Security guard planned rape and murder of UK TV star Holly Willoughby in a 'dungeon'

A shopping centre security officer planned to kidnap UK TV presenter Holly Willoughby and take her to a “dungeon” where her “screams can’t be heard for miles”, a court heard.

Gavin Plumb is accused of hatching a plot to kidnap, rape and solicit the murder of the star, and allegedly considered trying to get employment as her security guard to get close to her.

A court heard that the 37-year-old described it as his “ultimately fantasy” to kidnap Willoughby, adding: “Fantasy isn’t enough anymore. I want the real thing.”

Chelmsford Crown Court was told Plumb discussed with others online about how Ms Willoughby’s desire to avoid him going near her children would be an “extra reason for her to be obedient”.

Prosecutors said that in his online discussions, using a username identifying himself as “BigBear”, the defendant spoke of how she would be killed and “disposed” of.

As Metropolitan Police officers arrested the “shocked” defendant at his home and explained to him he was accused of a conspiracy to kidnap Willoughby, Plumb replied: “I’m not gonna lie, she is a fantasy of mine”.

Voice messages were played to a jury which were sent to a man named Marc in which Plumb said he would “pick out outfits for her we like” and spoke about the use of chloroform.

One voice message said: “We’re then going to force her to make a video that she came with us under her own free will... so that covers us.”

Jurors were told the defendant, who is alleged to have developed an obsession with the star over several years, had 10,322 photos of her on his phone.

The court heard he boasted of his previous convictions and jail time for false imprisonment and attempted kidnap in order to “bolster his credibility”.

Prosecutors allege that his past convictions - including tying a 16-year-old girl’s hands behind her back with rope and tape, and the attempted kidnap of women on a train with the threat of a gun - showed he knew “what it would take to terrify and overpower a woman”.

Willoughby has waived her right to anonymity in connection with an accusation 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.

Jurors were told Plumb had unwittingly hatched “graphic” plans to kidnap, rape and murder Willoughby with an undercover police officer from the US.

In his exchanges with the officer, who went by the name David Nelson, Plumb said: “I know when she does and don’t have security and that she doesn’t have CCTV at home - what time she gets up in the morning.”

He also told the officer, from the Owatonna Police Department in Minnesota, that he was “definitely serious” about his plans.

Willoughby, 43, announced in October last year that she was stepping down from This Morning after 14 years on the ITV show.

She said in a social media post at the time that she felt “I have to make this decision for me and my family”.

The presenter has since hosted Dancing On Ice 2024 and will present a Netflix show, to be released next year, in which adventurer Bear Grylls hunts down celebrities in the jungle.

Plumb, of Harlow, Essex, denies all the charges.

The trial, which is expected to last for two weeks, continues.