Warning: You may find some of the graphic detail in this story disturbing
A woman who was raped by Superdry co-founder James Holder has told the she had been working for him at the time of the attack and had to return to work to face him just days later.
Gemma, not her real name, was attacked by the disgraced fashion boss in her own home after Holder got into her taxi following work drinks on a Friday night in 2022.
In an exclusive interview, she described feeling fear and dread on the following Monday morning as she walked into work at a new business Holder had launched after leaving Superdry in 2016.
Asked whether he spoke to her that week, she said: “Yeah, he did. Very much like he would have spoken to me the week before. As if nothing had happened.”
Multi-millionaire Holder, 54, was jailed in May for eight years for raping Gemma, in what the court heard was a “despicable piece of sexual violence”.
If you have been affected by the details in this story, help and support can be found at the Action Line.
Due to her right to anonymity, Gemma’s working relationship with Holder was unable to previously be reported.
However, in her first media interview, Gemma revealed she had first worked for Holder at his fashion firm Superdry in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, before joining another one of his businesses.
While at Superdry, she said she did not have any direct interaction with Holder, describing him as having an almost “celebrity-like” status.
But when she later moved jobs to work at a new company he was launching, she said she became increasingly aware of his “controlling” behaviour.
She described a work culture where there was “no room for mistakes” and everyone was on “high alert”.
“It certainly was a way of trying to command respect and a sort of allegiance to his agenda, for sure,” she said.
