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The Ontario Court of Appeal is hearing arguments from Canadian musicians today Jacob Hoggard appeal Sexual Assault conviction.
In October 2022, Hoggard was sentenced to five years in prison for sexually assaulting an Ottawa woman and causing bodily harm, a crime the trial judge called a “particularly degrading rape.”
The musician was released on bail hours after being sentenced, pending his appeal.
Court documents filed by Hoggard’s attorneys say Hoggard appealed his conviction and requested a new trial on four grounds, including that the trial judge erred in admitting evidence from a clinical psychologist about the neurobiology of trauma.
They also believe the trial judge erred in allowing prosecutors to argue that expert evidence supported the credibility of the woman who Hoggard sexually assaulted.
The legal team further noted that the trial judge made an “impermissible imbalance” jury charge regarding inconsistencies between the woman’s testimony and Hoggard’s testimony – they argued that the judge gave the jury the wrong impression that there were just as many inconsistencies in the woman’s and Hoggard’s testimonies, when “in fact there were more in JB’s testimony.”
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Prosecutors argued in court documents that the psychologist’s evidence was properly admitted at trial and that the trial judge reduced expert evidence in the neurobiology of trauma to “established science” that the defense did not challenge in cross-examination.
It also argued that instructions to the jury regarding prior inconsistent statements were balanced and fair to Hoggard.
At trial, Hoggard was found guilty of sexual assault occasioning bodily harm to an Ottawa woman and acquitted of sexual assault on a teenage fan. He was also found not guilty of sexual assault, which is sexual contact with a person under 16 years of age.
Prosecutors alleged at trial that Hoggard indecently assaulted the teen in April 2016 after watching Hedley perform in Toronto and raped her in a Toronto-area hotel room when she was 16. They allege Hoggard raped the Ottawa woman again in November 2016 at a downtown Toronto hotel.
Hoggard has pleaded not guilty to all charges, admitting to having sex with both accusers but denying sexually assaulting them, so the case has focused on the question of consent.
The musician, whose band Hedley rose to fame after finishing third on the 2004 reality TV show Canadian Idol, was charged in 2018.
The band went on an indefinite hiatus following the sexual misconduct allegations. The band’s final show was on March 24, 2018 in Kelowna, British Columbia.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
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