MANDEL: Psychiatrist says Hoggard may be a sex addict but not a sexual deviant
Jacob Hoggard #JacobHoggard
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And the doctor believes the former Hedley frontman and convicted rapist poses a low risk to reoffend
Publishing date:
Oct 14, 2022 • 5 days ago • 3 minute read • 22 Comments 
Jacob Hoggard. Photo by VERONICA HENRI /TORONTO SUN Article content
Jacob Hoggard told a psychiatrist he likes “light slapping,” dirty talk and is aroused when he puts his hands around a partner’s neck with a “slight squeeze.”
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But Dr. Hy Bloom’s assessment concluded the convicted rapist is not a sexual deviant who gets off on forcing women into sex. Instead, he’s likely a sex addict whose life as an entitled pop star gave him easy access to willing partners throwing themselves at his feet — so much so that the former Hedley frontman estimated he’s had 200 sexual partners in his 38 years, with about two-thirds of them being fans.
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Now that “his life as a celebrity is very likely over,” Bloom said Hoggard is at a low risk to reoffend.
A jury convicted Hoggard in June of sexual assault causing bodily harm in his violent attack on an Ottawa college student he’d met on Tinder and arranged to meet in a Toronto hotel in 2016. She testified that over several hours, the charming man she’d flirted with online turned into a monster who forced anal and vaginal intercourse, slapped her, spit on her and choked her to the point she thought he would kill her.
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Hoggard was acquitted on two charges relating to a teenage fan.
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At the last day of his sentencing hearing, Crown attorney Jill Witkin and Kelly Slate urged Justice Gillian Roberts to give little weight to Bloom’s report — since most of it is based on what Hoggard told him — and impose a six to seven year prison term.
Notably, said Slate, while Bloom spoke to Hoggard’s family and wife, he didn’t speak with any of his colleagues during his high-flying Hedley days, his two past intimate partners or any of his many casual flings.
And like Hoggard, those closest to him put the blame on the fans who pursued him, and not him.
“Because he’s not acknowledging responsibility or any of the harm he caused, it’s the Crown’s position that he is still a risk,” Slate said.
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MANDEL: What the jury didn’t hear in Jacob Hoggard rape trial MANDEL: Crown won’t appeal Hoggard acquittals 
MANDEL: Hoggard’s victim details trauma in emotional victim impact statement Defence lawyer Megan Savard argued that a fit sentence is in the range of three to four years for a married father who poses a low risk, has lost his lucrative career, faces the victim’s $2.8 million lawsuit and suffered public humiliation.
According to the psychiatrist’s report, phallometric testing shows Hoggard isn’t aroused by coercive sex and another test placed him in the range of “everyday normal, non-psychopathic individuals.”
Hoggard described himself to Bloom as being a geeky class clown who was expelled in Grade 12. Once he gained fame at age 19 with Canadian Idol and then Hedley, the sexually adventurous philanderer with a “robust sex drive” said women were always pursuing him, even throwing their bras and keys at him at his concerts.
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“I felt I got what I wanted and they got what they wanted,” Bloom quoted him as saying of his transactional sexual exploits with his fans.
Hoggard was troubled by his inability to remain faithful to a long-term partner, the psychiatrist wrote, and he was about to pursue treatment with a sexual addiction counsellor before he was charged.
Hedley frontman Jacob Hoggard is pictured during a performance in Grande Prairie, Alta., on Feb. 9 2018. Photo by Joshua Santos /Postmedia News
But while he was promiscuous, Hoggard told Bloom he never engaged in non-consensual sex and the victim lied about being raped because she “felt rejected when whatever fantasy she had about being together did not play out.”
As the troubled judge noted, Hoggard not only shows no remorse in Bloom’s report, but actually “doubles down” on his position.
“To me, parts of it felt like he’s blaming (the victim) and he responds to her evidence in quite aggressive ways,” Roberts said.
Whatever he believes, his lawyer assured her, Hoggard is motivated not to find himself in that position again.
After a day spent dissecting his character and his risk as he watched the proceedings from his home in Vancouver, it was finally Hoggard’s opportunity to address the court before the judge retired to consider how long he will spend behind bars.
“Thank you Your Honour, I’m going to pass on that,” he said.
Roberts is scheduled to deliver her sentence on Oct. 20.
mmandel@postmedia.com
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