A British court handed down an eight-year prison sentence Thursday to James Holder, the 54-year-old co-founder of fashion retailer Superdry, after his conviction on rape charges.
Last week, jurors at Gloucester Crown Court in western England found Holder guilty of rape while clearing him on a second charge of assault by penetration related to a May 2022 incident.
According to the victim’s testimony, Holder climbed into her taxi uninvited and followed her into her residence after they had been drinking at a Cheltenham establishment. She told the court he attacked her after waking from a brief sleep, continuing the assault despite her tears and requests for him to stop.
The married father of two maintained his innocence throughout the proceedings, claiming any intimate contact was mutually agreed upon.
During sentencing at Bristol Crown Court, Judge David Chidgey called the crime “a despicable piece of sexual violence.”
“It was about entitlement, it was about your sense of entitlement and 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,” the judge stated.
Holder showed no visible response to the sentencing while appearing remotely from Hewell prison, dressed in casual gray clothing.
