A security guard has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 16 years after hatching “depraved and vile” plans to kidnap, rape and murder TV star Holly Willoughby.
Chelmsford Crown Court was told Gavin Plumb’s plot had a “catastrophic and life-changing” impact on the former This Morning presenter.
Plumb was unanimously convicted of soliciting murder and inciting rape and kidnap following a trial at the same court.
Sentencing the 37-year-old on Friday, Mr Justice Edward Murray told him: “There is no doubt that if you had genuinely found one or more accomplices who were seriously interested in and had been willing to join you in carrying your plan through then you would have put this plan into action.”
The judge sentenced the defendant to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 16 years, minus the 280 days he had spent on remand – taking the total to a minimum jail term of 15 years and 85 days.
Continuing to give his reasons for imposing the prison term, he continued: “Over a number of years, you pursued an unhealthy sexual obsession with Holly Willoughby that led you ultimately to plan over that period to kidnap, to rape and to murder her.
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“You intended to harm her husband and her children as part of your plan.
“You discussed with Marc and David Nelson and no doubt others in hideous and revolting detail the prolonged sexual violence that you intended to inflict on Ms Willoughby once you abducted her and had her under your control.
“You had previously been convicted of terrifying offences involving the threat of sexual violence against four different young women – I found you to be dangerous.”
The judge added: “The jury saw through your various lies that you told at the trial, and convicted you of these offences.”
Wearing a grey prison-issue jumper, Plumb apparently muttered “15 years to kill myself” after he was jailed.
The defendant, who stood as the sentence was read out, initially showed no reaction but as he was led to the cells he made the comment to the dock officer and made an exasperated gesture raising both his hands.
Plumb 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 his 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.”
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 he 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.
