Superdry co-founder James Holder jailed for raping woman

The co-founder of fashion chain Superdry has been jailed for eight years after raping a woman after a night out.

James Holder, 54, of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, was found guilty of rape last week, but was acquitted of assault by penetration.

Sentencing Holder at Bristol Crown Court on Thursday, the judge said he was responsible for "a despicable piece of sexual violence".

During his trial, the jury at Gloucester Crown Court, sitting in Cirencester, heard he and a friend had gone back to the woman's home uninvited after a night out at a bar in Cheltenham.

The multi-millionaire fashion boss went to the toilet and had a nap on her bed before beckoning the woman, who was trying to sleep in the lounge, into her bedroom and raping her in the early hours of 7 May 2022.

Giving evidence, the woman said she was crying and asking the married father-of-two to stop, but he continued.

The ordeal ended when she managed to escape the bedroom, and Holder left her home a short time later.

He denied rape, claiming that the sexual activity had been consensual, but the jury did not believe him and he was convicted on 1 May.

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On Thursday, during sentencing remarks, Recorder David Chidgey told Holder: "It was about entitlement, it was about your sense of entitlement and your sense of doing what you wanted and your causal disregard for the victim's absolute right to say what she wanted to do with her own body."

Holder, who appeared via video link from HMP Hewell, did not react as the sentence was passed.

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