Gavin Plumb: 35-stone loner who drank 18 litres of cola every 10 days and obsessed over Holly Willoughby

At his heaviest he was 35 and-a-half stone and drank 18 litres of cola every 10 days while living in a rubbish-strewn council flat.

Neighbours described Gavin Plumb, a 37-year-old father of two, as a reclusive figure who used taxis to travel from his flat on the outskirts of the town.

Born in February 1987, Plumb worked as a security guard and spent his life living in Harlow and Loughton, both in Essex.

Plumb, who has three brothers and a half-brother, is understood not to be in contact with the mother of his children.

In 2006, he was handed a 12-month suspended sentence after attempting to force two stewardesses off a train using a fake gun and a threatening note on two separate occasions.

He was later jailed for 32 months after an attack on two teenage girls in 2008, in which he threatened them with a “box-cutter/Stanley knife-type instrument”.

In an interview with the BBC about his obesity for a 2018 documentary, Plumb said he spent years confined to his flat, and said he only left his front door to put out a bin bag every few days.

In court, he told jurors that his current weight was around 24 and-a-half stone. The trial heard he weighed around 30 stone at the time he was taken into custody; at his heaviest he had gastric surgery.

Plumb was an admin of a public Holly Willoughby fan group on a messaging app, with 50 members who shared and discussed images of her for their sexual gratification.

Calling himself “Big Bear”, he was also a member of the “Abduct Lovers” group, which was being monitored by an undercover US police officer, using the name David Nelson, who gained his trust by sharing flight details and a fake ID.