A shopping centre security officer on trial for allegedly plotting to kidnap, rape, and murder television presenter Holly Willoughby had previously made failed kidnap attempts, a court heard today.
Chelmsford Crown Court was told that Gavin Plumb had tied a 16-year-old girl’s hands with rope and tape and attempted to force two different women off a train with the threat of a gun.
Prosecutor Alison Morgan KC said each of the attempts was thwarted, with one woman crying in terror.
Ms Morgan told the jury on Monday: “On August 14, 2006, the defendant approached a woman on a train. He sat opposite her and stared at her, before showing her a note which said: ‘I have got a gun. All you have to do is keep quiet. Do what I say. So just stand up and get off at the next stop with me. Don’t cry or make a sound. Don’t stop me from touching you because I won’t hurt you. If you do all of this, no one will get hurt but if you don’t I am going to shoot you and myself and everyone else’.”
“The victim was terrified and began to cry. Others on the train came over, at which point the defendant tore up the note and ran off at the next stop.
Ms Morgan continued, detailing the second victim: “Two days later, the defendant attempted to force another woman to get off a train with him. This time he was armed with an imitation firearm. He adopted the same approach, showing the victim a note, this time suggesting that he was a police officer and that he needed her to get off the train so that he could speak to her.
“She refused to get off the train with him but when she did get off, she reported the matter to the police. The defendant was found to own an imitation firearm, three rope ligatures, and various notes that he had used or intended to use to try to get women off the train.
Ms Morgan also recounted an incident two years later involving two 16-year-old girls in a shop in Harlow, Essex. The defendant approached them and said, ‘Get to the back of the stockroom.’ He pulled out a knife and held it towards them, telling them to turn around and put their hands behind their backs. He then took some rope and tape out of his pocket and tied the hands of one of the girls. As he did so, the other girl managed to escape and raise the alarm. Both of the girls were terrified.”
The prosecutor emphasised the relevance of Plumb’s previous convictions. These were real offences, committed against real women, involving this defendant threatening them and trying to control and detain them. For some, he had an imitation firearm. He had rope, he had tapes, and he bound the hands of one of the victims. When you consider the discussions about Holly Willoughby and what this defendant planned to do to her, you will do so in the context of those earlier offences. They tell you that this defendant knew what it would take to terrify and overpower a woman. He was someone who had chosen to do this for real, and not just as a fantasy.”
Plumb denies hatching a plot to kidnap, rape, and murder Ms. Willoughby. Ms. Willoughby has waived her right to anonymity in connection with an accusation against Plumb of assisting or encouraging rape.
