A security guard accused of abducting, raping and murdering TV presenter Holly Willoughby has begun testifying for the defence in his trial.
Gavin Plumb (37) took to the stand at Chelmsford Crown Court on Friday to take his oath as a witness.
The defendant, from Harlow, Essex, was accompanied by a security guard who sat in a row near the witness stand and another security guard who sat near the entrance door to the second courtroom.
When the judge asked him if he could stand up to give evidence, the overweight defendant replied “I can’t”.
Plumb was wearing a grey track jacket, dark sweatpants and black trainers. He denies abetting murder, abetting rape and abetting kidnapping and the trial continues.
Defence solicitor Sasha Wass KC emphasised Plum’s importance when he gave evidence in his own defence at Chelmsford Crown Court.
Mr Plum told the court: “From the age of 13 my weight started to fluctuate”.
He said: “At 13 you should be playing football and being active but I struggled with that and it had a huge impact on my mental health.
“It was always something that got me down. I couldn’t go out and do what my friends and brothers were doing.”
When asked if he had a girlfriend at the time he said: “Yes, I had a few.” Ms Wass asked: “Did you want more?” to which Mr Plum replied: “Of course, with a few”. He says he had an 18-year-old girlfriend but it wasn’t a good relationship.
He said: “It was very toxic. There were constant arguments. Asked how it affected him, he said: “It was very emotional. I didn’t want to have anything to do with anyone. I was constantly humiliated.”
The defense brings up Plumb’s previous failed kidnapping attempts between 2006 and 2008.
In 2006, he tried to force two different women off a train within two days of each other using notes and, in one case, attempted to threaten them with a weapon. And in 2008 he threatened two store clerks with a box cutter and tied one with a rope before fleeing.
Plumb told the court that the incidents were a way to free himself from a toxic relationship he was in at the time.
Asked by his defence lawyer what he was thinking during the 2006 attempt, he said: I’m going to get caught and go to prison.
Admitting he had fantasised about a flight attendant at the time, he said: “I was on the train and the train was empty and this was the first person I spoke to.”
When asked if he had thought about the feelings of his victim he replied:
No police turned up after this incident but two days later he tried again and was caught with a toy gun but said he hadn’t taken her to court at the time.
Ms Wass spoke again about the 2008 incident at the shop and asked what was going through his mind during the incident which is described as the girls being “screaming and shouting”.
He said: “I needed a way out of the relationship, and knowing full well that it had worked the first time, I thought I’d try something really big again to get out of that relationship.
And so Plum told his side of the story in court.” By 2018, his weight had ballooned to 225kg, and with doctors telling him he could die within four years, he was confined to his home. He never left the house and suffered mentally.
He said: “It took a toll on my mental health, I got very depressed and felt like I didn’t want to talk to anybody because it was a burden.”
When asked how he spent his time he replied: “My life was a lie,” and explained that he spent his time having “wholesome” chats on the internet with celebrities about sex.
“It was about sex with people mentioned in the chats. It could be something completely different – people in different chat rooms, also celebrities.”
When asked if Ms Willoughby was paying attention at the time he replied: “I was more concerned because I was at home all the time watching what was going on in the daytime.”
The trial continues.