A shopping centre security guard, obsessed with UK TV presenter Holly Willoughby, planned to kidnap, rape and murder her, a British court has heard. According to a report by BBC, Gavin Plumb is accused of hatching a plot to kidnap, rape and solicit the murder of the star, but was thwarted by an undercover officer based in the US.
He is alleged to have spent two years plotting Ms Willoughby’s murder, between 2021 and 2023. In preparation for an alleged attack, he had purchased metal cable ties, a knife and chloroform. Plumb also allegedly confided in a man known as Marc online, an undercover police officer based in the US. A video sent to him by Plumb showed a “kit of sexualised paraphernalia” laid out on a bed, including hand and ankle shackles, a rope and a ball gag.
Further, he had carefully planned how to kidnap her from her home, take her to his residence in Harlow, Essex, and murder her in an abandoned building where her screams ”can’t be heard.” According to The Guardian, Plumb had amassed more than 10,000 images of Ms Willoughby on his phone, which included deepfake pornography. He also tracked her movements and activities using social media.
In January 2022, Plumb posted in an online group called ‘Abduct Lovers’. He wrote, ”Getting this b*tch is all I can think about. I have wanted this for years. I’m going to be living out my ultimate fantasy.” The next month, he wrote, ”Getting her has been my ultimate fantasy for way too long. I’m now at the point where fantasy isn’t enough anymore. I want the real thing.”
However, Plumb was arrested in October 2023 when the undercover US police officer thwarted his sinister plans and alerted the Met Police.
”It was not just the ramblings of a fantasist. The defendant had carefully planned what he would do and how he would do it, purchasing items that would assist him in carrying out the attack,” prosecutor Alison Morgan KC told the trial at Chelmsford Crown Court on Monday. He further said Plumb’s plans “would have involved catastrophic violence against her” if they were not disrupted.
Notably, Plumb had already been convicted twice for crimes related to kidnapping. In 2006, he tried to force two women off a train with a fake gun and a threatening note. Two years earlier, he tried to tie up two teenage girls in a Woolworths stock room.
Meanwhile, Ms Willoughby has waived her right to anonymity in the case. She hosted ‘This Morning’ for 14 years before stepping down in October last year. She worked as a model before starting her stint in television. In August 2007, she married Dan Baldwin, co-founder of Hungry Bear Media. They live in Barnes, London and have two sons and a daughter.
The trial, expected to last for two weeks, continues. Plumb has denied all the charges.
