TORONTO (CelebrityAccess) – Canadian musician and former frontman Jacob Hoggard had his sentencing hearing on Friday (October 14) after being found guilty earlier this year of sexually assaulting an Ottawa woman. The prosecution asserted that Hoggard is “a risk to the public,” while his defense team provided a psychiatric report that said he was at low risk of committing the crime again.
The Crown wants to sentence Hoggard to 6 – 7 years in prison, while his defense team is asking for 3 – 4 years. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for Thursday (October 20). The Crown lawyer, Kelly Slate, said the psychiatric report shows that Hoggard has no remorse nor has taken any accountability for his actions.
The 2016 incident took place in a Toronto hotel room, and the Ottawa woman told the hearing last week that what happened will haunt her for the rest of her life.
Hoggard had also been charged with sexual assault causing bodily harm in the case of a teenage fan, as well as sexual interference involving that complainant, but was found not guilty on those charges. The 38-year-old, born and raised in British Columbia’s Lower Mainland, had pleaded not guilty to all charges.
His lawyer, Megan Savard, said the psychiatric analysis performed by Dr. Hy Bloom, a forensic psychiatrist, concluded Hoggard was not a sexual deviant or a psychopath with low risk to re-offend. “What Dr. Bloom found is that this is a man who is capable of personal growth,” Savard said. It does contextualize his behaviour, instead of a big question mark of ‘Is this a serial sexual predator?’ And we have positive evidence that is not the case.”
Slate said the sentence should be well above the normal three-to-five year range for several reasons, including the violent nature of the sexual assault.
“On numerous occasions Mr. Hoggard overpowered and held [her] down against her will and that repeated violence for sexual gratification lasted over a period of hours,” said Crown attorney Jill Witkin. The Court previously heard Hoggard met the woman through Tinder and two weeks later arranged for her to travel to Toronto to meet for sex in a hotel room.
The woman testified Hoggard raped her repeatedly, choked her, called her a “dirty little pig” while he made animal noises and dragged her to the bathroom where he asked her to urinate on him and she said no. She said she thought she was going to die while being choked.
Hoggard later told Bloom he maintained his innocence after the jury’s verdict came down, saying the encounter was consensual. The woman testified the entire incident from start to finish was not consensual.
Hoggard did not speak during Friday’s hearing.
