Superdry co-founder James Holder jailed for rape

The 54-year-old, of Cheltenham, attacked the woman in her flat after a night out in May 2022. Superdry co-founder James Holder jailed for rape The Superdry co-founder has been convicted of rape. Copyright current_year BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking. Copyright current_year BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking. James Holder was sentenced to eight years in prison after being found guilty of rape James Holder is escorted from Cirencester Magistrates' Court by a police officer. He is wearing a dark suit and grey tie 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 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 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, was on an "impromptu night out" on 6 May 2022 which ended at the woman'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 evidence the jury heard which spoke to your attitude and intentions". James Holder was escorted into a police van after being convicted of rape At the victim's home, Holder fell asleep on her bed, then woke up and beckoned the woman, who was trying to sleep in her lounge, into her bedroom. The woman refused, and told the court he pulled her onto the bed. "At one point she remembered starting to cry but even then he didn't stop," said prosecutor James Haskell. Ahead of Holder's sentence being delivered, his victim addressed her attacker in a statement and said the incident had "cast shadows where there should only be light". "Four years since you raped me. I will not soften that word to make it easier for you or anyone else to hear; it belongs to the truth of your actions. "I am still here, still standing, still reclaiming every part of myself you tried to take. "What you did to me did not end that day. It has followed me into my relationships, into the way I try to trust, into moments where connection should feel safe but doesn't," she read to the court. Tell us which stories we should cover in Gloucestershire Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways: email: radio.gloucestershire@bbc.co.uk WhatsApp:  +44 800 313 4630 Add your details and we could get in touch with you Follow BBC Gloucestershire on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to us on email or via WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630. . Send your story ideas to us on email or via Jon Boutcher tells the policing board there were "absolutely unacceptable police failings in the investigation in to the murder of Katie Simpson". PC Frank Stevens's plan for Halo Points is being introduced across Liverpool. Stormont's justice committee chairman says the police failings described are "absolutely astounding". Alastair Chambers, the leader of the Community Independent Group, set to go on trial in November. Police said the man, aged in his 30s and from Warwickshire, was pronounced dead at the scene. According to National Highways, the motorway reopened at about 05:00 BST. Two councillors said the 18-bed house was bought a year ago and they found a back door unlocked. A charity hopes to bring low-cost accommodation to Gloucestershire for younger people who work.