A security guard plotted to rape Holly Willoughby for more than five years and began researching kidnapping celebrities more than a decade ago, a court has heard.
Gavin Plumb, 37, is accused of planning to ambush the TV star at her family home, using chloroform to overpower Ms Willoughby and her husband Dan, and take her away to a secluded location.
Plumb allegedly had a “sexual obsession” with Ms Willoughby and planned to repeatedly rape the former This Morning host. He is accused of soliciting another man to then murder her and dispose of the body.
Chelmsford crown court heard Plumb said in online chats in 2021 that he had wanted to rape Ms Willoughby for three years, but had been thwarted by a lack of accomplices.
He has past convictions for trying to kidnap two women on trains in 2006, and a failed bid to tie up 16-year-old girls two years later.
The court heard his internet searches recovered by police included looking up in 2011 the phrase: “How to meet people who plan to kidnap celebs.”
In April 2013, he looked up a news story about a US college student being abducted and raped by a gang, jurors heard, and had also looked up an article about the attempt to kidnap Ryanair “stewardesses”.
Police also found that Plumb had looked up Ms Willoughby in May 2021, with a search result from a pornographic website.
In August 2021, Plumb looked up online “Jewish women raped in the war” and a news article under the headline “holocaust rape”, and a month later he searched for “what does it feel like to be raped.”
Jurors heard police recovered millions of images from Plumb’s devices, and were only able to review a selection of them.
Plumb is accused of trying to “live out his ultimate fantasy” with the alleged plot against Ms Willoughby.
It is said he had been planning the kidnap in late 2021 and 2022 with an online associate called ‘Marc’, and shared in online chats and voice notes his alleged desires to repeatedly rape the TV presenter.
The plan with ‘Marc’ was thwarted, the court has heard, when the other man got “cold feet”.
He is accused of trying to enlist a man in the US for his alleged plot in October 2023, not knowing it was in fact an undercover police officer.
The prosecution began on Tuesday afternoon to introduce the messages Plumb shared with ‘Marc’ in 2021 and 2022 when he was already allegedly plotting to kidnap Ms Willoughby.
“We need to find some where to keep though getting her out of London will be the best bet”, wrote Plumb, in one exchange.
Marc replied: “Definitely the middle of no where so no one here her screams.”
Prosecutor Alison Morgan KC said jurors will see the “graphic language used about what would happen to Holly Willoughby and the way he would treat her.”
In a voice note to Plumb which was played to the court, Marc was heard saying: “Yeah, even if we do a home invasion, tie the whole familyup and take her.
“Could even burn the house down or shoot the rest of the family.
“She may or may not need to know that, but it would make her think that they were alive, still we’ll just take her.”
Later in December 2021, Plumb shared the product of his research into the TV star, including details and an image of her home address. He promised to “track her movements” to find a “simple place to strike”, adding: “A home invasion is a better idea.”
Asked by Marc how long he had been “wanting to rape her”, Plumb replied: “About 3 years but people claim to want to then back out.”
Plumb claimed he had been working to “track her movements”, and on New Year’s Eve 2021 he wrote: “Is it wrong I’m looking forward to it?”
Marc replied: “No. Just hope we don’t get caught.
Plumb told him: “Got a plan for that but it will definitely be worth it for her.”
He then claimed they would force Ms Willoughby to give “full permission to do as we please to her”.
“We’ll make her say we’re aloud to do whatever we want to her and record it”, he wrote.
In January 2022, Plumb messaged to say: “Getting this b*tch is all I can think about I’ve wanted this for years I’m going to be living out my ultimate fantasy.”
It is said that by October 2023, Plumb had drawn plans to use chloroform, handcuffs, and cables ties to overpower Ms Willoughby and her husband Dan Baldwin.
He had identified a lane near to her family home as a “good ambush point”, it is said, and set out in graphic detail his sexual desires towards the star.
In conversations with the undercover officer, Plumb set out plans to take Ms Willoughby to a secluded location, rape her repeatedly, and slit her throat before disposing of her body, it is said.
He was arrested in October 2023 by Essex Police, when officers gained access to Plumb’s devices.
In one of his online posts, Plumb wrote: “Getting her has been my ultimate fantasy for way too long. I’m now at the point that fantasy isn’t enough anymore. I want the real thing.”
Ms Morgan said: “The defendant’s plans as to what he wanted to do to Holly Willoughby were graphic and were obviously sexually motivated. They were real to him, members of the jury, and were based on an obsession with Ms Willoughby that had developed over a number of years.
“The online discussions that this defendant had reveal his real intention to carry out a plot to kidnap Holly Willoughby from her family home; to take her to a location where she would be raped repeatedly, before the defendant then intended to kill her.
“It was not just the ramblings of a fantasist. This defendant had carefully planned what he would do and how he would do it, purchasing items that would assist him in carrying out the attack.”
Plumb, from Harlow, Essex, denies soliciting murder and encouraging or assisting in the commission of offences – rape and kidnap.
The trial continues.
