Harlow security guard Gavin Plumb guilty of plotting kidnap, rape and murder of Holly Willoughby

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A security guard has been found guilty of plotting to kidnap, rape and murder the TV presenter Holly Willoughby.

Gavin Plumb, 37, from Harlow, Essex, schemed online to abduct Ms Willoughby, take her to a "dungeon", then "put her in a lake".

Plumb, who insisted in defence that his plans were a "dark and twisted fantasy", was found guilty of soliciting murder, incitement to rape and incitement to kidnap at Chelmsford Crown Court on Thursday afternoon.

The jury took 12 hours and 19 minutes to unanimously convict him of soliciting murder and inciting rape and kidnap.

Holly Willoughby said women "should not be made to feel unsafe going about our daily lives and in our own homes", as she thanked the undercover US police officer who helped foil Gavin Plumb's kidnap plot.

"I will forever be grateful to the undercover police officer who understood the imminent threat, and to the Metropolitan and Essex police forces for their swift response," she said.

Essex Police described Plumb as a "violent and determined" individual, while the Crown Prosecution Service said his scheming went "above and beyond fantasy".

Plumb's plot was only foiled by a US undercover police officer he had been messaging online to organise the crime.

Within hours of the officer raising the alarm with UK authorities, Plumb was arrested at his home in Harlow, stood half-naked in his underwear.

Footage of that arrest was shown to the court, including the moment where Plumb concedes to officers that Ms Willoughby was "a fantasy of mine".

The court heard that Gavin Plumb developed an "obsession" with the star over a number of years and assembled an "abduction kit" - complete with handcuffs and metal cable ties -to help carry out his attack.

A jury at Chelmsford Crown Court dismissed the 37-year-old's defence that his plans were a "mere fantasy", agreeing with the prosecution that he was a "prolific liar who sought to minimise the extent of his criminality".

The jury unanimously convicted him of soliciting murder and inciting rape and kidnap.

Plumb slowly shook his head and looked down at the floor as the verdicts wereread out.

The defendant, who adopted the user name Big Bear to chat to others about his plot online, appeared to formulate his fantasy as early as 2011 - googling the phrase "how to meet people who plan to kidnap celebs".

During the trial, jurors were taken through a lengthy "sequence of events" document, which displayed Plumb's "appalling messages" to others about what he would do to the Dancing On Ice presenter.

His plans were foiled when one of his potential accomplices, who went by the name of David Nelson, turned out to be an undercover officer from the OwatonnaPolice Department in the US state of Minnesota.

The defendant's messages showed how he planned to rape her at the locationbefore killing her and then putting her "into a lake at night".

Prosecutors described Plumb's plot as "carefully planned" - pointing to the items he had purchased and the lengths to which he had gone to find out when Ms Willoughby did not have security.

Plumb told jurors that bottles of chloroform he had purchased were to clean a carpet stain and that he had bought a BDSM kit, including a set of handcuffs, in 2014 "to rekindle my relationship with my ex-partner".

The defendant also relied on his "between 25-30 stone" weight as a defence - claiming that it would not be possible for him to "jump" over Ms Willoughby's garden wall, as he had outlined in his messages.

He told jurors his online chats were "massively regrettable" and that he was "heartbroken, disgusted and shocked" that they had come out.

Plumb will be sentenced at the same court on Friday July 12.

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