Superdry boss found guilty of rape after jury rejects consent defence

The co-founder of clothing firm Superdry is facing jail after being found guilty of raping a woman following a night out drinking.

James Holder, 54, had returned to the woman’s home, used the toilet, and then promptly fell asleep on her bed. 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.

Holder had denied charges of assault by penetration and rape, saying that what sexual activity took place between them was consensual. A jury at Gloucester Crown Court, sitting in Cirencester, acquitted Holder of assault by penetration but found him guilty of rape.

The court heard the woman was attacked in the early hours of May 7, 2022, after a night out at a bar in Cheltenham. Holder 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.

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”.

James Haskell, prosecuting, 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?’

“It ended because she managed to escape off the bed.”

Holder replied: “That’s not correct. She fell straight to sleep. She was fast asleep, so I popped my clothes on and left.”

Mr Haskell was asked: “Is the truth that it suddenly dawned on you of the reality of what you had just done, and you wanted to get out of the flat as soon as possible?” Holder replied: “No, not true.”