Summary
The co-founder of clothing firm Superdry is facing jail after being found guilty of raping a woman after a night out drinking. James Holder, 54, had gone back to the woman’s home, went to the toilet and then promptly fell asleep on her bed snoring. The multi-millionaire fashion boss then woke up and beckoned the woman, who was trying to sleep in the lounge, into her bedroom and raped her.
Details
Holder, of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, had denied charges of assault by penetration and rape and said what sexual activity took place between them was consensual. A jury acquitted Holder of assault by penetration but found him guilty of rape following a trial last week in Cirencester. He will be sentenced at Bristol Crown Court on Thursday by Recorder David Chidgey.
Holder’s trial heard the woman was attacked in the early hours of May 7 2022 after a night out at a bar in Cheltenham. He and a friend had gone back to her home uninvited, and he attacked her after waking from a short nap on her bed. Giving evidence, the woman said she was crying and asking the married father-of-two to stop but he carried on.
The ordeal ended when she managed to escape the bedroom, and Holder left her home a short time later. The woman denied suggestions from Holder’s barrister that she had initiated the encounter. “He forced me to try and perform oral sex on him,” she said.
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Michelle Heeley KC, defending, said: “Sex lasted for approximately 20 minutes.” The woman replied: “I call it rape.” Ms Heeley suggested: “This was a drunken sexual encounter that you regret?” She replied: “Incorrect.” The court heard the businessman and philanthropist was “old school and chivalrous” towards women and “adored sex”.
He told the jury she had kissed him first and it was “evident what she wanted to happen”. “We walked to the bedroom, which was about a minute away … and began kissing again,” he said.
He told the court the complainant performed oral sex on him before they progressed to consensual sexual intercourse, but stopped when she said it was becoming painful. “I did not see or hear her crying at any point,” he said. Asked why he left the flat a short time later, Holder replied: “I had been out for much longer than I anticipated and I needed to go home.
“I let myself out. She was asleep on the bed.” Under cross-examination, Holder denied the reason he had gone to the woman’s home was that he “saw an opportunity to have sex with her”.