The highly emotional cross-examination of the woman who accuses Jacob Hoggard of sexual assault continued Friday, as the Canadian musician’s lawyer sought to highlight possible memory problems on the part of the complainant.
Published at 11:25 a.m.
Updated at 5:21 p.m.
Marie-Danielle Smith
The Canadian Press
The woman, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, alleges that Hoggard raped, strangled, slapped and urinated on her in his hotel room after a performance by his band Hedley and at a post-concert party in Kirkland Lake, in northeastern Ontario, eight years ago.
His testimony at the trial lasted most of the week.
Hoggard, lead singer of the band Hedley, pleaded not guilty to a charge of sexual assault when the trial began Monday at the Haileybury courthouse in Temiskaming.
The defense and the Crown agree that Hoggard and the complainant had sexual relations that evening. But the prosecution is trying to convince jurors that the plaintiff did not give consent.
The woman burst into tears and asked for a break about 20 minutes into the hearing Friday morning as she was closely questioned by Mr.e Megan Savard on her memories of the alleged assault.
The woman testified earlier this week that Hoggard pulled out a guitar when they entered his hotel room and that she expected him to play music, but he immediately put the guitar down. the instrument and began to take off his clothes, despite his protests.
Me Savard suggested that what really happened was that Hoggard actually played songs for her, which the woman denied. “You are ignoring this fact for the jury because you think it harms your case,” argued M.e Savard. You don’t want to admit to the jury that you were in a romantic situation […] with this man even though you had a boyfriend,” M continuede Savard.
“No,” the woman insisted, interrupting him in the middle of his thesis. “I thought about my boyfriend,” the complainant admitted, starting to cry. But none of it was romantic or consensual. I didn’t ask for this to happen to me. »
The clothes
Me Savard then asked for details about how the complainant’s clothes were removed. The woman previously told the court she did not remember exactly how it happened.
“I suggest to you that the clothes – which you have no recollection of him taking them off – you actually helped him take them off,” Ms.e Savard. The complainant denied this suggestion.
As the defendant’s lawyer continued to insist that the woman’s testimony was based on emotions rather than memories, the complainant broke down in tears and asked to leave the courtroom for a while.
Later, Me Savard focused on the lead-up to the alleged assault and suggested that several steps were consensual: the removal of clothing, Hoggard taking a photo of the woman with his guitar, then filming her while he asked her age .
The complainant argued it wasn’t consensual, but said she couldn’t remember certain details with certainty — including whether she gave her age. The court heard she was 19 at the time.
She cried throughout cross-examination about the position of her body during the alleged rape and the length of time she was bedridden.
Me Savard suggested that several of the body configurations the complainant described in her testimony were “physically impossible”: she could not have been struck on the buttocks during part of the alleged rape while she was supposedly lying on her back, and that she could not have been strangled for four minutes without losing consciousness.
The lawyer also highlighted inconsistencies between the woman’s statement to the police in January 2022, in which she revealed no medical visit, and a report from “CBC News” published a few months later which paraphrased her in saying she visited a medical center days after the alleged assault.
During the cross-examination which began Wednesday afternoon, Mr.e Savard repeatedly returned to the idea that the witness based many of his answers on assumptions rather than concrete memories.
The plaintiff repeatedly agreed that some of her responses were based on what she believed, felt, or assumed happened, rather than images she could easily conjure up in her mind.
“I don’t want to lie,” she assured.
