scheduled for Thursday afternoon.
Hoggard has been out on bail since his arrest in July 2018. After the verdict, he was required to comply with strict conditions that included being at his Vancouver home between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. because, the judge said, "the prospect of a lengthy jail term significantly increases the incentive to flee."
The maximum Hoggard faced was 14 years. Crown attorneys Kelly Slate and Jill Witkin had asked for a sentence of six or seven years and Hoggard’s lawyers Kally Ho and Megan Savard proposed a sentence of three or four years.
THE CRIME
Hoggard was found guilty in June of sexual assault causing bodily harm against a woman he met on the Tinder app while in Ottawa to appear at a WE Day event. (He was acquitted of another charge of sexual assault causing bodily harm and one count of sexual interference – a charge for sexual touching someone under the age of 16 – in connection to encounters with another female.)
Jurors heard that Hoggard invited the woman to Toronto and, in his hotel room, brutally and repeatedly raped her without a condom, slapped her, spit on her, called her derogatory names and choked her until she could not breath.
“My life as I knew it was stolen from me and shattered beyond recognition,” the woman, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, said at Hoggard’s first sentencing hearing on Oct. 6. “The assault took away my worth, my privacy, my body, my confidence and my voice.
“The months following the assault were the loneliest and darkest days of my life. I would wake up every night paralyzed with fear over the continuous nightmares I had of that day. To this day I can close my eyes and put myself back in that hotel room.”
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At a hearing on Oct. 14 that Hoggard joined via Zoom from Vancouver, Slate cited a report by forensic psychiatrist Hy Bloom, who interviewed both Hoggard and his wife of nearly four years, Rebekah. Both maintained Hoggard’s innocence.
Hoggard told Bloom he believes the woman fabricated her allegations of a brutal rape because she felt rejected by him.
According to Bloom, Hoggard claimed to have had more than 200 sexual partners and that the vast majority of them were women he met via his celebrity status. He insisted all the encounters were consensual. Rebekah blamed his promiscuity on Hedley fans “who threw themselves at him.”
Slate said Hoggard showed a lack of remorse and has not attended any counselling, which suggests he is unlikely to be rehabilitated. Bloom determined in his report that Hoggard is a low risk to reoffend and is not a sexual deviant or psychopath.
Hoggard did not make a statement of his own at the sentencing hearing but his lawyers provided the court with 52 character references from people who described him as a generous family man who loves dogs. None of the letter were from Hoggard's former Hedley bandmates.
1,551 DAYS
Thursday's sentence came 1,551 days after Hoggard was arrested, in July 2018.
Accusations of inappropriate behaviour with female fans began to surface online in early 2018, causing Hedley to be dumped from the JUNO Awards and the band’s songs to be scrapped from radio playlists. At the time, Hoggard said in a statement: “I have never engaged in non-consensual sexual behaviour in my life. Ever.” But, he admitted that he hasn’t treated women well. “For this,” he said, “I am truly sorry.”
He pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges.
Hoggard's trial was scheduled to begin in January 2021 but was postponed to April 2021 because he hired a new lawyer. It was then pushed to January 2022, and then to May 2022, due to COVID-19.
Jacob Hoggard, in his 2018 booking photo. Toronto Police Service
Previously, Hoggard’s record involved only driving offences in his native British Columbia. According to public information, he was charged with “driving without reasonable consideration” in Surrey, B.C. in December 2002; “excessive speeding” in Vancouver in March 2007; and “driving uninsured vehicle or trailer,” “failing to obtain registration, license or insurance,” and “failing to notify of change of address” in August 2009 in Chilliwack, B.C.
Hoggard’s legal troubles are not over. The woman he was convicted of sexually assaulting filed a lawsuit in early October against him, seeking $2.8 million in damages.
He is also facing a charge of sexual assault causing bodily harm in connection with an alleged encounter at a Comfort Inn in Kirkland Lake, Ont. in 2016. A pre-trial hearing is scheduled for Oct. 17 in Haileybury, Ont.
Hoggard, who previously told the court he is working as a carpenter in Vancouver, tied the knot in 2018 with Rebekah Asselstine, with whom he has a two-year-old son. (Hoggard was previously married to Tammy Swidrowich).
Hoggard placed third on the second season of Canadian Idol before breaking out as lead singer of Hedley, which released seven studio albums between 2005 and 2017 that spawned hits like "On My Own," "Cha-Ching," "Kiss You Inside Out" and “Perfect.”
Jacob Hoggard, second from right, in Hedley.
Hedley’s former drummer Chris Crippin, who was fired from the band in 2017, said in a 2018 interview that Hoggard was “too touchy” with fans, whom he frequently referred to as “f**king sluts” at meet-and-greet sessions. Crippin said Hoggard frequently showed off nude photos and videos on his phone of females he had slept with and claimed he received a video Hoggard allegedly sent to a female fan showing him masturbating in an airplane lavatory.
Crippin said Hoggard’s behaviour was tolerated by his bandmates and management for years. In a 2016 email, bassist Tommy Mac asked his bandmates in which categories they got JUNO nominations. Hoggard replied: “AIDS, Rape.”
(A lawyer representing Hedley said at the time that Crippin’s allegations were “false and/or out-of-context” and from “a person with little credibility and serious issues of his own.”)