A security guard accused of plotting to kidnap, rape and murder Holly Willoughby told a court it was sexual fantasy that was “never going to happen”.
Gavin Plumb, 37, is accused of orchestrating a plan to invade the TV star’s home, knock her and her husband out with chloroform, and take her away to a secluded location.
It is alleged Plumb wanted to “live out his ultimate fantasy”, by repeatedly raping Ms Willoughby and then murdering her.
He told Chelmsford crown court that early online chats with an associate called ‘Marc’ began with “clean” fantasies of having sex with celebrities, before it “started to get dark”.
Plumb said Marc first brought up the idea of a “home invasion”, including tying up Ms Willoughby and her family before burning down the house.
“Looking back at it now, it’s massively regrettable”, he said. “It is not the kind of chat I would normally participate in.”
Plumb argued he did not agree with the idea of using cable ties to restrain the TV host, and gave one word answers like “nice” in order to “put a stop to that kind of talk there and then”.
Plumb told jurors he did not expect an abduction to actually happen.
“It’s going to sound really bad but it was kind of for gratification”, he said. “It was something I knew was never going to happen, it was never going to happen. It was just passing the time, chatting.”
Prosecutors have outlined Plumb’s convictions in 2006 for trying to kidnap two women from trains while working as a parking inspector, arguing it shows a background of real-life threats and action against women.
He told one of the victims he was going to shoot her and all the other passengers, and posed as a police officer during the second incident.
Starting his evidence, Plumb said he carried out both attempted kidnaps in a bid to escape the “extremely toxic” four-year relationship he was in at the time.
“There were constant arguments”, he said. “The things that a couple would be doing, as in having a normal relationship, we wasn’t.”
He added: “I was constantly put down, constantly told she could do better. She was only with me because I was there.”
Asked why he tried to kidnap the train passengers, Plumb replied: “For me, it was my only option. I was in a toxic relationship, I was extremely young, I needed to find a way out.
“It was going to get me caught. Get me incarcerated.”
Plumb was handed a suspended prison sentence, but returned to the relationship and fathered his first child, he told jurors.
In 2008, he was convicted of trying to tie up two 16-year-old girls in the stockroom of the store where he worked. He had pulled out a knife and led the girls to a secluded area, but was thwarted when one of the girls got away.
“It was exactly the same”, he told jurors. “I needed a way out of the relationship. Knowing it worked the first time, I thought I would try something really big again, to get away from the relationship.”
Plumb was sentenced to 32 months in prison after admitting false imprisonment.
Asked about the impact of the crimes, Plumb told the court he considered the feeling of the victims but had prioritised his need to get out of his relationship.
He is accused of plotting for almost two years to kidnap Willoughby, in an alleged plan to repeatedly rape the former This Morning host.
It is said he soliciting another man to carry out the attack and then murder the TV host and dispose of the body.
Plumb was arrested in October 2023 after outlining his alleged plan to an undercover US police officer.
He told jurors on Friday that he started to put on weight at the age of 13, and reached up to 26 stone in his younger life.
He said he was “regularly in the friend zone” with girls while growing up, he had his only long-term relationship from the age of 18 but dubbed it “toxic”, and said he got into BDSM sex – which he referred to as “rough sex” – during a four-month sexual relationship with another woman.
Plumb said he spent much of his spare time online after his convictions, when he struggled to find a job, sharing “clean” fantasies on chatrooms of having sex with celebrities.
He said by 2014 his weight was “ballooning” and he reached 35-and-a-half stone, becoming housebound and spending all of his time online.
“I physically couldn’t move without being in pain, being breathless”, he said.
Plumb said he could only leave the house to go to medical appointments, one doctor said he would die within four years without intervention, and he ultimately had a weight loss operation in 2018.
“It was making me feel so low, to the point I felt as though I didn’t want to talk to anyone”, he said.
“I was a burden because of my weight, I had to have members of my family come out to do housework. I couldn’t pick up a kettle without being in pain.”
Plumb said his interest in Ms Willoughby began as he watched her on daytime TV while housebound. Plumb is accused of plotting the star’s kidnap in late 2021 and 2022 with ‘Marc’, but the plan allegedly stalled when the other man got “cold feet”.
Plumb allegedly kept up his interest in the plot, and outlined his plans to the undercover officer over three days in October last year, leading to his arrest.
It is said he had drawn plans to use chloroform, handcuffs, and cables ties to overpower Ms Willoughby and her husband Dan Baldwin.
Some of the messages recovered by police refer to Plumb and accomplices climbing over a wall to access the TV presenter’s home.
Asked if that would have been possible, Plumb said he weighed 28 to 30 stone at the time and he added: “I’ve got more chance of tripping over this step.”
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.
“She was my celebrity crush”, Plumb told the court.
Plumb, from Harlow, Essex, denies soliciting murder and encouraging or assisting in the commission of offences – rape and kidnap.
The trial continues.
