A shopping centre security guard has been convicted of plotting to kidnap, rape, and murder TV presenter Holly Willoughby after a trial which heard he shared his “dark and twisted fantasy” online.
On Thursday a jury at Chelmsford Crown Court unanimously found Gavin Plumb, 37, guilty of soliciting murder, incitement to rape, and incitement to kidnap.
Ms. Willoughby, 43, was the co-host of ITV’s popular daytime programme “This Morning” for several years but stepped down from the show last year when co-presenter Phillip Schofield was suspended. She quit the show altogether in October 2023, after Plumb was arrested.
Undercover Officer Found Plumb on App
The officer, who was granted anonymity and used the pseudonym David Nelson, gave evidence by video link and said he sent Plumb a direct message after he saw him post in a chat called “Abduct Lovers” on the Kik app.The officer said he initially had no idea who Ms. Willoughby was, when Plumb said she was his primary target.
Mr. Nelson said Plumb sent him an image of what he described as an “abduction kit” and he told the court, “At that point in the conversation it was quite alarming.”
But the officer, from Owatonna Police Department in Minnesota, said he pretended to be keen on teaming up with Plumb and sent him, in their online messages, a flight confirmation, “to show him that I was willing to accomplice him in this act.”
Plumb sent Mr. Nelson a screenshot of a Google map showing the route from his address to Ms. Willoughby’s home and a photograph of bottles of chloroform.
Only 24 hours after Mr. Nelson began messaging Plumb, he organised a “meeting” with “representatives from the FBI” and they then contacted law enforcement officers in Britain and he was arrested on the night of Oct. 4, 2023 at his home in Harlow, Essex.
Plumb’s lawyer, Sasha Wass, KC, claimed Plumb was “living out a fantasy” when he talked about breaking into her house, using chloroform to knock her out, and taking her to a “dungeon” in the countryside out of London.
In her closing speech, Ms. Wass said it was “a dark and twisted fantasy, but a fantasy nonetheless.”
‘He Became Obsessed With a Celebrity’
Ms. Wass said, “He became obsessed with a celebrity who he had never met and had no intention of meeting and shared those similar interests with people online.”But prosecutor Alison Morgan, KC said the plot was more than just a fantasy and she told the jury Plumb had prior convictions for menacing women in two incidents.
In one he tied a 16-year-old girl’s hands up with rope and tape, and in the other he had claimed to have a gun and attempted to force two different women off a train.
Ms. Morgan pointed out that in one of his online messages Plumb said: “Fantasy isn’t enough anymore. I want the real thing.”
The court heard he was released from prison in 2010 after being convicted of false imprisonment and spent “99.9 percent” of his time online.
She said after his arrest police found 10,322 photos of Ms. Willoughby on his phone.
Plumb was “in the region of 30 stone” when he was taken into custody and at his trial Ms. Wass claimed he was not physically fit enough to have carried out an abduction.
Giving evidence, Plumb said his online discussions were “massively regrettable,” but he denied he had any real plan to abduct or harm Ms. Willoughby and said the bottles of chloroform were to clean a “large stain next to my fridge.”
Plumb admitted getting a “rush of excitement” when he thought about keeping Ms. Willoughby in a “dungeon,” but said, “I knew it was online chat.”
Plumb will be sentenced at the same court on July 12.
