A convicted violent offender planned to kidnap, rape and murder Holly Willoughby but was thwarted by an undercover officer based in the US, a court has heard.
Gavin Plumb, 37, was obsessed with the television presenter, amassing more than 10,000 images of her on his phone including deepfake pornography. He had carefully planned how to abduct her from her home, take her to his residence in Harlow, Essex, and murder her in an abandoned building, Chelmsford crown court heard.
Plumb has previous convictions for attempted kidnap and false imprisonment, the jury was told. He had tried to force two women off a train with a fake gun and threatening note in 2006 before attempting to tie up two teenage girls in a Woolworths stock room in 2008.
The security guard had bought cable ties and a folding knife, and appeared to have sourced chloroform for his attack on Willoughby. He had also engaged in graphic and sexually motivated discussions about the planned attack online, the prosecution said.
The father of one was unaware that one of the people with whom he was communicating was an undercover police officer based in the Owatonna police department in Minnesota, who alerted UK authorities, triggering Plumb’s arrest on 4 October 2023.
Plumb has been charged with soliciting murder, encouraging or assisting the commission of kidnap, and encouraging or assisting the commission of rape. He denies all charges.
Opening the case, the prosecutor Alison Morgan KC told the jury: “The defendant’s plans as to what he would do to Holly Willoughby were graphic and were obviously sexually motivated.
“They were real to him and were based on an obsession with Ms Willoughby that had developed over a number of years.
“It was not just the ramblings of a fantasist,” she added.
Plumb had gathered information about Willoughby on social media and followed her activities and movements, Morgan said. He also had “real-life experience of violence towards women”, the prosecutor said.
The court heard how, on 14 August 2006, the defendant approached a woman on a train and showed her a graphic and threatening note.
Two days later, the court heard, he attempted a similar approach with an imitation firearm but the victim refused to get off the train with him. Plumb was arrested and found to be in possession of an imitation firearm, ropes and various notes.
Two years later, in November 2008, Plumb was working at a Woolworths in Harlow, where he forced two 16-year-olds into the stock room at knife-point and tied the hands of one of the girls before the other escaped and raised the alarm.
“These were real offences, committed against real women, involving this defendant threatening them and trying to control and detain them,” Morgan told the jury.
Plumb had been planning an attack on Willoughby for some time, Morgan said.
“For some time, the defendant’s sexual obsession with Holly Willoughby is clear from the graphic nature of his communications with others,” she said, adding that Plumb “expresses himself with such a dark depravity”.
In December 2021, Plumb had already identified where Willoughby lived and shared images of her home with someone online referred to as “Marc”.
Among the conversations with Marc, Plumb discussed using the lane running alongside Willoughby’s house as a “good ambush point”, the jury was told.
“Throughout their exchanges, Marc and the defendant shared graphic images of Willoughby,” Morgan told the jury.
Plumb shared images of Willoughby’s address and discussed “a home invasion” while wearing masks, and he discussed the layout of the property, gates, CCTV and the alley to the side.
“Getting her has been my ultimate fantasy for way too long. I’m now at the point that fantasy isn’t enough any more. I want the real thing,” Plumb told Marc. He also bought a pack of 100 metal cable ties on Amazon.
Plumb discussed identifying “abandoned places” outside London, trying to get on a tour of the ITV studios and using his training as a security officer to get employment with Willoughby.
The jury was played a voice note sent by Plumb in which he explained his “plan of action”, which included picking “outfits of hers that we like”.
He researched where he could source chloroform and sent images to Marc that suggested he had made some of the chemical, the court heard. A bottle of what was purported to be chloroform would later be found at the defendant’s home address, the jury was told.
In another voice note played to the court, he discussed an “abandoned building”, adding: “We’re gonna go and do stakeout and bang job done, shit’s going down as it stands.”
In 2023, a US police officer based within the Owatonna police department was engaged in conducting covert online investigations across several forms of social media and applications.
On 3 October 2023, he was monitoring conversations in a group called “Abduct lovers”, which actively talks about the abduction of others, their torture and murder.
Under the identity “BigBear”, Plumb posted pictures of Willoughby, then not recognised by the officer, and boasted about her security arrangements. The detailed nature of the defendant’s messages concerned the officer, the court heard.
The court heard he went on to describe raping Willoughby at his home address before “getting rid” of her body.
The defendant had shared a video with the officer showing items laid out on a bed, including fetish paraphernalia. The items would later be found at the defendant’s home address, the court heard.
On 4 October last year, as a result of these exchanges, the officer contacted officers within the FBI and the Metropolitan police and Plumb was arrested that day.
The court heard that when the charges were explained to him he responded: “I’m not gonna lie. She is a fantasy of mine.”
The trial continues.
