Man jailed for life over plot to kidnap Holly Willoughby

A security guard has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 16 years after hatching “depraved and vile” plans to kidnap, rape and murder TV star Holly Willoughby.

Chelmsford Crown Court was told Gavin Plumb’s plot had a “catastrophic and “life-changing” impact on the former This Morning presenter.

Plumb was unanimously convicted of soliciting murder and inciting rape and kidnap following a trial at the same court.

Sentencing the 37-year-old, Mr Justice Edward Murray told him: “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.”

The judge sentenced the defendant to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 16 years, minus the 280 days he had spent on remand – taking the total to a minimum jail term of 15 years and 85 days.

Plumb told the officer, who was using 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.

When Plumb was arrested on 4 October last year 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.”

The Dancing On Ice star waived her right to anonymity in connection with the charge against Plumb of assisting or encouraging rape.

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