Superdry co-founder James Holder jailed for rape

Gloucestershire Police

Superdry co-founder James Holder has been jailed for eight years for raping a woman in a "despicable piece of sexual violence".

The 54-year-old, of Cheltenham, attacked the woman in her flat after a night out in 2022.

His victim told Bristol Crown Court he had taken her "choice, dignity and body".

Holder, who appeared via video link from prison, showed no emotion as he was sentenced by Recorder David Chidgey, who said the attack was "about your sense of entitlement, 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 was found guilty by a jury of seven men and five women at Gloucester Crown Court, sitting in Cirencester, on Friday.

The fashion tycoon, who set up Superdry with Julian Dunkerton in 2003 before resigning from the company in 2016, was on an "impromptu night out" on 6 May 2022 which ended at the victim's flat, the court was told during his trial.

A witness said she had called a taxi for Holder and a separate one for the victim, but Holder had then got into the back of the victim's taxi, destined for her home address.

Recorder Chidgey told Holder: "This was perhaps the first evidence the jury heard which spoke to your attitude and intentions."

At the victim's home, Holder fell asleep on her bed, then woke up and beckoned the woman, who was trying to sleep in the lounge, into her bedroom.

The woman refused and the jury heard he pulled her onto the bed.

"You ignored the fact she was crying, it was a living nightmare for her, assaulted in the worst possible way in her own home," Recorder Chidgey told Holder.

'I am still standing'

Ahead of her attacker's sentence being delivered, Holder's victim addressed him in a statement and said the incident had "cast shadows where there should only be light".

"Four years since you raped me. I will not soften that word to make it easier for you or anyone else to hear; it belongs to the truth of your actions.

"I am still here, still standing, still reclaiming every part of myself you tried to take.

"What you did to me did not end that day. It has followed me into my relationships, into the way I try to trust, into moments where connection should feel safe but doesn't," she read to the court.

Recorder Chidgey told Holder he would serve at least two thirds of his sentence in prison.

He was ordered to pay £5,000 towards prosecution costs and a victim surcharge, which has yet to be calculated.

A spokesperson for Superdry previously told BBC News the 54-year-old had resigned as a director and employee of the company in 2016, and consultancy work with the firm had ended in 2019.

"The case relates to an incident in 2022, long after any role with Superdry had ended," they added.

Speaking outside court after the sentencing, Det Con Elle MacLeod from Gloucestershire Police commended the victim for her bravery in coming forward and for the way she "fearlessly gave evidence" in front of the jury.

She continued: "Although no sentence will undo the damage done by Holder, I hope it goes some way to delivering justice.

"No one is above the law, and regardless of your status, wealth or power, you will be held accountable for your actions."

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