The journalists at the CBC ihave interviewed a woman from Ottawa who says she was raped by the lead singer of Hedley. This corroborated account comes on the heels of multiple accusations online, which caused their opening acts and management to drop then, as well as the Juno Awards cutting them from their performance lineup.
Content warning: This account is very graphic
- Accuser communicated through snapchat with Hoggard on We Day in 2016, an event where she was a volunteer and he was a performer
- She was too shy to meet him immediately
- Two weeks later, Hoggard bought her a round trip train ticket from Ottawa to Toronto, where he was at a hotel
- She expected sex, with the assumption it would be consentual
- "Of course, I expected sex. I wasn't going to Toronto to watch TV with someone I barely know. I'm not naive — but he completely crossed the line."
- As soon as she got in the hotel room he started kissing her
- She pushed him off, and he accused her of "being all talky, talky"
- He relented and they talked for an hour in the room, and then a hotel worker informed him his "regular room" was ready
- He went to the room and intructed her to come 5 minutes after him
- Hogard took her cellphone from her
- They watched 10 minutes of a movie
- He flipped her on her stomach and pinned her down
- He slapped her, spit on her and forced her into anal sex (which she had never done before)
- He didn't wear a condom and ignored when she said "stop" through tears
- "I was clear that I was not interested in it, and I was so uncomfortable, and I started crying, and he just kept telling me that I was being a good girl and petting my head."
- He grunted loudly and called her a "dirty little pig"
-"I can still to this day picture his face and how scary he looked and how scared I was."
- She caught a glimpse of her face in the mirror, red from his choking
- Pulled her off the bed by her legs and dragged her to the bathroom
- Asked to pee on her / vice versa. She said "no" and that was the only time he requested consent
- She was there for 5 hours and was raped multiple times, anally and vaginally
- Eventually he told her he had to go for a meeting, returned her cell phone and called her a cab
- She cried in the cab and was dropped off at a Tim Horton's by the train station
- She called her friend and told her that Jacob "treated her like a dog," a conversation corroberated by CBC
- "Right after it happened, I didn't even know if it was rape or sexual assault — because I felt I had to, [that] I owed it to him because he brought me there. I felt it was my fault because I went there."
- She eventually messaged Jacob and accused him of rape
- He called her, told her not to contact him again and blocked her number
- She went to a clinic 6 days after the attack to be tested for STIs and sexual trauma (medical records support this)
- She now has nightmares and flashbacks, and can't hear Hedley music without feeling sick
- She wrote in a journal at the time: "I feel used. Disgusting. Degraded. I was forced to do things I never have. I never would… Because of who he is, I trusted him. I didn't think he would hurt me"
Jacob Hoggard released a poorly written statement about the ordeal:
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