Plot to 'kidnap Holly, hold her in a dungeon, rape her repeatedly before then slitting her throat'

AN obsessed security guard plotted to kidnap, rape and murder TV presenter Holly Willoughby in a plan of "catastrophic violence", a jury heard yesterday.

- Paul Jeeves

Gavin Plumb allegedly wanted to fulfil his "ultimate fantasy" of abducting the mother of three, 43, from her home, holding her prisoner at a remote dungeon where her "screams can't be heard for miles", and later slitting her throat.

He even contemplated becoming the star's bodyguard and wanted to tour the ITV studios where she worked in a bid to get closer to her, the prosecution said.

Chelmsford Crown Court was told the father of one boasted it was his "ultimate fantasy" to kidnap Ms Willoughby, adding: "Fantasy isn't enough any more. I want the real thing."

Plumb denies three charges soliciting murder last October, and encouraging or assisting the commission of kidnap and rape, from 2021 to 2023.

Opening the case, prosecutor Alison Morgan KC said Plumb's plan was "not just the ramblings of a fantasist" and he had a "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".

Drugged

Ms Morgan said Plumb, 37, of Harlow, Essex, made purchases including 400 heavy duty metal cable ties to carry out his "graphic and sexually motivated" intention.