An ‘obsessed’ security guard wept in the dock today as he was convicted of a ‘graphic’ plot to kidnap, rape and murder Holly Willoughby in the hope of fulfilling his ‘ultimate fantasy’.
Obese Gavin Plumb, 37, claimed he wasn’t physically capable of abducting the former This Morning presenter, had no one qualified to drive to her London home, and that vile conversations he had with ‘like-minded’ people in dark recesses of the internet were ‘just online chat’.
But a jury found him guilty after being presented with a raft of shocking evidence, including a restraint kit including chloroform, which he planned to use to kidnap Ms Willoughby before taking her to an isolated stud farm for sexual torture.
Plumb slowly shook his head and looked down at the floor as the verdicts were read out.
During the trial, jurors were taken through a lengthy ‘sequence of events’ document, which displayed Plumb’s ‘appalling messages’ to others about what he would do to the Dancing On Ice presenter.
His plans were foiled when one of his potential accomplices, who went by the name of David Nelson, turned out to be an undercover officer from the Owatonna Police Department in the US state of Minnesota.
Jurors also heard that Plumb had form when it came to ‘terrifying real women’, as he had convictions for attempted kidnap and false imprisonment following three incidents involving four women in 2006 and 2008.
Gavin Plumb, 37, being arrested by police for planning to kidnap Holly Willoughby
The messy flat in Harlow, Essex, where the recluse planned the brutal act
The equipment was found at the home of Gavin Plumb, 37, who planned to tie up the TV presenter’s family before kidnapping her, jurors have been told
Plumb planned to kidnap, rape and murder TV star Holly Willoughby (pictured)
In his latest plot to target Willoughby, jurors were told how the security guard solicited a man called David Nelson – who turned out to be an undercover American cop – to commit murder, conspiring with him online.
Plumb was heard discussing the horrifying plot to abduct, rape and then kill the 43-year-old presenter during a series of horrifying voice notes played to the court.
The shocking recordings were sent to a potential accomplice called Marc, with Plumb saying he was looking for a place to ‘hold’ Holly after ambushing her at her family home.
‘Nothing’s confirmed yet, mate. Don’t celebrate too early but it looks like… back on track for once,’ Plumb says, before adding: ‘Obviously, you’ll find out when everything is planned. Yeah, we’ll go from there.’
Plumb – who enjoyed dressing up in a Batman shirt – is also heard talking about how he planned to strike in the dead of night and use chloroform to subdue her and her husband, the TV producer Dan Baldwin, 49.
‘Plan of action, basically, we are going to hit it at night, less traffic on the road,’ Plumb said. ‘Chloroform both of them, making them easier to restrain. Pick out outfits of hers we like, take her and the outfits with us and then we’re gone.
‘We are then going to force her to make a video saying she came with us under her own free will and she’s fully consenting to everything we do to her so that covers us.’
Two bottles of chloroform – a chemical that can knock a person unconscious if forced to inhale it – were later found at Plumb’s home in Harlow, Essex, by police.
Plumb even shared a video showing some of the kit he had bought online to help restrain Holly
A bottle of chloroform, shown to Chelmsford Crown Court in the court case of Gavin Plumb, who masterminded a plot to kidnap, rape and murder TV presenter Holly Willoughby
A court artist’s drawing of Plumb (right) at Chelmsford Crown Court
In another chilling audio clip, Plumb is heard saying: ‘The chloroform bit is going to be fun, picking the outfits is going to be fun.
‘So if you can get to the UK, to England that’ll be awesome because then you can be part of it.’
The court heard Plumb had assembled a ‘restraint kit’ which he bought online.
In a video played to jurors, Plumb is seen showing off all the items, which included four packs of 100 metal cable ties he bought from Amazon, handcuffs, ankle shackles, rope and a ball gag.
The court was told the 37-year-old shared a video of a ‘bondage kit’ with an undercover officer called David Nelson in an online forum called ‘Abduct Lovers’.
He also spoke with another associate about buying realistic-looking air weapons ‘from pistols to sniper rifles’.
Plumb was arrested on October 4 last year after he revealed his plan to cop Mr Nelson, who was based in Minnesota and alerted authorities in the UK.
The court heard how Plumb had been planning to kidnap Willoughby ‘for about two and a half years’ and wanted to ‘slit her throat’.
On the third day of his trial, jurors were shown more material from a ‘sequence of events’, including hundreds of communications he had with others online, as he tried to put together a ‘crew’ to help him attack Willoughby and other celebrities.
However, the court heard Plumb began his research into kidnapping stars more than a decade ago.
Plumb had gathered a sickening trove of bondage gear, including handcuffs, zip ties and rope
He filmed the items he bought online, which he planned to use to tie up the TV star
A court heard the 37-year-old – who liked to wear a Batman t-shirt – described it as his ‘ultimately fantasy’ to kidnap Ms Willoughby, adding: ‘Fantasy isn’t enough any more. I want the real thing’
When police seized his phone, they discovered in 2011, he had looked up ‘how to meet people who plan to kidnap celebrities’.
In more voice notes, Plumb is heard saying Willoughby was the ‘original target’ but he and others had about ’15 cells’ they were ‘looking at filling’.
Talking about Willoughby and another potential target, the security guard added: ‘We could do both at the same time – meet up, swap vehicles, get both in the same vehicle, take them to their new location basically.’
Plumb, who has previous convictions for trying to kidnap two women on trains and tying a 16-year-old girl up at knifepoint, also researched a news story about an American college student being abducted.
Jurors heard police recovered millions of images of Holly and other female celebs on his devices following his arrest. Plumb had also shared deepfake pornography of her online.
The 37-year-old fiend spent years fixating on the former This Morning star – tracking her movements and activities for ‘some time’.
In May 2022, Plumb sought to book a tour of ITV’s studios, telling accomplice Marc, who is believed to have been based in Ireland: ‘I’m calling the studio tours tomorrow to see if they’re still available and if you meet presenters.’
Plumb never went on such a tour, with Essex Police Detective Constable Will Belsham telling jurors there was no evidence to she he had followed through with this plan.
Earlier in the trial, Plumb claimed he wanted to try and use his security training to get close to Willoughby, working as part of her protection team.
‘I have passed my SIA [Security Industry Authority] licence so might try to use it to become her security guard,’ he said.
In other messages, Plumb detailed an abandoned stud farm in the country as a place where he could ‘keep’ Holly locked away while he violated her.
He detailed the plans with associate Marc, telling him: ‘I’m at the point where idc (I don’t care) about the risks or consequences.’
He went online to search the term ‘how long does chloroform take to knock someone unconscious?’
Plumb is said to have shared details of an app that creates an AI ‘avatar’.
He told Marc: ‘You can talk about literally all, all sorts of things, you can be as filthy as you want or you can be as clean as you want.
‘Erm and you can create your own avatars and they actually look like they’re moving, look like they’re talking to ya.
‘So the people I’m with er Holly and yeah, I’m kind of having my fun with that lot.’
On June 1, 2023, Plumb wrote: ‘I’ve had a member of the Holly group reach out to me. He knows the location of an abandoned building and he’s up for it big time…
‘We’re gonna go and do stakeout and bang job done, s**** going down as it stands.’
Messaging each other a few days after Phillip Schofield left This Morning in May last year, Plumb wrote: ‘I’m so tempted to message Phil and say to him ‘Look do you wanna get payback? But I don’t mind helping ya.’
Prosecutor Alison Morgan KC said Plumb had ‘carefully planned’ his plot – before he was foiled by the authorities.
In her opening speech, the barrister told jurors: ‘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, members of the jury, and were based on an obsession with Holly Willoughby that had developed over a number of years.’
She said Plumb had intended 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,’ Ms Morgan added.
‘The defendant had carefully planned what he would do and how he would do it, purchasing items that would assist him in carrying out that attack.’
Ms Morgan said Plumb’s previous kidnap attempts ‘tell you that this defendant knew what it would take to terrify and overpower a woman’.
She told the jury: ‘On August 14 2006, the defendant approached a woman on a train.
Plumb, 37, struck up an online relationship with a man who turned out to be undercover police officer
He then planned to rape her before murdering her and then disposing her body in the lake
These are some of the pictures Plumb was found to have of Ms Willoughby
‘He sat opposite her and stared at her, before showing her a note which said: ‘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’.
‘The victim was terrified and began to cry.
‘Others on the train came over, at which point the defendant tore up the note and ran off at the next stop.’
Telling the court about the second victim, Ms Morgan said: ‘Two days later, the defendant attempted to force another woman to get off a train with him.
‘This time he was armed with an imitation firearm.
‘He adopted the same approach, showing the victim a note, this time he suggested that he was a police officer and that he needed her to get off the train so that he could speak to her.
‘She refused to get off the train with him but when she did get off the train, she reported the matter to the police.
‘The defendant was found to be in possession of an imitation firearm, three rope ligatures and various notes that he had used or intended to use to try to get women off the train.’
Ms Morgan also told the court that, two years later, two 16-year-olds who worked at a shop in Harlow, Essex, were also the subject of approaches by Plumb.
The prosecutor said: ‘They were carrying out restocking on the first floor of the unit.
‘The defendant approached them and said ‘Get to the back of the stockroom’.
Ms Willoughby, 43, announced in October last year that she was stepping down from This Morning after 14 years on the ITV show
Plumb is said to have reacted to Philip Schofield leaving This Morning by saying ‘I’m so tempted to message Phil and say to him ‘Look do you wanna get payback?”
‘He pulled out a knife and held it towards them, telling them to turn around and to put their hands behind their backs.
‘He then took some rope and tape out of his pocket and he tied the hands of one of girls.
‘As he did so, the other girl managed to escape and she managed to raise the alarm.
‘Both of the girls were terrified.
‘The police were called and they arrested the defendant.’
Willoughby waived her right to anonymity in connection with an accusation against Plumb of assisting or encouraging rape.
Alleged victims of sex offences or targets of sex offence conspiracies have a right to automatic anonymity for life from the moment an allegation is made by them or anyone else.
Plumb was arrested on October 4. Ms Willoughby was told of his plot just before going on air the next day and someone stood in for her. She quit the show days later.
She said in a social media post at the time that she felt ‘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.
Plumb is expected to be sentenced at a later date.
