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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 BBC 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”.
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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.
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The rape happened in May 2022, when a group of people from the company went for drinks at Gin and Juice, in Cheltenham.
“It was just, you know, colleagues going out,” Gemma said. “Early in the evening, there was nothing unusual… and then I would say later in the night, his [Holder’s] behaviour sort of shifted.”
Towards the end of the night, a friend called Gemma a taxi, while another cab was called for Holder.
But instead, Holder – who is married, with two children – got into Gemma’s taxi uninvited. She told the BBC the plan was for her to get out at her address, while he would continue to his own home.
But that did not happen and he ended up in her home.
She said Holder initially fell asleep on her bed, but woke up and began beckoning Gemma, who was trying to sleep in the lounge.
When she refused, he pulled her onto the bed and raped her.
The morning after, Gemma said she felt fearful for her future. “He’s the person [who is] paying your wage every month,” she said.
“You don’t know what Monday will bring. You don’t know what Tuesday or Wednesday will bring. And for me, it was kind of more of a moment of being completely destabilised.”
Gemma said she was in “survival mode” when she returned to work.
When Holder spoke to her, she said it was “as if nothing had happened”.
“It just shows him for what he is. It’s a power trip.”
She said Holder was “accountable to no one”.
“He had free rein of his own behaviours and that’s not unique to just this [industry], you think about with the movie industry as well over the last few years.
“That sort of entitlement because they are in a position of power is incredibly dangerous in a work environment.”
Gemma said she was initially scared of what would happen if she reported Holder to the police, due to his “prevalence within the industry”.
“I felt there was certainly a risk that this would affect my future prospects in finding work,” she added.
Days after the rape, the business went into liquidation, something Gemma said was a “blessing in disguise”. It meant she was free to report Holder, who was no longer her boss, and “the threat was taken away” from her livelihood.
Gemma believes Holder’s actions were enabled by the fashion industry.
Last year, research by industry publication Drapers suggested that fashion retail employees consider sexual harassment a common workplace issue, with many reporting perpetrators were senior colleagues, often wielding power over the victim’s career.
“The leadership structure of most fashion brands are quite male dominated and then a lot of the working people are female,” she said.
“There’s a level of control and there’s a level of power and trust that just gets completely exploited.
“It has been a culture within the industry that I’ve seen and there is a level of misogynistic behaviour in the industry.”
Gemma said she wanted victims to feel empowered to report sexual assaults.
“I did not ask for what happened to me. That was not on me. That is completely his responsibility,” she said.
“But I know a lot of women feel like they had a level of responsibility of what happened to them and that’s completely wrong.”
Following Holder’s sentencing, Detective Constable Elle MacLeod, who led the investigation for Gloucestershire Police, said Gemma had potentially prevented other individuals becoming victims of Holder.
She said she hoped it demonstrated that “no one is above the law, regardless of your status, wealth, or power”.
A spokesperson for Superdry previously told BBC News that Holder resigned as a director and employee of the company in 2016, and consultancy work with the firm ended in 2019.
“The case relates to an incident in 2022, long after any role with Superdry had ended,” they added.
Now the court case is over, Gemma said she had found a “sense of freedom” to move on with everything she had planned in life.
Asked how she would like Holder to be remembered now, Gemma added: “As a rapist – because that is what he is.”
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