The multimillionaire co-founder of Superdry has denied raping a drunk woman after a night out, telling a court it was 'evident what she wanted to happen'. James Holder, 54, insisted that his encounter with the woman was consensual, claiming she 'kissed him first' and that he had a 'protective instinct' towards women.
Gloucester Crown Court heard on Wednesday how the businessman was 'old school and chivalrous' towards women and 'adored sex'. Holder had been out on the evening of May 6, 2022, in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, and was due to get a taxi back to his mansion in the Cotswolds with a male friend. Instead, the pair got into the alleged victim's taxi and went to her flat, where she was allegedly raped by the fashion boss.
Holder is accused of 'pulling' the woman into her bedroom and raping her. But today he took the stand on the third day of the trial and insisted the encounter stopped 'immediately' after the complainant 'said she was beginning to feel sore'. Holder told the jury he had got out of the first taxi because he 'just didn't want the party to stop'. He said that at the woman's home she offered him a drink, which he declined, and put on music, before he went to the toilet and then fell asleep on her bed.
The defendant said he awoke and went to the living room where his friend was asleep on the sofa and the complainant was awake sitting in a chair. Holder told the court: 'I asked her if everything was OK and she said absolutely fine, she was awake. As she walked over to me – at that exact moment – we began kissing. I would say it was a maximum of five minutes. We walked to the bedroom, which was about a minute away, and walked into the bedroom and began kissing again.'
Holder said he was wearing very tight trousers which required both his hands to remove and claimed he therefore could not have been restraining the complainant at the same time. He told the court the complainant performed oral sex on him before they progressed to consensual sexual intercourse, but stopped when she said it was becoming painful.
Michelle Heeley KC, defending, asked Holder whether the woman was crying at any stage. He replied: 'I did not see or hear her crying at any point.' Asked why he left the flat a short time later, Holder replied: 'I had been out for much longer than I anticipated and I needed to go home. I let myself out. She was asleep on the bed.'
Miss Heeley asked him about his belief of her consent, and he replied: 'Completely full consent.' The court heard Holder learnt of the rape allegation in November 2022 when he was interviewed by detectives. Describing that interview, Holder said: 'I was in extreme physical and mental shock. I personally felt that the allegation was so foreign and in direct contradiction to what happened. I went into complete meltdown, a nosebleed, and bawling like a baby – complete shock.'
During that interview Holder told police he was 'old school and chivalrous' in relation to women, and also 'adored sex'. James Haskell, prosecuting, asked the defendant in cross-examination: 'Did you behave in a chivalrous manner towards her that night?' He replied: 'I did, yes. I looked after her throughout the whole evening.'
The prosecutor asked: 'You said that your instinct was to protect women. Did you protect her that night?' Holder replied: 'At the only indication of any level of discomfort I stopped immediately. I would say that could be a protective instinct.'
Mr Haskell asked why he had got into the complainant's taxi and gone to her home without first discussing it with her. Mr Haskell said: 'Are you somebody who is used to doing precisely what they want to?' Holder replied: 'No, I am not, actually.'
Mr Haskell asked: 'Is the real reason you wanted to go back to the flat is because you saw an opportunity to have sex with her?' Holder replied: 'No.' Asked how the encounter began, Holder said: 'She inserted her tongue in my mouth, and it was very evident what she wanted to happen.'
Mr Haskell asked: 'You saw something you wanted and you took it because the truth is that when you got to the doorway of the living room you said something like, "What's happening, is everything all right?" as you wanted to entice her to the bedroom and that's why you said, "Can you show me?" It ended because she managed to escape off the bed.' Holder replied: 'That's not correct. She fell straight to sleep. She was fast asleep, so I popped my clothes on and left.'
The defendant was asked: 'Is the truth that it suddenly dawned on you of the reality of what you had just done, and you wanted to get out of the flat as soon as possible.' Holder replied: 'No, not true.'
The court had previously heard that Holder left the flat within ten minutes of the sexual encounter with his friend still passed out in the living room on May 6, 2022. The court was told that there was no dispute that a sexual encounter occurred and that Holder had fallen asleep on the alleged victim's bed where, before going back to the living room, the alleged victim had filmed Holder snoring.
It was alleged that Holder had woken and told the woman to join him in the bedroom before 'pulling' her in there and engaging in non-consensual sex. Holder challenged this today, claiming the alleged victim had initiated the encounter and said: 'Because of all my constant travelling, I learned how to sleep literally on a pinhead. I saw the bed, took a power nap, then got up. It was nothing to do with the alcohol whatsoever.'
Holder added: 'I'd walked in for a general check in. I wasn't intending to sleep on her bed, I was unaware it was hers. I checked in then she walked over to me.' Holder then told the court the pair engaged in 20-25 minutes of consensual sexual activity before 'she said she was beginning to feel sore so I stopped immediately.' He added: 'Probably at the moment of her telling me that she was feeling sore I may have apologised.'
When asked if he was surprised that the intercourse had stopped abruptly, he told the jury: 'I didn't care because she said she felt sore, I had absolutely no need to give myself any type of pleasure'. Holder also denied that he had forced her to give him oral sex and that he was responsible for bruises on her arms. He then claimed that the woman had immediately fallen asleep before he left.
Opening the case for the prosecution, James Haskell, had told the jury the accuser had told the defendant 'no' and that she was 'tired' before he pulled her onto the bed. He told the court that he had 'continued to touch her' and 'from time to time he would say sorry but then carried on'. He added: 'She was telling him to stop. At one point she remembered starting to cry but even then he didn't stop.'
Mr Haskell alleged that it had 'suddenly dawned on you what you'd just done and you wanted to get out of the flat as fast as possible'. The court heard different taxis were called around midnight after Holder had been out for drinks at Gin and Juice. Holder told the jury he was a '7.5 out of 10' level of drunk but denied he had any plans to have sex with the woman when he got into her taxi instead of his.
He added: 'When we left the bar it was a very high dynamic, I was about a 7.5 so my memory leaving would not be as strong as it as in her flat.' Holder admitted that 'it was very likely' that he'd said 'I'm not going home' but that he doesn't 'remember the exact words'. He said: 'We were having such a laugh, there was no overthought to any decision, it was instinctive. We would've had an ongoing conversation on the way back about going into her flat, just general banter. I do have memory about getting into the taxi, but I couldn't remember which seat I got into. There was no mention of a house party, it was more about the dynamic of continuing the night on.'
Holder then claimed that once they had got back to the woman's flat, 'she was dramatically different from midnight in Gin and Juice', and that he had 'no' reservations about entering. He then told the court that the trio had spent roughly 15 minutes in her kitchen and living room. He added: 'When I got into the flat I was very much in the mood for carrying on the party, just by hanging out. I decided not to have any more alcohol, and as I went to the toilet I felt tired. It was dark and I was completely unaware whose bedroom it was and that's why I lay on the end of the bed.'
During the trial, the court also heard excerpts from Mr Holder's police interview given in 2022, where he told a DC that 'I absolutely adore sex', 'adore women, they are the best thing on the f--ing planet', and that he was 'consistently checking in' during the encounter. The defendant, of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, denies charges of rape and assault by penetration. The trial continues.
