“My life as I knew it was stolen from me and shattered beyond recognition,” the woman Jacob Hoggard sexually assaulted said during the hearing for his sentencing
A former singer in Canadian pop rock group Hedley has been sentenced to five years in prison for sexually assaulting a woman in a hotel room.
On Thursday, Superior Court Justice Gillian Roberts gave Jacob Hoggard, 38, handed down the sentence to the musician for the 2016 attack, Toronto Star reported.
“I believe (her). I accept her evidence in its entirety,” Roberts said, adding that Hoggard’s actions were “manipulative and particularly degrading.”
During the hours-long ordeal, the judge said the woman made it clear she did not want to have sex, saying “no, stop you are hurting me.”
She testified that he later hit her and pulled her off the hotel room bed before he used both hands to choke her.
“Her joyful, adventurous spirit was extinguished by the sexual violence Mr. Hoggard inflicted on her,” Roberts said of the incident, per the outlet. “Whatever fleeting moments of gratification Mr. Hoggard derived from his conduct, they have come at the staggering and utterly unacceptable cost of forever changing (the woman’s) life.”
On the first day of Hoggard’s hearing for his sentencing earlier this month, the survivor shared how his actions have altered her life, telling the courtroom she was “never the same,” according to CBC.
“A part of me died that day that I will never get back,” she said. “My life as I knew it was stolen from me and shattered beyond recognition. The assault took away my worth, my privacy, my body, my confidence and my voice.”
The woman — who sued Hoggard for $CAD2.8 million — said she was also persecuted for her accusations against the star.
“I was ridiculed online by complete strangers. Women I’ve never even met were making T-shirts and signs in support of the man that raped me,” she said.
Prosecutors asked for Hoggard to get six to seven years, CBC reported.
In May, Hoggard was convicted of sexual assault causing bodily harm.
In the same case, Hoggard was found not guilty of groping a fan, 15, at the end of a concert and sexually assaulting her in a hotel room once she turned 16, Toronto Star added.
Along with his five-year sentence, Hoggard is banned from possessing any weapons for 10 years, and is required to register as a sex offender for 20 years, per CTV News in Toronto.
Hours after his sentencing, Hoggard was granted bail by an Ontario Court of Appeal judge as he waits for the ruling on his appeal, per CTV.
Hoggard’s lawyer did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.
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