The co-founder of the fashion brand Superdry has been jailed for eight years after being convicted of raping a woman following a night out drinking.
James Holder, 54, of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, had returned to the woman’s home and, after going to the toilet, he fell asleep on her bed, snoring.
Holder then woke up and beckoned the woman, who was trying to sleep in her lounge, into her bedroom before raping her.
The multimillionaire fashion boss denied the rape charge, claiming the sexual activity had been consensual, but was convicted by a jury at Cirencester Courthouse last week.
Recorder David Chidgey, sitting at Bristol Crown Court on Thursday, jailed Holder for eight years for the offence, describing it as “a despicable piece of sexual violence”.
The judge said: “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.”
Holder, who appeared via video link from HMP Hewell wearing a grey sweatshirt and jogging bottoms, did not react as the sentence was passed.
More to follow...
