Superdry co-founder James Holder has been sentenced to eight years in prison for raping a woman who cried and pleaded for him to stop, a court has heard. The 53-year-old multi-millionaire was found guilty of rape following a trial at Bristol Crown Court.
The attack took place in the early hours of May 7, 2022, after a night out at a bar in Cheltenham. Holder and a friend went back to the victim's home uninvited. After waking from a nap on her bed, Holder raped her while she was crying and asking him to stop, the court was told.
Holder initially denied charges of assault by penetration and rape, claiming any sexual activity was consensual. A jury acquitted him of assault by penetration but convicted him of rape after a trial in Cirencester.
Victim's Testimony
Giving evidence, the victim described how Holder beckoned her from the lounge, where she was trying to sleep, into her bedroom. She said she cried and begged him to stop, but he continued. The ordeal ended when she managed to escape the bedroom, and Holder left shortly after.
During an earlier hearing, the court was told Holder was "old school and chivalrous" towards women and "adored sex." He told the jury the woman had initiated the encounter, saying she kissed him first and it was "evident what she wanted to happen." He claimed she performed oral sex before consensual intercourse, which stopped when she said it was painful. "I did not see or hear her crying at any point," he said.
Under cross-examination, prosecutor James Haskell asked: "You saw something you wanted and you took it, because the truth is that when you got to the doorway of the living room you said something like: 'What's happening, is everything all right?' as you wanted to entice her to the bedroom and that's why you said: 'Can you show me?'" Holder denied this, saying the woman fell asleep and he left.
The woman rejected suggestions from Holder's barrister that she initiated the encounter. "He forced me to try and perform oral sex on him," she said. When defense barrister Michelle Heeley KC suggested the encounter was a drunken regret, she replied: "Incorrect."
Victim Impact Statement
In a powerful statement read in court, the woman said Holder acted as if he was "entitled." She said: "You chose to take what was never yours – my choice, my dignity, my body. It is four years since you raped me. I have not softened that word to make it easier for you or anyone else to hear."
She added: "I am still here, still standing, still re-claiming every part of myself you tried to take. The weight of what happened should be yours to carry, not mine. What you did to me did not end that day. It has followed me into my relationships, it has cast shadows where there should only be light."
She told the court that Holder took advantage of her vulnerability and violated her home.
Background
Holder co-founded Superdry with Julian Dunkerton in 2003. The brand started as a market stall in Cheltenham and opened its first store in Covent Garden, London, in 2004. Today, Superdry has over 60 stores in the UK and many more worldwide. Superdry confirmed that Holder no longer held any position at the company at the time of the offence.
