Rape accused said 'I'm not going home', court told

The co-founder of clothing company Superdry is accused of raping a woman after he refused to go home following a drunken night out, a court has heard.

James Holder, 54, was drunk and a taxi had been ordered to take him and a friend to his home in the Cotswolds after a night out in Cheltenham on 6 May 2022, Gloucester Crown Court heard.

Instead Holder and the friend, who had been drinking in a bar on the town's promenade, got out of their taxi and into the taxi of the woman he is accused of raping hours later.

Holder, from Cheltenham, denies charges of rape and assault by penetration at the woman's flat in Cheltenham.

Holder had been out for drinks at Gin and Juice with colleagues and friends when he became "intoxicated", a witness told the court, which sat in Cirencester.

At midnight, the witness said she felt the bar was "winding down" so she hailed a taxi for James Holder and his friend to take them to Holder's home before hailing a second taxi to take the complainant home in.

She said Holder had said "I am not going home" after he got into the taxi she flagged down for him.

She said he and his friend then got out of that taxi and into the back seat of the complainant's taxi.

"I said to the taxi driver: 'There's two drops,'" the witness told the court.

The witness said she was walked home by a friend and became conscious the woman was still in a taxi with the two men.

She said she thought she had better call her to "make sure everything's okay".

Two phone calls were made to the woman's phone about 30 to 45 minutes after her taxi left and the witness was only able to get through to her when she phoned Holder's friend, the court was told.

When the phone was passed to the woman, the witness said she could stay at her house but the woman declined, the court heard.

"We were speaking for a couple of minutes but I was worried after talking to her as she seemed quite drunk," the witness said.

The following day, the witness said she visited the woman at her flat.

She said the complainant had made herself a bed on the floor as Holder had fallen asleep on her bed and she said he woke her up shortly after 02:00 BST to ask where the bathroom was.

"She said, somehow, she ended up getting into her bed with James," the witness said.

"She said, somehow, they started kissing...

"I asked her, 'Were you comfortable with that? Because that seems unusual'."

The witness said the woman told her things then went further and she did not want to have sex with Holder but they did anyway.

The court was told there was no dispute sexual activity took place between the multi-millionaire businessman and the woman but Holder insists it was consensual.

A transcript of the police interview given by Holder was read aloud in court in which he described, in great detail, the consensual sexual intercourse he claimed he had with the woman.

The trial continues.

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