Gavin Plumb sentenced to life in jail for Holly Willoughby kidnap plot

Plumb, of Harlow, Essex, a former security guard described as an “overweight loner”, was charged with soliciting murder, incitement to kidnap and incitement to rape between December 27, 2021, and October 5 last year. He denied the charges.

Willoughby, 43, made the “courageous” decision to waive her right to anonymity in relation to the incitement to rape charge, the court was told.

Plumb claimed the messages were “just online chat” and mere fantasy. He said he never intended to carry out the plot. The jury at Chelmsford crown court rejected his defence and returned unanimous guilty verdicts this month after a nine-day trial.

Six members of the jury returned to the court on Friday as Plumb, who was dressed in a grey prison-issue tracksuit, sat with his head bowed in the glass-fronted dock.

Prosecutors said that Willoughby had written a victim personal statement and had asked for it to “remain private in these proceedings”.

Alison Morgan KC, the lead prosecutor, said: “It’s absolutely clear that in making that statement, the prosecution submits the impact of this offending is life-changing for the victim of these offences both in private and indeed professional terms. I make that as a submission to avoid it appearing as a quote from Ms Willoughby. The fear caused by this defendant has been impossible to convey.”

In a brief statement shortly after Plumb’s conviction Willoughby said women “should not be made to feel unsafe going about our daily lives and in our own homes”.

Morgan added: “The nature, duration and sophistication of the planning of the offences, which lasted more than two years, was an aggravating feature in the case. This was a plan to abduct and kill for the purposes of sexual gratification. The extreme and gratuitous degradation of the victim was planned by the defendant.”

Mr Justice Murray concluded that Plumb’s plot was “considerably more than a fantasy” and he considered him to be dangerous.

Items that Plumb had gathered as part of his plot

CROWN PROSECUTION SERVICE/PA

The judge said he had read Willoughby’s private statement and was satisfied that Plumb’s crimes “have had life-changing consequences for her privately and professionally” as he handed him three concurrent life sentences of 16 years. He will serve a minimum term of 15 years and 85 days.

Murray said: “Holly Willoughby is a well-known and well-loved public figure. There is as a result a heightened public interest in this case. Like everybody else she is entitled to respect for her private and family life.”

The judge told Plumb: “Your plan was hopelessly unrealistic for a number of reasons — including your poor physical health — but you clearly thought it was feasible. 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 court was told Willoughby had fully co-operated with the prosecution in this case.

Plumb is also subject to a restraining order and will be banned from contacting Willoughby directly or indirectly and must not enter an exclusion zone. He is also forbidden from being an audience member at any of her shows or attending public events at which she appears.

Sasha Wass KC, Plumb’s barrister, said in mitigation that her client had “worshipped and was obsessed” with the victim for a number of years. She said after reading Willoughby’s victim impact statement that Plumb was “devastated to have caused her pain”.

Wass told the court that Plumb was “embarrassed and ashamed [about] the online conversations that formed the focus of his trial. They were conversations he always expected would remain private.”

The prosecution’s case rested on more than 1,300 messages, sent and received over a two-year period, in which Plumb sought to enlist at least seven like-minded misogynists to target Willoughby.

Plumb used her social media pages to mine her content, reposting her images in dark corners of the web as he advanced his plans to target her. He swapped hundreds of messages and voice notes with a man called “Marc”, who is believed to live in Ireland. He claimed he had been convicted of stalking an Irish TV presenter and goaded Plumb in the commission of the offences. The Garda, Ireland’s police force, has since begun a criminal investigation after Essex police shared its evidence with them.

Between December 2021 and June 2023 the pair exchanged “horrifying, shocking and graphic” messages about Willoughby, other female celebrities and women not in the public eye. Many of these were not read out in court and The Times is unable to print many of the exchanges because of their explicit and obscene nature. However, the dark messages exposed the rampant misogyny some men possess which continues to fuel violence against women and girls.

During the trial the court was told of Plumb’s previous convictions for the attempted kidnap of two air hostesses on a Stansted Express train in August 2006 and the false imprisonment of two 16-year-old girls while he worked as a security guard at Woolworths in Harlow in December 2008.

He received a suspended sentence for the first offence and a 32-month term for the second offence, for which he served half in prison.

Detective Chief Inspector Greg Wood of Essex police, who led the investigation, said that Plumb was a “dangerous individual” with a history of kidnapping women and girls, adding: “He tried to claim he was an obsessive fan and a fantasist. That was simply not true. He is a calculating sexual predator who has spent his adult life seeking to inflict violence against women.

“I pay tribute to Ms Willoughby and the other women Gavin Plumb sought to harm. Their bravery has helped us protect other women and I thank them for their courage,” Wood told reporters outside Chelmsford police station.

“It cannot be right that men like Gavin Plumb can join online forums where they freely vent their hatred towards women and girls and plot to cause them harm.

“We need everyone to stand up and call out misogyny and report those causing violence towards women and girls.”