Superdry co-founder James Holder jailed for rape

Superdry co-founder James Holder has been jailed for eight years for raping a woman in a "despicable piece of sexual violence". The 54-year-old, of Cheltenham, attacked the woman in her flat after a night out in 2022. His victim told Bristol Crown Court he had taken her "choice, dignity and body". Holder, who appeared via video link from prison, showed no emotion as he was sentenced by Recorder David Chidgey, who said the attack was "about your sense of entitlement, 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". Holder was found guilty by a jury of seven men and five women at Gloucester Crown Court, sitting in Cirencester, on Friday. The fashion tycoon, who set up Superdry with Julian Dunkerton in 2003 before resigning from the company in 2016, was on an "impromptu night out" on 6 May 2022 which ended at the victim's flat, the court was told during his trial. A witness said she had called a taxi for Holder and a separate one for the victim, but Holder had then got into the back of the victim's taxi, destined for her home address. Recorder Chidgey told Holder: "This was perhaps the first