Man accused of plan to rape and kill Holly Willoughby previously convicted of attempted kidnapping

A security guard accused of planning to rape and murder Holly Willoughby previously tried to tie up two teenage girls with rope and tape, a court heard.

Gavin Plumb, 37, of Harlow, Essex, previously tried to kidnap women from trains and was convicted for falsely imprisoning two 16-year-old girls in a Woolworths store.

The court heard how Plumb unwittingly told an undercover officer of the sentence he received for the latter offence.

“I got sixteen months. Our justice system is s--- tbh,” he allegedly said.

He also told the individual how he was handed a suspended sentence for trying to abduct two air hostesses on a train.

Plumb is accused of hatching a plot to kidnap, rape and solicit the murder of Willoughby, the former This Morning presenter.

Opening his trial at Chelmsford Crown Court on Monday, Alison Morgan KC, prosecuting, told of how he had “real life experience of violence towards women”.

Ms Morgan detailed how Plumb committed two offences of attempted kidnapping involving two female victims.

The first in August 2006 involved the defendant approaching a woman on a train and sitting opposite her.

He then showed her a note which read: “I have got a gun. All you have to do is keep quiet. Do what I say. So just stand up and get off at the next stop with me. Don’t cry or make a sound. Don’t stop me from touching you because I won’t hurt you. If you do all of this, no one will get hurt but if you don’t I am going to shoot you and myself and everyone else.”

Ms Morgan told of how the victim began to cry, prompting others to come over and Plumb to tear up the note and flee at the next stop.

Two days later, he adopted a similar approach with another woman on a train - this time armed with an imitation firearm.

Two years later, Ms Morgan told of how Plumb had attempted to tie up two 16-year-old girls in a Woolworths stock room in 2008.

Plumb had been working at the retailer at the time.

The barrister said the incidents showed Plumb “knew what it would take to terrify and overpower a woman”.

The court also heard that Plumb told would-be conspirators in the alleged plot to kidnap and rape Willoughby of his previous convictions.

Discussing conversations he had with an undercover police officer online, Ms Morgan said that after being asked if it was his “first time”, the defendant said: “No it’s not, I just didn’t plan it last time. I just went for it and f---ed up.”

The jury was told how Plumb spent “many hours” planning an attack on the presenter and discussed with others online about how he would break into her home, sexually assault and then murder her.

In one instance, prosecutors say Plumb sent an individual an image of a dungeon-type room that he described as “big enough for a bed”, prompting the recipient to observe that “screams” would not be “heard for miles”.

The jury was told how his schemes were curtailed in October last year when he unwittingly recruited a US-based undercover police officer to assist him with the attack.

Plumb was unaware that the person he was talking to, who used the online alias David Nelson, was a police officer and not a “like-minded abductor”, the court heard.

Upon Plumb’s arrest, police discovered two sealed bottles of chloroform and a folder entitled “Holly” on his phone which contained 10,322 images of the presenter.

The court was also told how Plumb ordered four packets of 400 “heavy duty” metal cable ties and sent a video of what he described as his “kit” laid out on a bed, which included handcuffs, the cable ties, a ball gag and rope.

‘Defendant’s plans were graphic’

Ms Morgan told the court: “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.”

She added: “The prosecution’s case is that this defendant’s online discussions 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.”

The jury heard Plumb began planning to attack the mother of three as early as 2021, but had been frustrated by others who had not offered him a proper commitment to carry out the attack.

In December 2021 Plumb is alleged to have discussed his plans with an individual known only as Marc.

Ms Morgan told the jury that by this time, Plumb had already identified where Willoughby lived and told Marc how he had used Google Earth to look at “potential entry routes” of her address.

The pair went on to discuss how they might get closer to Willoughby, with Plumb telling Marc in 2022: “I passed my SIA [Security Industry Authority] licence so I might try to use it to be her security.”

Ms Morgan also told of how Plumb had suggested trying to get on to a tour of the ITV studios where Willoughby was still working as a This Morning presenter at the time.

Deep fake pornography images

The defendant also shared “deep fake pornography images of Holly Willoughby”. The barrister said these images were created by others online “using her face, putting it onto the body of another female to give images of her in pornographic situations”.

In one voice note played to the jury Plumb described his plan to use chloroform to stupify Willoughby and her husband before the pair would “pick out outfits for her we like”.

“One voice message said: ‘We’re then going to force her to make a video that she came with us under her own free will... so that covers us’.”

However, the jury was told Marc never went ahead with the pair’s plans.

Yet a post Plumb shared on an online group called “Abduct lovers” was spotted by an undercover police officer who was based in the Owatonna Police Department on Oct 3.

Under the alias BigBear341987, Plumb posted an image of Willoughby standing in front of a prize wheel and wrote of how he had “a s--- load of info” on her.

Fearing for the woman’s safety, the officer began engaging in a conversation with Plumb, who told him about how he knew “what time” Willoughby got up in the morning and that she didn’t have CCTV at home.

Detailing his plans, Plumb allegedly told the officer that the TV presenter’s throat would be slit and her body disposed of in a lake.

He also insisted that he was “definitely serious” about his plans and responded with “s--- it’s actually happening” when the pair discussed booking flights for Nelson to come to the UK and participate in the kidnap, rape and murder that very month.

‘She is a fantasy of mine’

Following his exchanges with Plumb, the undercover officer contacted officers from the FBI and Metropolitan Police Service.

Officers attended Plumb’s home in Harlow, Essex, to arrest him on Oct 4.

When he was told that the allegations he was facing were related to a conspiracy to kidnap Willoughby, Plumb told an officer: “I’m not gonna lie. She is a fantasy of mine.”

Ms Morgan said: “There can be no sensible doubt but that this defendant was obsessed with Holly Willoughby for some time leading up to these allegations in October 2023.

“Indeed that’s exactly what he said to the police officers when they arrested him. That obsession went beyond fantasy.

“He spent hours planning an attack on Holly Willoughby that involved violence, rape and ultimately... murder.”

Plumb went on to give no comment responses when interviewed at a police station and denies all charges.

The trial continues.

Willoughby, 43, announced in October last year that she was stepping down from This Morning after 14 years.

She said in a social media post at the time that “I have to make this decision for me and my family”.

The presenter has since hosted Dancing On Ice 2024 and will present a Netflix show, to be released next year, in which adventurer Bear Grylls hunts down celebrities in the jungle.