For the first time, the woman who Jacob Hoggard was convicted of sexually assaulting is revealing her identity
CBC
WARNING: This article contains graphic details of sexual assault and may affect those who have experienced sexual violence, or those who know someone affected by it.
For years, those who accused former Hedley frontman Jacob Hoggard of sexual assault remained nameless. But now, one of them is speaking out in a new documentary.
Previously referred to as J.B. or the “Ottawa woman,” Jessica Baker is now revealing her identity as the survivor of a 2016 assault by Hoggard in a Toronto hotel room.
Hoggard was found guilty of sexual assault causing bodily harm against Baker in June 2022, and was later sentenced to five years in prison. He’s currently serving that sentence after a failed appeal.
Though her identity was covered under a publication ban during and after the trial, Baker decided to have it lifted. In a new documentary from CBC, Breaking Idol, Baker explains she’s speaking out in an effort to reclaim her story.
“Now, I just want people to acknowledge that I’m a real person with feelings,” Baker said in the documentary.
Hoggard rose to prominence as a contestant on Canadian Idol in 2004 before his band, Hedley, took off on airwaves across the country and became beloved by teenage fans. When accusations of misconduct by Hoggard circulated online during the #MeToo era in 2018, the group was dropped by their management team and many radio stations stopped playing their music.
Hoggard was tried in 2022 for accusations of sexual assault against two women — Baker and an anonymous teenager. He was only found guilty for the sexual assault of Baker. Hoggard was also charged with another sexual assault that was alleged to have taken place in Kirkland Lake, Ont., in June 2016, and was found not guilty in October 2024.
He pleaded not guilty in each case.
In court, Baker testified that Hoggard raped her as she cried and said no. She told the court at a sentencing hearing in 2022 that the assault had changed her forever.
"A part of me died that day that I will never get back," she said at the time.
"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."
In the documentary, Baker says the trial itself was just as traumatizing.
“It's the exact same feeling, amplified in front of a room full of strangers and [Hoggard] and his wife,” she said.
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