In May 2022, after a night out with a friend, Holder did not get into the taxi called for him, but into the victim’s taxi. After arriving at the woman’s apartment, he fell asleep in her bedroom while she tried to sleep in the living room. After some time, however, he called her to him and raped her, the BBC describes the events.
(In the previous version of the article, we mistakenly stated that the rape victim was a taxi driver. The error arose from ambiguous wording in the original source)
The victim testified before the court that she did not invite the businessman to her apartment and repeatedly asked him to leave her alone, but he did not do so, even when she started crying. In addition, according to her testimony, the woman was drunk at the time of the rape, which would further limit her ability to consent to sex from a legal point of view.
Holder’s victim read a statement in court in which she stated that the businessman acted as if he was entitled to her. “You took advantage of my vulnerability. You entered my home uninvited. You ignored my repeated pleas to stop acting as if you were entitled to continue attacking my body. My home was dishonored by your actions,” the victim wrote.
Holder’s lawyer, Michelle Heeley, in an attempt to secure a lower sentence for her client before the court, stated that the sentence will not only punish him, but also his wife and two children. She further recalled that he created companies that now employ thousands of people and did a lot for charity. Holder has also reportedly already offered to provide fashion and design education to young people in prison.
Judge David Chidgey eventually sentenced Holder to eight years in prison. “It was a crime based on a sense of entitlement, your sense of entitlement in having whatever you want, and your callous disregard for the victim’s absolute right to decide what she wants to do with her body,” the judge said.
After studying graphic design, Holder first founded the skateboard and BMX fashion brand Bench in the eighties. In 2003, together with entrepreneur Julian Dunkerton, they founded the Superdry brand, which started as a stand in Cheltenham, but now has stores in 46 countries around the world, including 60 in Great Britain. The company Superdry stated that at the time of the rape, Holder no longer held any position in it.
