Holly Willoughby murder plotter Gavin Plumb (Image: -)
A sadistic security guard who hatched a “depraved and vile” plan to kidnap, rape and murder TV star Holly Willoughby has lost his appeal against his sentence after been jailed for life.
Gavin Plumb’s plot vowed “catastrophic violence” on the former This Morning presenter which led trial Judge Mr Justice Edward Murray to order the 35-stone man mountain he must serve at least 16 years behind bars for his “sadistic, brutal and degrading” plot against the star.
Barristers for Plumb argued his sentence was “manifestly excessive” and should be reduced but The Crown Prosecution Service opposed the appeal bid, with its barristers telling the court in London that the offending had “life-changing consequences” for Ms Willoughby.
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Dismissing the appeal, Lord Justice Edis, sitting with Mr Justice Martin Spencer and Ms Justice Norton, said they had concluded Plumb’s claim was “ultimately unpersuasive”.
The judge said that messages containing Plumb’s plans were “distressing, even for seasoned professionals, to read”, and that Mr Justice Murray’s decision to pass a life sentence was “unimpeachable”.
He said: “This is a case where the offender clearly is dangerous and where there is no way of knowing when or if ever that will cease to be the case.”
Lord Justice Edis said Plumb’s sentence was “designed to reflect the totality of the criminality”, adding: “That is to say, a long period of time during which a significant number of people were prevailed upon in the hope that they would prospectively, along with the applicant, kidnap, rape and murder Holly Willoughby.”
The trial heard how Essex Police found bottles of chloroform and an “abduction kit” complete with cable ties when officers raided the 38-year-old’s flat in Harlow.
Jurors heard how Plumb wanted to fulfil his “ultimate fantasy” of abducting the mother of three, 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.
File photo dated 05/09/23 of Holly Willoughby. Security guard Gavin Plumb has been jailed for life w (Image: PA)
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 denied but was convicted of three charges – soliciting murder last October, and encouraging or assisting the commission of kidnap and rape, from 2021 to 2023.
Police body-cam footage shows Gavin Plumb’s arrest in flat
Alison Morgan KC, prosecuting, 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”.
Ms Morgan said Plumb made purchases, including 400 heavy-duty metal cable ties, to carry out his “graphic and sexually motivated” intention.
She told jurors: “This defendant had carefully planned what he would do and how he would do it, purchasing items that would assist him in carrying out that attack.”
She said Plumb’s obsession went “beyond just fantasy” and would have involved “catastrophic violence” against Ms Willoughby if he had not been arrested.
Undated handout file photo issued by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) of a selfie of Gavin Plumb. (Image: PA)
The court heard investigators recovered online chats in which Plumb attempted to recruit accomplices for his murder plot and made chilling claims that fears of him going near Ms Willoughby’s children would be an “extra reason for her to be obedient”.
Using the name “BigBear”, Plumb allegedly told how he would take a drugged Ms Willoughby to the remote location to “enjoy”, before “slitting her throat and disposing of the body”.
He was arrested after unwittingly striking up a conversation with an American undercover detective on a chat room called Abduct Lovers. When police swooped on Plumb’s ground-floor flat to arrest him on suspicion of a conspiracy to kidnap Ms Willoughby, he replied: “I’m not gonna lie, she is a fantasy of mine.”
He also exchanged voice messages with a man named Marc, in which Plumb boasted he would “pick out outfits for her we like” and spoke about using chloroform to disable the star and her husband.
One message said: “We’re then going to force her to make a video that she came with us under her own free will – so that covers us,” the court heard.
Ms Morgan said Plumb developed an obsession with the star over a number of years, hoarding 10,322 photos of Ms Willoughby on his phone and sharing deep fake porn photographs online. He boasted of his past convictions and jail time for false imprisonment and attempted kidnap to “bolster his credibility”, the court heard.
Prosecutors said the convictions – including tying a 16-year-old girl’s hands behind her back with rope and tape and the attempted kidnap of women on a train with the threat of a gun – showed he knew “what it would take to terrify and overpower a woman”.
Ms Willoughby has waived her right to anonymity in connection with the accusation against Plumb of assisting or encouraging rape, which could have given the TV host lifelong anonymity.
The court was shown a video Plumb sent to the undercover police officer, showing restraint gear laid out on a bed, including ankle shackles, a rope and a ball gag to “assist him in carrying out the attack”.