'Depraved loner' Gavin Plumb given three life sentences for plot to kidnap, rape and murder Holly Willoughby
12 July 2024, 12:53 | Updated: 12 July 2024, 13:28
Gavin Plumb has been sentenced to life in prison for plotting to kidnap, rape and murder Holly Willoughby.
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Security guard Plumb, 37, must serve a minimum of 15 years and 85 days, after being found guilty of the offences against TV presenter Ms Willoughby at Chelmsford Crown Court last week.
Appearing in the same packed court on Friday, Plumb stood in the dock to hear his sentence wearing a grey tracksuit.
The judge, Mr Justice Edward Murray, noted Plumb's extensive and long-term plans to attack Ms Willoughby, adding that the plot was "more than a fantasy" to him.
The plot also included a plan to seize Ms Willoughby's children to use as leverage against her, the judge added.
The failed kidnapper, who discussed his plot in graphic detail with associates, was arrested and charged in October last year.
He was caught after unwittingly telling his plans online to an undercover police officer operating under the pseudonym David Nelson in the US, thinking he was a potential accomplice.
The court heard on Friday that the details of his plot were so "depraved and vile" that the media had agreed not to report them.
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Mr Murray continued: "Your plan was hopelessly unrealistic for a number of reasons - including your poor physical health - but you clearly thought it was feasible.
"Although you talked about carrying out the plan on your own, I am sure that this was simply bravado.
"You always intended to carry out your plan to kidnap, rape and kill Ms Willoughby, but only if you could find the right man or men - the right 'crew' as you sometimes called it - to help you do it."
The prosecution had pushed for Plumb to be handed a life sentence. "These are offences where it is clear from their nature and their persistence... there is a clear, significant risk to the public of serious harm," Ms Morgan added. "Only a life sentence would be appropriate."
Ms Morgan also applied for Plumb to be banned from attending any public event featuring Ms Willoughby, including being in the audience for any show she takes part in.
Prosecutor Alison Morgan KC said ahed of sentencing: "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."
She added that Plumb's plot "was not some speculative future event".
"If David Nelson had been a real person, this defendant intended for these offences to be committed in a short time frame," Ms Morgan said.
And the plot had a "life-changing" impact on Ms Willoughby, the court was told.
Ms Morgan said Ms Willoughby wanted her victim personal statement to be kept private.
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."
Mitigating Mr Plumb's offences ahead of sentencing, his defence lawyer said he was "embarrassed and ashamed" by his online conversations. Sasha Wass KC said that the plan was "unworkable" because of Plumb's obesity.
"It is important when one considers if this was really close to an attempt or not," she added.
Ms Wass 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.
Plumb was discovered by Mr Nelson after the policeman infiltrated an online group called Abduct Lovers.
Plumb said 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. He passed the evidence to the FBI.
They 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.
Ms Willoughby said after Plumb's conviction last week that women "should not be made to feel unsafe... in our own homes".
During the sentencing hearing, the court also heard about a previous victim of Plumb, one of two teenage girls whom he tried to falsely imprison in a shop in 2008.
Prosecutor Ms Morgan also told Chelmsford Crown Court that the woman "felt a permanent sense of worry" that "she would bump into him when he was released" from prison.
"Hearing of these matters has made her think about what could have happened to her if she hadn't been able to run away from him, thankful as she is it didn't turn out worse," said Ms Morgan.
Plumb had earlier tried to abduct two women from trains in 2006, for which he was only given a suspended sentence.
