After it was reported earlier this week that disgraced Hedley frontman Jacob Hoggard was in solitary confinement amid being threatened while incarcerated at Toronto South Detention Centre, a judge has now denied his request for bail as the former musician attempts to appeal his sexual assault conviction to the Supreme Court.
In October 2022, Hoggard was sentenced to five years in prison after being found guilty of raping an Ottawa woman in a Toronto hotel room in 2016. He only began serving his sentence last month, after the Ontario Court of Appeal decided to uphold his conviction.
"At this stage in the proceedings, where the applicant's conviction has been unanimously affirmed by this court and it appears unlikely that he will be granted leave to appeal (by the Supreme Court), I am satisfied that the public interest in enforcing the sentence imposed on the applicant outweighs his interest in a second review of his conviction," Justice Jill Copeland wrote in her decision [via the Toronto Star], released today. "If the Supreme Court of Canada grants leave to appeal, the balance may change and a reassessment of the applicant's bail status may be warranted."
Copeland further noted that applications for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court are typically decided within three to six months, and the country's top court typically hears fewer than two percent of cases from the Ontario Court of Appeal.
Hoggard faces another sexual assault trial later this month in Haileybury, ON, over an alleged incident also dating back to 2016. Set to begin September 23, the Crown intends to obtain a judge's order to have him transferred to the North Bay Jail for its duration.