Kidnap plot had ‘life-changing’ impact on Holly Willoughby, court told

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails

Sign up to our free breaking news emails

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy

A kidnap, rape and murder plot hatched by a security guard has had a “life-changing” impact on TV presenter Holly Willoughby, a court heard.

Gavin Plumb was unanimously convicted of soliciting murder and inciting rape and kidnap following an earlier trial at Chelmsford Crown Court.

He faces a lengthy prison sentence on Friday for his “depraved and vile” plans.

The 37-year-old was snared after a US undercover police officer infiltrated an online group called Abduct Lovers and became so concerned about Plumb’s posts that evidence was passed to the FBI.

US law enforcement in turn contacted police in the UK, and when Essex Police officers raided Plumb’s flat in Harlow they found bottles of chloroform and an “abduction kit” complete with cable ties.

During Plumb’s sentencing hearing, prosecutor Alison Morgan KC said Ms Willoughby wished for her victim personal statement to be private but said it set out the “catastrophic impact of these offences”.

She continued: “What I can say, and I make this submission from the prosecution… it is abundantly clear that in making that statement the prosecution submits the impact of this offending has been life-changing for the victim of these offences – both in private and personal terms – private, personal and indeed professional.

“It is clear, the prosecution submit… that the extent of the shock and fear caused by this offending has been impossible to convey.

“Indeed, being informed of the consequences, the intentions, and the detail of the evidence in this case… it is inevitable that that has exacerbated the trauma for this victim.”

Ms Morgan said Ms Willoughby had “made every effort to avoid attention being drawn to herself in this matter” after making a short public statement following Plumb’s convictions.

The prosecutor continued: “We say, more broadly, that offending of this type, as Ms Willoughby said in her public statement, has a broader impact on women.

“Women should not feel unsafe when going about their daily lives.”

Turning to the offending of Plumb, Ms Morgan said: “My Lord knows of the extreme and gratuitous degradation of the victim that was planned by this defendant.

“Degradation that was so depraved and vile that they were, by agreement, not reported in detail by representatives of the media.”

The prosecutor said it was a case “where the court should impose a sentence of life imprisonment”.

Plumb’s defence barrister Sasha Wass KC said the security guard had “read in full the extremely lengthy statement prepared by Ms Willoughby”.

She told the court: “Mr Plumb both worshipped and was obsessed by Ms Willoughby for a period of years – admittedly in a warped and bizarre manner.

“A manner which he described as dark when he gave evidence, but nonetheless, he worshipped her and he was devastated to have been the cause of such pain to her.

“Of course, Mr Plumb remains embarrassed and ashamed of the online conversations that formed the focus of this trial – these were conversations which he always expected would remain private.”

Former This Morning presenter Ms Willoughby said after Plumb’s conviction last week that women “should not be made to feel unsafe… in our own homes”.

The trial was told that Plumb’s plans were foiled when a potential accomplice who he spoke to online turned out to be an undercover officer from the Owatonna Police Department in the US state of Minnesota.

Plumb told the officer, who was using the pseudonym David Nelson, that he was “definitely serious” about his plot to kidnap Ms Willoughby, leaving the officer with the impression that there was an “imminent threat” to her.

When Plumb was arrested on October 4 last year and officers told him that the allegations concerned Ms Willoughby, the defendant told them: “I’m not gonna lie, she is a fantasy of mine.”

The Dancing On Ice star waived her right to anonymity in connection with the charge 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’s kidnap plans involved attempting to “ambush” Ms Willoughby at her family home – even discussing taking time off work in order to organise the attack.

He told others he would then take the presenter to another location, which he suggested would be a “dungeon”-type room.

Prosecutors described Plumb’s plot as “carefully planned” – pointing to the items he had purchased and the lengths to which he had gone to find out when Ms Willoughby did not have security.

Plumb had argued in his defence that it was just online chat and fantasy.

He will be sentenced by judge Mr Justice Edward Murray.