AS thousands tuned in to enjoy This Morning on October 5 2023, fans were quick to pile on to social media with the same question.
Holly Willoughby – who for fourteen years had greeted viewers – was nowhere to be seen, with no explanation given for her sudden absence.
Gavin Plumb spent years plotting to kidnap Holly Willoughby[/caption]
Police broke the traumatic news to the presenter the morning after his arrest[/caption]
Loner Plumb denied he ever intended to carry out the plot, but the jury disagreed[/caption]
That very morning, police had informed her that they’d arrested a man who’d not only harboured perveted fantasies about her for years, but had plotted to abduct, rape, and then murder her.
Now, Holly was at home with her family, terrified, processing the news that no one should ever have to hear.
When police broke into 37-year old Gavin Plumb’s grotty flat in Harlow, Essex, they found a depraved overweight loner, surrounded by more than 400 metal cable ties, handcuffs, gags, and two bottles of was purportedly chloroform.
He knew everything about her – where she lived, what she did in the evening, even what time she woke up in the morning.
And he’d also carefully worked out exactly how to break in, abduct her, and where he would take her with the intention of repeatedly raping and then killing her.
What had fuelled these perversions? How did he stalk her without leaving his bedroom? And why did the police feel he was such a threat they didn’t even bother knocking?
He claimed it was just a fantasy – that a man of his weight was never going to actually be able to scale the wall and overpower both Holly and her husband.
But this kidnapping plot was no mere figment of the imagination that had spiraled out of control, as revealed in the new Channel 5 documentary The Plot to Kill Holly Willoughby, set to air tonight.
Sat at home, out of work, and too overweight to do anything but take the bins out, all Gavin Plumb could do all day was watch TV.
There was one face he saw over and over – that of Holly.
He became obsessed, downloading more than 10,000 images of her.
Deepfake porn
But it got darker still. His obsession morphed into a sexual fantasy, fuelled by deepfake porn images that, sickeningly, showed Photoshopped pictures of Holly’s face on other people’s bodies.
“It’s very difficult once they’re out there, to stop them being circulated, to take them down, to prohibit them,” said Philip Grindell, a retired Met Detective Inspector .
As CEO of Defuse Global, which helps prominent private individuals navigate threats to their safety, he is an expert in threat and security management.
“Once they’re out there, they’re out there. What it does, from a fantasy perspective, is it brings that fantasy to life.”
It wasn’t long before Plumb found others to share these thoughts with online.
“It’s like a drug, and therefore he needs it to be more and more extreme,” Philip added.
Too overweight to leave home, Plumb’s fantasy morphed into a twisted obsession[/caption]
CPS images exposed his squalid flat in Harlow, Essex[/caption]
Ex-copper and security expert Philip Grindell warned how easy it was for Plumb to find out everything about Holly’s home and schedule just from his computer[/caption]
“He gravitates from these lower level forums, to one where he’s able to share amongst other like-minded people who also enjoy the most extreme end of fake porn, sadomasochism, rape and torture.”
For years, Gavin had been hanging around online speaking with others who shared his perversions in a vile group chat app that allowed users to remain anonymous.
Together, they swapped ideas, fantasies, and fuelled their perversions with no one to bring them into check.
But these sick ideas didn’t come out of the blue.
In 2006, while working as a car park attendant for stations on the Stansted Airport railway line, he developed an obsession with air hostesses.
Sitting opposite a lone air hostess in a carriage, he handed her a note. It read that he had a gun – and that she needed to get off with him at the next station or be shot.
Two days later, he once again cornered a lone flight attendant, telling her that he was a police officer and that she had to leave with him.
We need somewhere to keep her – getting her out of London will be the best bet
Gavin Plumb
Fortunately, on both these occasions the alarm was raised. When arrested, he was found with an imitation firearm and a length of rope.
Then, in 2008, while working in Woolworths, Plumb lured two 16-year-olds to the back of the warehouse, even managing to tie their hands behind their back before the alarm was raised.
Despite serving 16 months of a 32-month sentence, nothing was done to address the root cause of these crimes – a deep hatred of women and a desire to sexually offend against them.
Now, festering in his room alone with only the other sick members of his chat group to talk to, it was only a matter of time before Plumb would offend again.
Escalating fantasy
The only problem was that Gavin, being severely overweight, had no chance to carry out his plot against Holly alone.
He had even appeared in a television show in 2017 for the BBC, as part of a documentary about his attempts to lose weight, that revealed how limited he was to his flat.
Thanks to the internet, however, he was able to research every aspect of Holly’s life to build up a detailed plan to kidnap her from her own home.
Plumb had previously appeared in a BBC documentary about his weight loss[/caption]
The sicko was hunting for other people to assist him with his plot[/caption]
Plumb ended up meeting others who shared his fantasy on a groupchat[/caption]
“He did it all from his bedroom, just using information that was already out there on the Internet,” said Philip.
Now Plumb knew everything – right down to what Holly liked to do in the evening, and when she might not be flanked by security.
He ended up bonding with an Irishman on the messaging app called Marc, and they took their chats private.
Together, their discussions turned from fantasy to something a lot more real.
“We’ll need to watch her movements,” Plumb said in one message. “We need somewhere to keep her – getting her out of London will be the best bet.”
I’m now at the point that fantasy isn’t enough anymore. I want the real thing
Gavin Plumb
“Definitely,” came the reply. “In the middle of nowhere, so no one hears her scream.”
They planned to take her to an abandoned stud farm, where they plotted to keep her imprisoned in a so-called “dungeon”.
Both were just as depraved as each other – but to Plumb, it appeared to be a blessing to have finally found someone to work with.
He’d even begun to make sick searches online, including ‘How long does chloroform keep a person unconscious?’, and even more disturbingly, ‘What’s it like to be raped?’.
Desperate hunt
Other messages between the pair exposed further perverted details of their plan – and how for Plumb, there was to be no turning back.
“I’m going to be living out my ultimate fantasy,” he wrote in another message. “I’m now at the point that fantasy isn’t enough anymore. I want the real thing.”
Another read of their plan to invade the home at night: “Chloroform both [Holly and her husband] that way then they can both be easily restrained.”
Plumb ended up purchasing hundreds of pounds worth of equipment to carry out the kidnapping[/caption]
Cable ties and handcuffs were among the purchases made[/caption]
Plumb planned to use chloroform to knock out Holly and her partner[/caption]
They even had a plan to cover their backs – to force her to record a video claiming she was to be coming with them under her own free will and that she was fully consenting to everything they were going to do to her.
“Enjoy your freedom Holly. Lol,” messaged Marc.
“She has no idea what surprise is on the horizon,” was Gavin’s twisted reply.
The pair spent a year talking about their plan – until at the very last minute, Marc backed out.
By now, however, Plumb, whose every waking moment had been consumed by the thought, was more desperate than ever.
He went on the hunt for another recruit. And before long, he found one in David Nelson, based in America.
Elated, he shared everything about his plan – even sending a video depicting all the equipment he’d bought to restrain and torture her.
Holly’s struggle
IN her first interview since the sickening plot was exposed, Holly Willoughby revealed the devastating impact it had on her family.
“It’s been s*** for all of us,” she admitted, adding: “I had to go on, focus on the positive…it’s been a tough one. There’s no sugar coating it.”
Speaking to the Sunday Times, she said: “Nothing can prepare you for something like that.
“When that happens, you either decide, right, I can take this on board and it can affect all aspects of my life.
“Or I can make a choice to go, let’s focus on everything that’s positive and good.
“I’m healthy and I’m happy. I’ve got a wonderful husband and children and family, I’ve got great friends.
“You have to go: I choose to positively move forward and rely on all those people – the police, court, judge, jury – to do their role. And that’s what I had to do.”
The only problem was that Nelson was, in fact, an undercover cop. But he needed to act quick. After all, who else could Plumb be talking to? And how far away could he be from actually carrying out the attack?
Alerted by Nelson via the FBI, Essex Police wasted no time in breaking into Plumb’s flat and placing him under arrest.
Guilty tears
He denied all charges. It was a fantasy, he admitted, but at no point would he be actually carrying out the plan.
But what they found in his flat said otherwise. Not only did they find the equipment he planned to use to kidnap her, but a chilling document with the route from Plumb’s address to Holly’s house mapped out.
Nor were the jury to be fooled by his pleas, unanimously finding him guilty as he wept from the dock.
On July 12 2024, he was handed a life sentence with a minimum of 16 years for soliciting murder, inciting kidnap, and inciting rape.
The pervert wept as the judge read out his crimes[/caption]
Holly was safe – but in the end, while Plumb was now put away behind bars, the disturbing episode would be the final push for Holly to quit This Morning.
And while the chat group was shut down, just how many other groups are still out there, full of equally disturbed individuals, remains a mystery, with many of its members remaining active.
“It could be happening right now to someone else,” reminds Philip.
“It’s a reminder to always be careful what you share online – because determined people with time, like Gavin, can find out more about you than you would ever be able to imagine.”
The Plot To Kill Holly Willoughby airs tonight on Channel 5 at 9pm. Watch or Stream on 5.