Previous victim of Gavin Plumb speaks out over kidnap attempt on train

A previous victim of Gavin Plumb has spoken of how the security guard tried to kidnap her on a train.

Plumb, 37, was sentenced to life at Chelmsford Crown Court for a plot to kidnap, rape and murder TV presenter Holly Willoughby.

When officers raided Plumb's flat in Harlow, Essex, they found bottles of chloroform and an “abduction kit” complete with cable ties.

Jurors unanimously convicted him of soliciting murder and inciting rape and kidnap.

A former victim of Plumb, who chose to remain anonymous, said he had passed her a note while they were on a train in 2006.

“He had a rope and replica gun on him," she said in an interview with the BBC.

“As I read that note it was only then I looked at him. My first impression was that: he is huge, I have no chance.

“There was this moment when I was frozen and scared.

“But it was also disbelief, I thought maybe he is joking, it is absurd, but he started approaching me with his hands, he held his hand on my knee and he was indicating that ‘we are going to go’.

“After the initial freeze and disbelief I realised what’s going on and I was frightened, that feeling was growing because I started realising that this massive man wants to get me off the train and I knew the next station is in a small village.”

Plumb’s victim added: “I had all the worst scenarios cooking in my head. And I thought if I get off that train, he can do anything and so my thought was not to get off that train at any cost.”

Asked if she felt a prison sentence could have prevented future attacks, the woman said: “I believe so, I believe that lack of punishment was only encouragement.

“He could go unpunished doing whatever he did, if he got away with it – why not try again?”

Former This Morning presenter Ms Willoughby said after Plumb’s conviction last week that women “should not be made to feel unsafe… in our own homes”.

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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