James Holder, the co-founder of the British fashion brand Superdry, was sentenced Thursday to eight years in prison for raping a woman in her own home after a night of drinking in May 2022.
A jury at Gloucester Crown Court convicted Holder, 54, last week of one count of rape. He was acquitted of a separate charge of assault by penetration. The sentencing took place at Bristol Crown Court, where Judge David Chidgey delivered sharp remarks about the nature of the crime.
The victim testified that she had been at a bar in Cheltenham with Holder. After leaving, Holder got into her taxi uninvited and followed her into her home. She said he assaulted her shortly after waking from a short nap. “She cried as he carried on despite her pleas to stop,” prosecutors recounted during the trial, summarizing her testimony.
Judge Chidgey called the offense “a despicable piece of sexual violence” and told Holder it reflected his own sense of entitlement. “It was about entitlement, it was about your sense of entitlement and your sense of doing what you wanted and your casual disregard for the victim’s absolute right to say what she wanted to do with her own body,” the judge said.
Holder, a married father of two, denied the charges. He maintained that all sexual contact had been consensual. His defense argued that the encounter did not meet the legal threshold for rape.
Holder appeared via video link from Hewell prison, wearing a grey sweatshirt and jogging pants. He showed no visible reaction as the sentence was passed. Under UK law, he will serve at least two-thirds of the eight-year term before being eligible for release.