An obsessive loner's plot to kill Holly Willoughby

Amid the packed inbox of Holly Willoughby’s Instagram account, Gavin Plumb waited for his message to be answered. “I wanted to see if you are aware that there is some very real looking images of you online?” he wrote.

His watchful eye was not a caring one, however. In the background, Plumb was planning to kidnap, rape and ultimately murder the TV presenter. How was he caught?

During a forensic search of Gavin Plumb’s flat in Harlow, Essex, a handwritten note was found.

Scribbled across a side and a half of paper, a list of the names of 136 female celebrities had been laid out. Top of the pile was Holly Willoughby.

Later, among a sprawling lair of computers and electronic devices, a Microsoft Word document entitled Wishes was recovered. The ultimate desire – Ms Willoughby.

Another text contains just one line: “In July 2014 Holly and Gavin Plumb (born 25 February 1987) ended their year long affair”.

Ten years on from the conclusion of his fantastical relationship, Plumb’s reality is a prison cell.

The 37-year-old has been found guilty of soliciting murder, inciting kidnap and inciting rape after his plot against Ms Willoughby was uncovered.

“I’ve got no doubt that Gavin Plumb could’ve gone on to commit some really horrific crimes,” says Det Ch Insp Greg Wood, of Essex Police.

By his own admission, Plumb was a loner who rarely left his house and had developed an “obsession” with the presenter, best known for co-hosting ITV’s This Morning alongside Philip Schofield.

Plumb searched online for other people who found Ms Willoughby attractive and his desires started to spiral.

Speaking online to a man only known as Marc, the pair began to devise a plot that would see her abducted from her home by force and taken to a “dungeon”.

“I’m going to be living out my ultimate fantasy,” Plumb wrote. “I’m now at the point that fantasy isn’t enough anymore. I want the real thing.”

The message comes during an exchange of hundreds of messages between Plumb and Marc, most of which included graphic sexual detail.

Asked in March 2023 what the final plan was, Plumb, a security guard, said they would “hit it” at night so there was less traffic.

“Chloroform both of them [Ms Willoughby and her husband] that way then they can both be easily restrained,” he explained.

“We’re then gonna force her to make a video saying she come with us under her own free will… and she’s fully consenting to everything we do to her – so that covers us.”

By October that year, Marc had got “cold feet” and Plumb was using the alias BigBear341987 to post in a group on the Kik chat app called Abduct Lovers – which had about 50 active members.

Sharing four pictures of Ms Willoughby, he wrote: “The one in the public eye I want.”

It caught the eye of David Nelson, who responded “nice” and began to engage in a private conversation with Plumb.

The chat led to Plumb outlining his abduction plot to Mr Nelson, including sending him a video of a “kidnap kit” he has assembled – including hand and ankle shackles, a rope and a ball gag.

Little did Plumb know that Mr Nelson was actually an undercover police officer from the US.

Having been alerted by Mr Nelson – via the FBI – Essex Police scrambled into action and officers raided Plumb’s house in Potters Field in the new town.

“To get such information – certainly from an international law enforcement colleague – is really rare,” Det Ch Insp Wood said.

“Whilst at the address, we identified a number of items that we know that he was going to use to make his plan a reality.”

When his door was busted in, Plumb initially appeared shocked. However, he knew what the officers were there for.

“I can pretty much guess what you’re looking for,” he told them.

At the mention of Holly Willoughby, he admitted: “I’m not going to lie, she is a fantasy of mine – but she is to a lot of guys, isn’t she?”

His trial heard that two bottles purporting to be chloroform were found, as well as a 31-piece lock-picking set and 400 metal cable ties.

Handcuffs, two packets of rope and a document containing images of a mapped route from Plumb’s address to Ms Willoughby’s house were also discovered.

On top of a wardrobe, a photograph album packed full of images of women was recovered, while a device containing “millions” of pictures of Ms Willoughby – many of which were “deep fake” pornographic images – was seized.

As devices were taken for analysis, further layers of research began to reveal themselves.

“What’s it like to be raped” is just one of the online searches Plumb has made, as well as “killers from Harlow Essex” and “how long does chloroform keep a person unconscious”.

The detective continued: “We found a number of items that were an immediate concern to us that I know he would have used to make his plan reality.

“He’d bought items online, he’d tried to recruit like-minded people to make his plan a reality.

“He had all the items he needed to cause Holly Willoughby some serious harm.”

During his trial, Plumb maintained he was “too overweight” to have ever carried out his plan. He insisted it was “just online chat” borne out of pure fantasy.

He was challenged on his two previous convictions for attempted kidnap in 2006 and another two offences of false imprisonment committed in 2008.

Plumb said he had a “stewardess fantasy” at the time he tried to force two air hostesses to get off a train in the space of three days in August 2006.

In 2008, he “terrified” two 16-year-old girls when he tied their wrists up and forced them into the store room of a shop.

He was handed a sentence of 12 months, suspended for two years, for his first offences, before he was jailed for 32 months for the false imprisonments.

Plumb’s history, unusually revealed to the jury, ultimately confirmed his downfall.

He wept in the dock after the jury returned its verdicts inside a packed courtroom.

He was told he would be sentenced on 12 July.

Det Ch Insp Wood said Plumb was an “obsessive loner” who became a “very dangerous” man.

“He has targeted real women on separate occasions, threatened them with really significant violence,” he added.

“I’ve got no doubt if he wasn’t convicted, he would have remained a very dangerous individual”.