Court told how plan to kill TV host was foiled

A convicted violent offender planned to kidnap, rape and murder Holly Willoughby but was thwarted by an undercover police officer based in the US, a court has heard.

- Jamie Grierson

Gavin Plumb, 37, was obsessed with the television presenter, amassing more than 10,000 images of her on his phone including deep-fake 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 and had attempted to tie up two teenage girls in a Woolworth's stockroom 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 had been unaware one of the people with whom he was communicating was an undercover 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 anumber of years." She added: "It was not just the ramblings of a fantasist."