Hedley Singer Jacob Hoggard Facing New Sexual Assault Charge
01.06.2022 - 00:43
/ etcanada.com
Canadian musician Jacob Hoggard, who is currently awaiting a verdict in his sexual assault trial, has been charged in another alleged sexual assault.
Hoggard, the frontman for the band Hedley, was charged in March with sexual assault causing bodily harm in an incident alleged to have taken place on June 25, 2016 in Kirkland Lake, Ont.
The case was briefly before a court in nearby Haileybury, Ont., last Thursday — just days after Hoggard took the stand in Toronto, where he is charged with sexually assaulting two women, one of whom was 16 at the time.
The new charge — which is due back before the court Aug. 4 — could not be reported on at the time due to the risk of tainting the jury hearing the Toronto case. But jurors there have now begun their deliberations, meaning the new charge can be made public.
Hedley played the Kirkland Lake Homecoming festival on June 24, 2016.
Read more: Jurors begin deliberations in Jacob Hoggard sex assault trial
The incidents at the heart of the Toronto trial, meanwhile, took place in the Toronto area in September and November of that year.
Hoggard was charged in 2018 with two counts of sexual assault causing bodily harm and one of sexual interference, a charge that refers to the sexual touching of a person under 16. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Prosecutors allege he violently and repeatedly raped each complainant in separate incidents, leaving them bleeding, bruised and sore.
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They also allege he groped the younger complainant after a concert in Toronto in April 2016, when she was still 15.
It’s an agreed fact that both complainants were from out of town and Hoggard arranged to bring them to his hotel room while in Toronto for performances.
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