Superdry co-founder James Holder found guilty of rape

The co-founder of clothing firm Superdry has been found guilty of raping a woman in Gloucestershire, England, in May 2022.

James Holder, 54, denied charges of assault by penetration and rape and said what sexual activity took place between them was consensual.

A jury at Gloucester Crown Court, sitting in Cirencester, acquitted Holder of assault by penetration but found him guilty of rape.

The court heard the woman was attacked in the early hours of 7 May 2022 after a night out at a bar in Cheltenham.

Holder and a friend had gone back to her home uninvited, the court heard, and he attacked her after waking from a short nap on her bed.

Giving evidence, the woman said she was crying and asking him to stop but he carried on.

The court heard that the woman managed to escape the bedroom, and Holder left her home a short time later.

The woman denied suggestions from Holder's barrister that she had initiated the encounter.

The defendant, of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, has been remanded into custody ahead of sentencing.