Security guard in sentence appeal bid over Holly Willoughby rape and murder plot

A security guard jailed for plotting to kidnap, rape and murder TV presenter Holly Willoughby will seek to challenge his sentence at the Court of Appeal on Tuesday.

Gavin Plumb was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 16 years in July last year after being unanimously convicted of soliciting murder and encouraging or assisting others to rape and kidnap.

A trial at Chelmsford Crown Court heard that Essex Police found bottles of chloroform and an “abduction kit” complete with cable ties when officers raided the 38-year-old’s flat in Harlow.

Jurors also heard that Plumb’s kidnap plans involved attempting to “ambush” Ms Willoughby at her family home, even discussing taking time off work to organise the attack.

Plumb had argued in his defence that it was just online chat and fantasy.

Sentencing him, Mr Justice Murray described some of Plumb’s plans as “particularly sadistic, brutal and degrading”, and said he had “no doubt that this was all considerably more than a fantasy”.

Plumb is now seeking to appeal against his sentence, with the challenge set to be heard by Lord Justice Edis, Mr Justice Martin Spencer and Ms Justice Norton at the Royal Courts of Justice in London at 10.30am on Tuesday.

He was snared after a US undercover police officer from the Owatonna Police Department in the US state of Minnesota infiltrated an online group called Abduct Lovers.

Plumb told the officer, who used the pseudonym David Nelson, that he was “definitely serious” about his plot to kidnap Ms Willoughby, leaving the officer with the impression that there was an “imminent threat” to her.

The officer became so concerned about Plumb’s posts that evidence was passed to the FBI, with US law enforcement then contacting police in the UK.

When he was arrested on October 4 2023, 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.”

At the sentencing hearing, prosecutor Alison Morgan KC said the offences had had a “catastrophic impact” on Ms Willoughby, stating: “The extent of the shock and fear caused by this offending has been impossible to convey.”

The Dancing On Ice star, who asked for her victim personal statement to be private, waived her right to anonymity in connection with the charge against Plumb of assisting or encouraging rape.