A SECURITY officer who hatched a plot to kidnap, rape and kill TV presenter Holly Willoughby has been jailed for life.

 

Gavin Plumb, from Harlow, was unanimously convicted of soliciting murder and inciting rape and kidnap following an earlier trial at Chelmsford Crown Court.

The 37-year-old appeared at the same court today where he was sentenced by Mr Justice Edward Murray to life in prison with a minimum term for his “depraved and vile” plans. 

He 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.

Former This Morning presenter Ms Willoughby said after Plumb’s conviction last week that women “should not be made to feel unsafe … in our own homes”.

During Plumb’s 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”.

Turning to the offending of Plumb, Ms Morgan said: “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.”

When Plumb 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