FOR years Gavin Plumb trawled the murky depths of the internet hoping to find someone to help him live out his “ultimate fantasy”.
The security guard had grown obsessed with the idea of kidnapping not just anyone but daytime TV royalty Holly Willoughby.
The fiend was today convicted of soliciting murder, incitement to kidnap and incitement to rape.
Due to Holly’s fame, Plumb would need an accomplice to help him ambush the star before raping then murdering her.
But years spent hunched over a computer screen chatting to like-minded creeps he could recruit had yielded no solid results.
That was until Plumb stumbled across a US-based man named David Nelson while discussing his twisted desires in a forum called Abduct Lovers.
Using the name BigBear, the loner began opening up to Nelson – even bragging about his previous snatch attempt convictions.
Operating with a photo of Holly as his user pic, Plumb told his new pal he had a “s**tload” of information on her.
He also shared videos of his “restraint kit”, which included handcuffs, a gag and two bottles of chloroform to “stupefy” the star.
At one stage, Plumb sent a route map showing the distance between his home in Essex and Holly’s house where he planned to pounce.
Stung in the past by associates who got “cold feet“, the security guard was wary Nelson would actually travel to the UK to help him.
To calm his fears, Nelson sent Plumb a flight booking – causing the security guard to swear and gush: “It’s really happening.”
In return he sent a video to prove he was “real” – listing the day’s date and creepily whispering Holly’s name.
While he thought his sinister plan was coming together, Plumb had actually divulged all his secrets to an undercover police officer.
And Nelson had relayed all the information from the “credible” plan to both the FBI and police.
The officer even wrote in his report that Holly “may be in immediate danger of death”.
Given the level of threat, police swooped on Plumb’s home on October 4 last year.
Footage showed the security guard without a top on as he asked officers what was going on.
He then told cops Holly was “fantasy of mine”.
While he had lusted after the star, Plumb actually went to “great lengths to suggest to other people it was not fantasy”.
Despite there being a sexual element for him, Plumb didn’t mention anything “sexy or gratifying” – instead relying on revealing the more boring details of the plot.
This, the court was told, showed how serious he was in recruiting a genuine accomplice to carry out the plan with him.
In fact, when he met Nelson he believed “after years of planning he had finally found someone who didn’t appear to have cold feet”.
But in reality, the true fantasy was Plumb believing someone out there could truly be as sick as him.
