Holly Willoughby: Gavin Plumb in court accused of plot to kidnap and murder TV host

Plumb, 37, had previously attacked women using both a knife and an imitation firearm, the trial heard.

Jurors at Chelmsford Crown Court were told how Plumb had tried to abduct women from a train on two occasions in 2006 – once using a fake gun to try to force his victim to comply.

He later held two teenage girls at knifepoint in a shop stockroom in 2008. He was tying one girl’s hands behind her back with ropes when the other escaped and raised the alarm.

“These were real offences, committed against real women, involving this defendant threatening them and trying to control and detain them,” Ms Morgan KC told the court.

“He had an imitation firearm. He had ropes, he had tape. He had bound the hands of one of the victims.

“When you consider the discussions about Holly Willoughby and what this defendant planned to do to her, you will do so in the context of those earlier offences.

“They tell you that this defendant knew what it would take to terrify and overpower a woman. He was also someone who had chosen to do this for real, not just as a fantasy.”

Gavin Plumb’s online discussions were “not just the ramblings of a fantasist”, said prosecutor Alison Morgan KC.

She told Chelmsford Crown Court: “The prosecution’s case is that the online discussions that this defendant had revealed his real intention to carry out a plot to kidnap Holly Willoughby from her family home, to take her to a location where she would be raped repeatedly, before the defendant then intended to kill her.

“It’s not just the ramblings of a fantasist.

“This defendant had carefully planned what he would do and how he would do it, purchasing items that would assist him in carrying out that attack.”

The court heard how Plumb unwittingly explained his plans to kidnap, rape and murder Ms Willoughby – who has waived her right to anonymity – in an online discussion with an undercover officer using the pseudonym David Nelson.

He tried to encourage the officer to commit the offences with him, the court heard.

“The prosecution’s case is that this defendant’s online discussions reveal his real intention to carry out a plot to kidnap Holly Willoughby from her family home; to take her to a location where she would be raped repeatedly, before the defendant then intended to kill her,” Ms Morgan told the court.

“It was not just the ramblings of a fantasist. The defendant had carefully planned what he would do and how he would do it, purchasing items that would assist him in carrying out the attack.”

Opening the trial at Chelmsford Crown Court, Alison Morgan KC alleged the security guard had been obsessed with the celebrity for years.

She told the jury: “The defendant’s plans as to what he would do to Holly Willoughby were graphic and were obviously sexually motivated.

“They were real to him and were based on an obsession with Ms Willoughby that had developed over a number of years.”

A man has gone on trial accused of a plot to kidnap, rape and murder the TV presenter Holly Willoughby.

Prosecutor Alison Morgan KC said Gavin Plumb “engaged in online discussions” with a person he thought was called David Nelson, who unbeknownst to him was an “undercover police officer based in the USA and not, in fact, a like-minded abductor”.

“The defendant’s planning of the offences was then interrupted and he was arrested by the police,” said Ms Morgan.

Ms Willoughby has waived her right to anonymity in relation to the incitement to rape allegation.

Plumb, 37, of Harlow, Essex, denies soliciting murder, incitement to kidnap and incitement to rape and is on trial at Chelmsford Crown Court.

The jury has been sworn in in the trial of Gavin Plumb at Chelmsford Crown Court today.

Alison Morgan KC has begun to deliver the prosecution’s opening to the court.

Rishi Sunak sent well wishes to Holly Willoughby on This Morning in the wake of the news of the alleged kidnap plot.

The prime minister said in October: “I’m so sorry to hear everything going on with Holly, I just want to send my best to her and her family.”

Holly Willoughby was said to have been left “shocked and distraught” after learning of the alleged plot.

At the time, The Sun reported a police guard was placed outside the TV presenter’s London home, where she lives with her husband – TV producer Dan Baldwin – and their three children.

Fellow This Morning co-hosts Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary shared a touching message in support of their colleague Holly Willoughby on the day Gavin Plumb was charged.

Ms Hammond said while on air: “We are obviously all shocked to hear the news and we want to send our love and biggest hugs to Holly and her family.”

Holly Willoughby announced that she was stepping down from This Morning in the days after Gavin Plumb was charged in October.

Following 14 years on the ITV show, Ms Willoughby, 43, said in a social media post on 10 October that she felt: “I have to make this decision for me and my family.”

Four days before, Plumb had been charged with soliciting to commit murder and incitement to commit kidnap.

The TV presenter did not refer directly to the alleged incident in her statement.

She has since hosted Dancing on Ice 2024, and is to present a Netflix show – to be released next year – in which adventurer Bear Grylls hunts down celebrities in the jungle.