Holly Willoughby praised police for their swift and decisive reaction as they helped to foil Gavin Plumb’s evil plot.

Plumb wept at Chelmsford Crown Court today as a jury found him guilty of planning to kidnap, rape and murder the star. Holly thanked the US undercover police officer for helping stop the obsessed 37-year-old in his tracks and said women “should not be made to feel unsafe going about our daily lives and in our own homes”.

The jury took 12 hours and 19 minutes to unanimously convict him of soliciting murder and inciting rape and kidnap. In a statement, Holly also paid credit to the Crown Prosecution Service and everyone involved in convicting her potential kidnapper, who had highly sexualised conversations with others online about attacking her.

She said: “As women, we should not be made to feel unsafe going about our daily lives and in our own homes. 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.

Gavin Plumb was convicted by a jury at Chelmsford Crown Court of soliciting murder and inciting rape and kidnap ( 
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“Thank you to the Crown Prosecution Service, the Rt Hon Mr Justice Murray, Alison Morgan KC, the members of the jury and all involved in this case for ensuring that justice was done and that the defendant will not be able to harm any more women. I would also like to commend the bravery of his previous victims for speaking up at the time. Without their bravery, this conviction may not have been possible.”

Following the guilty verdicts, Essex Police’s senior investigating officer Detective Chief Inspector Greg Wood said Plumb was “a dangerous, predatory individual who was intent on causing the most serious harm to his victim”.

“He was not just simply obsessed with Holly Willoughby, he meticulously and carefully planned, over a number of years, to carry out a depraved and violent attack, in which he plotted to deprive her of her liberty and ultimately her life,” he said. “His claims in court that he was a ‘fantasist’ are simply not true and were evidenced by the extent with which he plotted with others to carry out his wicked plan.”

Plumb said in messages he planned to target the TV star in a “home invasion”, using chloroform to subdue her and her husband, TV producer Dan Baldwin. He then aimed to say he was to tie them up, kidnapping her and repeatedly rape the former This Morning presenter.