Security guard ‘plotted to kidnap, rape and homicide Holly Willoughby’
A security guard plotted to kidnap and rape TV presenter Holly Willoughby before murdering her and dumping her body in a lake, a court heard today.
Gavin Plumb, 37, allegedly exchanged sick ‘deep fake’ pornographic images and ideas for the sexual torture of the Dancing on Ice and former This Morning star with a US accomplice he encouraged to travel to the UK.
He is said to have assembled a restraint kit and planned to use chloroform to incapacitate Miss Willoughby, 43, and her husband, TV producer Dan Baldwin, before holding her in captivity at an abandoned building with the help of David Nelson and subjecting her to the degrading rape fantasies.
The pair also discussed how, when they were bored with her, they would slit her throat and dispose of her body, jurors heard.
However, the alleged plot unravelled as Mr Nelson was actually an undercover US police officer operating under pseudonym whose findings were passed to British authorities.
Gavin Plumb (seen today) is charged with soliciting an undercover police officer to commit murder and incitement to kidnap
The defendant is on trial at Chelmsford Crown Court, charged with soliciting a man, David Nelson, to commit murder, and encouraging or assisting kidnap and rape
Jurors were told the plot went beyond mere fantasy as ‘obsessive’ Plumb was convicted of two charges of the attempted kidnap of two women in 2006. Two years later he was found guilty of false imprisonment in a separate incident.
Opening the case, prosecutor Alison Morgan KC said: ‘The prosecution’s case is that this defendant’s online discussions reveal his 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.
‘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.’
The jury heard a message Plumb is said to have shared with Mr Nelson in which he explained his plan in detail.
He wrote: ‘So we’ll jump the outer wall, break in chloroform, both her and her husband. Tie both up with zip ties and gag both.
‘Take her out of the house and take her out in her car. Dump it and get rid of her phone etc and anything else she can be tracked with.’
He then allegedly went on to described raping his victim at his home and using CCTV to check for anyone nearby, before moving her to an abandoned building, ‘then we get rid’.
Plumb, the prosecution said, described ‘this involving bleach and taking her to a lake at night, once she has had her throat cut.
‘The defendant describes having masks kitchen knives and a pocket knife’.
A video sent to his would-be accomplice showed ‘real items in his possession, which he described as a ‘kit’ of materials, laid out on a bed; to include hand and ankle shackles, ball gag, rope, metal cable ties and handcuffs’.
It is claimed Plumb, who referred to having an online ‘Holly group’, believed Ms Willoughby’s ‘desire to avoid them going near her children would be ‘extra incentive for her to be obedient’.’
During the kidnap, the gang members would ‘pick out outfits of hers that we like, then obviously take her and the outfits with us’. At their hideaway, they would ‘enjoy her’.
Plumb bought 400 metal cable ties online in April 2022, Ms Morgan said.
The prosecution said these would later be found at the defendant’s home address.
Plumb was arrested at his ground floor flat in Harlow, Essex, on October 4, 2023.
Told he was being accused of conspiracy to kidnap Ms Willoughby he allegedly told officers: ‘I’m not gonna lie. She is a fantasy of mine.’
The police investigation revealed the defendant had amassed ‘a great deal’ about her from information on social media and the internet and he followed her activities and movements.
He had also begun online conversations with a number of individuals from 2021 in which he talked about the ‘home invasion’ of the house in London Ms Willoughby lived in with her husband and three children.
One was a man called Marc with whom he had ‘graphic’ conversations in which he expressed himself with ‘dark depravity’.
These included ‘talking about what they would do to Holly Willoughby’s sister and also to other celebrities’.
Ms Morgan said Plumb shared ‘deepfake pornography images of Holly Willoughby’ with Marc.
The barrister said these were ‘using her (Ms Willoughby’s) face, putting it onto the body of another female to give images of her in pornographic situations’.
‘They were highly sexualised,’ Ms Morgan said.
She told the court that Plumb told Marc: ‘It’s been my ultimate fantasy for way too long. Fantasy isn’t enough any more. I want the real thing.’
Holly Willoughby presenting Dancing on Ice 2024. She will present a Netflix show – to be released next year – in which adventurer Bear Grylls hunts down celebrities in the jungle
Plumb allegedly used Google Earth to establish ‘access points’ to their target’s address and find a ‘good ambush point’ before he would attack while wearing a mask.
Conversations took place with another person called Ryan and allegedly indicated others were involved in the plot. At one point, Plumb mentioned ‘taking five in total if you’re still up for it’, the jury was told.
The abandoned building they would allegedly take Ms Willoughby to was ‘in the UK, out of London’.
In June 2022, the defendant sent an image of a ‘dungeon-type room’ that he described as ‘big enough for a bed’. Marc observed ‘her screams could not be heard for miles’.
He also is accused of referring to getting work at the ITV studios where his victim worked at the time ‘or even using his training as a security officer to get employment’ with her.
Plumb indicated he expected to end up in prison, the court heard, but put a positive slant on the ’23-hour bang up’, saying ‘at least he would be able to watch as much television as he wanted and be able to have a telephone’.
However, he eventually complained of others ‘getting cold feet’ and said: ‘I’m getting her regardless, if I have to get a new team or do it myself.’
On October 3 last year, the court heard, a US police officer within the Owatonna Police Department in Minnesota was involved in covert online investigations when he came across someone calling himself Big Bear in a group called ‘Abduct Lovers’.
Big Bear – who the prosecution say was Plumb – posted a photo of a white female with blonde hair, standing in front of a ‘prize wheel’.
Jurors were told Plumb (seen today) had unwittingly hatched ‘graphic’ plans to kidnap, rape and murder Ms Willoughby with an undercover police officer from the US
Big Bear allegedly wrote: ‘I have a s*** load of info on her. I know when she does and don’t have security and that she doesn’t have CCTV at home. What time she gets up in the morning.’
The ‘concerned’ officer established the identity of the blonde woman was Ms Willoughby and began direct messaging the defendant, using the pseudonym David Nelson.
Plumb, the court heard, explained his plans, adding his 15-year-old son is ‘cool and wants in’.
The FBI and Metropolitan Police were alerted and Plumb was arrested the following day.
A search of his property is said to have uncovered the ‘kidnap kit’ and electronic devices including a phone with a folder named Holly that contained 10,322 images of Ms Willoughby.
The jury was told Plumb used his past convictions to show he was serious about his kidnap plot in his online conversations.
They heard how he committed two offences of attempted kidnapping in August 2006, the first when he approached a woman on a train and showed her a note claiming he had a gun.
She was ordered to ‘get off at the next stop’ otherwise ‘I am going to shoot you and myself and everyone else’.
But other passengers came over when the woman began to cry and Plumb fled at the next stop.
He tried to force another woman off a train two days later, this time claiming he was a police officer, but she refused and reported him to police.
Officers attended the station and found Plumb in possession of an imitation firearm and three rope ligatures.
In November 2008, the court heard, he approached two 16-year-old girls working at a Woolworths in Harlow with him and ordered them into a stockroom.
He threatened them with a knife and tied the hands of one behind her back but the other escaped and ‘raised the alarm’.
Ms Morgan told the jury: ‘When you consider the discussions about Holly Willoughby and what this defendant planned to do to her, you will do so in the context of those earlier offences.
‘They tell you that the defendant knew what it would take to terrify and overpower a woman. He was also someone who had chosen to do this for real, not just a fantasy.’
Even if the plan was ‘likely to fail at some point does not mean that the defendant was not sincere in his desire and intention to carry out such an attack, seeking to enlist others to enable him to do it’.
Heavily overweight Plumb, who appeared in court wearing a grey tracksuit top and dark tracksuit bottoms, denies three charges involving encouraging or assisting in the commission of a kidnap, rape and murder.
Ms Willoughby would normally be granted automatic anonymity because of the sexual element of the case but bravely waived the right.
She pulled out of an appearance on This Morning in October just before she was due to go on air after police alerted ITV bosses to the potential plot. She was replaced by Alison Hammond, who sat next to Josie Gibson.
Ms Gibson didn’t mention the reason behind the last minute substitution, telling viewers: ‘Look who’s joined me. It’s the one and only Alison Hammond.’
Ms Willoughby, who was placed under 24-hour surveillance, left the programme she had presented for 14 years a week later.
The incident came at a turbulent time, following claims she and fellow This Morning presenter Phillip Schofield skipped the queue to pay their respects to the late Queen as she lay in state in Westminster Hall last September.
Then in May, Schofield, 62, resigned from the show after admitting an affair with a younger colleague, having lied about the incident when confronted by Ms Willoughby. ITV launched a review into the show amid claims of a ‘toxic culture’.
