Security guard Gavin Plumb was jailed for life with a minimum term of 16 years for plotting to kidnap, rape and murder TV presenter Holly Willoughby, a scheme that ended her 14-year stint on This Morning.
Plumb, 37, from Harlow in Essex, was unanimously convicted of soliciting murder and inciting rape and kidnap following an eight-day trial at Chelmsford Crown Court. Sentencing him in July 2024, Mr Justice Edward Murray said: "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. You intended to harm her husband and her children as part of your plan."
The judge told Plumb: "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." He sentenced Plumb to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 16 years, minus the 280 days he had spent on remand — a total minimum jail term of 15 years and 85 days — describing the plans as "particularly sadistic, brutal and degrading".
Plumb had assembled a "kidnap kit" including bottles of chloroform and cable ties, and police found more than 10,000 images of Willoughby on his phone. He was caught after unknowingly disclosing his plans to an undercover US police officer operating in the online chatroom "Abduct Lovers"; the officer's reports were relayed via the FBI to UK police. Plumb claimed he was merely a fantasist, but the jury rejected that defence. He had previous convictions for attempted kidnap and threatening sexual violence against four different young women.
Nicola Rice, a specialist prosecutor in the Crown Prosecution Service, said Plumb's sentence "ensures he will remain in prison, where he can no longer threaten or harm women". She said there was "no doubt" that he "posed a real danger", adding: "The CPS proved that his plans to kidnap, rape and murder Holly Willoughby were more than mere fantasy and he had every intention of encouraging others to help him."
The judge said the offences had "life-changing consequences" for Willoughby, who was quickly replaced on an edition of This Morning when the plot came to light in October 2023 and ended her 14-year stint on the show weeks later. Plumb later sought permission to appeal against his convictions and sentence; applications were lodged at the Royal Courts of Justice. Willoughby, one of Britain's most high-profile television personalities, declined to contribute to a subsequent Channel 5 documentary about the case.