‘She is a fantasy of mine’: the disturbing plot to kill Holly Willoughby

On 4 October 2023 Holly Willoughby signed off from presenting duties on ITV’s This Morning with a simple “See you tomorrow”.

Listing the following day’s features – a bit on “spooky season”, another on Pride of Britain nominees – before delivering the pithy farewell, viewers would have no idea Willoughby was making her final appearance on the show.

That is because at that point neither did Willoughby.

Later that night, police officers raided the Essex home of Gavin Plumb, a now 37-year-old security guard suspected of plotting to kidnap, rape and murder the television presenter.

Essex police had acted fast.

Earlier that day, as Willoughby and co-host Josie Gibson interviewed Caitlyn Jenner on the This Morning sofa, officers had received a tipoff from an undercover police officer 4,000 miles away in Owatonna, a town of 26,000 people in the midwestern US state of Minnesota.

The next morning Willoughby did not appear on This Morning as expected, with Alison Hammond taking her place. Then, on Friday 6 October, the Sun’s front page splashed with the headline: “Holly’s kidnap plot terror”.

Plumb was charged the same day with three charges: soliciting murder, encouraging or assisting the commission of kidnap, and encouraging or assisting the commission of rape.

On 10 October, Willoughby, now 43, announced she had presented This Morning for the last time after more than 14 years. Without referencing the plot, Willoughby said on Instagram she had to “make this decision for me and my family”. She returned to screens as co-host of ITV’s Dancing on Ice in early 2024.

What had Plumb said to the undercover officer that had alarmed him? The police officer, who used the alias David Nelson during the trial, created a number of fake identities on social media platforms to monitor chats with a focus on murder for hire, kidnapping, abduction, rape and human trafficking.

On 3 October, the officer was in a group called “Abduct lovers”. Plumb, using the identity “BigBear”, posted an image of Willoughby to the group, announcing: “I have a shit load of info on her 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.”

At this point, Nelson had no idea Willoughby was one of the most famous faces in British entertainment, but the detailed nature of Plumb’s messages concerned him.

Plumb sent images of chloroform and indicated he had items to “hold her”. He described his plan as a “home invasion”. The conversation became increasingly violent with Plumb saying he planned to “slit her throat, clear her out and dispose of it”.

Plumb also shared a video with the officer showing real items in his possession, which he described as his “kit” of materials, laid out on a bed: hand and ankle shackles, a ball gag, rope, metal cable ties and handcuffs. These items would later be found at Plumb’s home.

Nelson escalated his concern rapidly and on 4 October contacted the Metropolitan police via the FBI.

Essex police acted swiftly, arresting him the same day. This is likely in part because a search of the police national computer would have revealed Plumb’s previous convictions: attempted kidnap in 2006 and false imprisonment in 2008.

In the first offence, he approached two female cabin crew members in separate incidents on the Stansted Express, a route he used as a railway station car park attendant. He handed the women threatening notes, warning them to exit the train if they did not want to be hurt. On both occasions he failed. He was sentenced to a suspended jail sentence and later admitted “stewardesses” were a “fantasy” of his at the time.

In 2008, he forced two 16-year-old girls at knife-point into the stockroom of a branch of Woolworths, the now defunct department store chain. He tied one up at the wrists but the other fled, raising the alarm. He was charged with false imprisonment and spent 16 months of a 32-month sentence in prison.

Plumb’s arrest was captured on a police officer’s bodycam footage. Plumb, topless, appeared alarmed as officers raided the property with a battering ram. “What’s going on?” he repeatedly asked. When an officer confirmed he was being arrested on suspicion of plotting to kidnap Willoughby, he responded: “I’m not gonna lie, she is a fantasy of mine.”

Millions of images of women were found across all of Plumb’s devices, including 10,000 of Willoughby on his phone. Many were deepfake pornographic images – photos of Willoughby manipulated by artificial intelligence to show her nude.

But the most disturbing content was the conversations with a man only referred to as “Marc”. Through the course of the trial, scant details of Marc’s identity were revealed. He was highly likely to be a resident of Ireland and at one point claimed to have convictions for stalking. Voice notes sent to Plumb by Marc and played to the court revealed an Irish accent.

The content, on the chat apps WhatsApp and Kik, was highly sexualised, degrading and misogynistic. The pair appeared to goad each other on, detailing what they wanted to do to Willoughby, including forcing her to wear their favourite “outfits”. But crucially they also focused on practicalities of a kidnap and rape plot, describing tactics, locations and equipment.

Plumb said it was nothing more than chat, although “regrettable”. He said there was no real plan to kidnap, rape or murder Willoughby, it was pure fantasy.

He attempted to paint a picture of himself as a tragic character forced into near isolation by his long-term battle with his weight, at one point peaking at 222kg (35st).

In 2018, Plumb was interviewed by the BBC about his weight struggles, writing a first-person piece for its website about his decision to undergo an operation for “gastric sleeve surgery”.

The security guard claimed his previous convictions had been a “cry for help” as he tried to escape a “toxic relationship” with the mother of his children. The sexualised paraphernalia found in his home had been bought during a fleeting relationship with a woman who was interested in BDSM (bondage, domination, sadism, masochism) but he refused to give her name to the police or court.

Willoughby was absent throughout the trial. The presenter will star alongside the TV survival expert Bear Grylls in a jungle-based celebrity reality show on Netflix but there is no doubt Plumb’s plot to kill her will have a lasting impact on her private life and career.