Support truly
independent journalism
An “obsessed” security guard who purchased items for a “kidnap kit” including shackles and chloroform has been handed three life sentences for plotting to abduct, rape and cut the throat of TV personality Holly Willoughby.
Loner Gavin Plumb, 37, must serve a minimum of 15 years and 85 days after he was unanimously found guilty of masterminding a depraved scheme to target the former This Morning presenter – who was his “ultimate fantasy” – in a home invasion.
The plot had a “life-changing” impact on the star, who waived her right to anonymity. Ms Willoughby chose to keep her victim personal statement private as Plumb was sentenced on Friday, but prosecutor Alison Morgan KC said the “extent of the shock and fear caused by this offending has been impossible to convey”.
Plumb, who had attacked women twice before, was caught after he unwittingly revealed details of his kidnap plot to an undercover US officer in a chatroom called “Abduct Lovers”.
The officer was so concerned about the “immediate danger” facing the mother of three that he alerted the FBI, who contacted the UK authorities.
After Plumb was arrested, officers later found more than a million images of women on his devices – including 10,322 of Ms Willoughby.
The shopping centre security guard, whose weight once ballooned to 35 stone, sobbed in the dock as he was found guilty of soliciting murder, incitement to rape, and incitement at Chelmsford Crown Court earlier this month.
The trial heard how Plumb revealed to the undercover officer his plans to invade Ms Willoughby’s home and tie up her husband before taking the star away to “enjoy her”.
At various points, Plumb and a potential accomplice discussed taking the mother of three to an abandoned building. Locations they mentioned included a disused stud farm with “15 cells”, his flat in Harlow, Essex, or a dungeon-type room where “no one would hear her screams”.
Afterwards, Plumb said, he would “slit her throat” and dispose of her body.
He also shared pictures of items he had purchased for his “kidnap kit” – including shackles, metal cable ties, handcuffs and a ball gag – in hundreds of depraved messages with the undercover officer and another online user known as Marc.
Plumb claimed that the messages were a fantasy and that he could never have enacted the plan because of his excess weight.
Handing him three concurrent life sentences, with a minimum term of 15 years and 85 days, Mr Justice Edward Murray said: “I have no doubt that this was all considerably more than a fantasy to you.”
His plans for Ms Willoughby were so “horrifying, shocking and graphic in detail” that they were not shared in open court, the judge said, warning that Plumb posed a “significant risk to all women”.
The judge continued: “Your plan was hopelessly unrealistic for a number of reasons – including your poor physical health – but you clearly thought it was feasible.
“Although you talked about carrying out the plan on your own, I am sure that this was simply bravado.
“You always intended to carry out your plan to kidnap, rape and kill Ms Willoughby, but only if you could find the right man or men – the right ‘crew’ as you sometimes called it – to help you do it.”
The judge also imposed a restraining order to stop Plumb from ever contacting the television presenter.
During the two-week trial, it emerged that the father of two had previously “terrified, subdued, threatened and detained real women” and that he had tried to kidnap two air stewards from a Stansted Express train in 2006 while carrying an imitation firearm.
After receiving a suspended sentence, he struck again two years later, this time threatening two 16-year-old girls with a Stanley knife in a warehouse stockroom. The girls were “screaming and crying” as he tried to tie them up, before they managed to escape and raise the alarm.
He bragged about his previous attacks in messages with a potential accomplice he met online, later telling the undercover officer: “I got 16 months. Our justice system is s*** tbh.”
One of his previous victims revealed that she was paralysed with fear when he tried to kidnap her on a train in 2006 armed with an imitation firearm and rope.
Speaking out before Plumb was jailed for the plot against Ms Willoughby, she said that the lenient sentence he received had only encouraged his offending.
“I believe that lack of punishment was only encouragement,” the survivor told the BBC. “He could go unpunished doing whatever he did – if he got away with it, why not try again?”
She said the isolated loner, who told the court he spent 99.9 per cent of his life online, had “nothing in life”. “It makes him in a way more dangerous, you know, a person who has nothing to lose,” she added.
One of the 2008 shop attack victims revealed she “felt a permanent sense of worry” that “she would bump into him when he was released” from prison.
Ms Morgan told the sentencing hearing on Friday: “Hearing of these matters has made her think about what could have happened to her if she hadn’t been able to run away from him, thankful as she is it didn’t turn out worse.”
In mitigation, Sasha Wass KC, defending, said Plumb “worshipped and was obsessed by Ms Willoughby for a period of years, admittedly in a warped and bizarre manner”.
She said Plumb “remains embarrassed and ashamed” and that he had “always expected” that the online conversations that formed the focus of the trial “would remain private”.
In a statement after Plumb’s conviction, Ms Willoughby said: “As women we should not be made to feel unsafe going about our daily lives and in our own homes.”
