An Ottawa woman has accused Hedley singer Jacob Hoggard of rape in a newly published CBC article.
The CBC has not released the woman's name, but it reports she is a 24-year-old from Ottawa. In the article, she has accused Hoggard of raping her in a Toronto hotel room after meeting him online in the fall of 2016.
The CBC goes into graphic detail regarding the alleged rape, and you can read the details of the alleged event here.
"I can still to this day picture his face and how scary he looked and how scared I was," the woman said. "He was choking me, and my face went so red."
The woman told the 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."
In a statement released through his lawyers, Hoggard has denied the allegations and said the pair had consensual sex.
"They agreed to get together to have sex," the statement to CBC reads. "She travelled from Ottawa to his hotel in Toronto to be with him for that purpose. They spent the afternoon together and had consensual sex. She went back to Ottawa that same day."
You can read the full statement to CBC here.
While the CBC cannot independently verify what happened in the hotel room between Hoggard and the woman, the publication reportedly corroborated parts of the woman's story by speaking with four of her friends, including a woman whom she called after leaving the hotel.
A police report, however, was not filed. The woman said she was afraid of being publicly shamed.
"I didn't want people to know who I was and associate myself with being the girl that was raped by the singer of Hedley," she said. "I didn't want to be that person. And I also thought that because I went there [to see him] nothing would come of it because it was my own fault."
The woman said she was motivated to share her story following the #outHedley2k18 social media campaign, which has seen various sexual misconduct allegations brought against the band.
In response, the Junos cancelled the group's performance; however, the band announced they would not be cancelling their ongoing tour, and they released a pair of statements in response to the claims.
You can read the group's statements here and here.
CBC reports that it is not identifying the Ottawa woman "to protect her privacy and because revealing her identity could make her a target on social media."
The CBC has not released the woman's name, but it reports she is a 24-year-old from Ottawa. In the article, she has accused Hoggard of raping her in a Toronto hotel room after meeting him online in the fall of 2016.
The CBC goes into graphic detail regarding the alleged rape, and you can read the details of the alleged event here.
"I can still to this day picture his face and how scary he looked and how scared I was," the woman said. "He was choking me, and my face went so red."
The woman told the 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."
In a statement released through his lawyers, Hoggard has denied the allegations and said the pair had consensual sex.
"They agreed to get together to have sex," the statement to CBC reads. "She travelled from Ottawa to his hotel in Toronto to be with him for that purpose. They spent the afternoon together and had consensual sex. She went back to Ottawa that same day."
You can read the full statement to CBC here.
While the CBC cannot independently verify what happened in the hotel room between Hoggard and the woman, the publication reportedly corroborated parts of the woman's story by speaking with four of her friends, including a woman whom she called after leaving the hotel.
A police report, however, was not filed. The woman said she was afraid of being publicly shamed.
"I didn't want people to know who I was and associate myself with being the girl that was raped by the singer of Hedley," she said. "I didn't want to be that person. And I also thought that because I went there [to see him] nothing would come of it because it was my own fault."
The woman said she was motivated to share her story following the #outHedley2k18 social media campaign, which has seen various sexual misconduct allegations brought against the band.
In response, the Junos cancelled the group's performance; however, the band announced they would not be cancelling their ongoing tour, and they released a pair of statements in response to the claims.
You can read the group's statements here and here.
CBC reports that it is not identifying the Ottawa woman "to protect her privacy and because revealing her identity could make her a target on social media."