Great Yarmouth ex-partner of Gavin Plumb says he is 'evil'

Laura Roberts, 38, said Gavin Plumb sent her threatening messages and turned up at her door in the seaside town last June.

Custody photo of security guard Gavin Plumb (Image: Essex Police/PA Wire) Ms Roberts, who has two children with Plumb, said she reported him for rape and assault during their relationship, calling him a "true monster" and an "evil predator".

On Thursday, security guard Plumb was found guilty of planning to kidnap, rape and murder Willoughby after a seven-day trial in Essex. 

The 37-year-old was arrested in October after he revealed the details of his twisted scheme to an undercover officer on a website called Abduct Lovers.

Gavin Plumb was found guilty of plans to kidnap, rape and murder Holly Willoughby (Image: Lucy North/PA Wire) When police raided his flat, they found bottles of chloroform and an "abduction kit" complete with handcuffs and cable ties. 

Ms Roberts first met Plumb when she was 12 and they began dating when she was 19 and he was 18. 

She said Plumb started to control her from the beginning of the relationship.

“I have seen the darkest side to him and he is capable of evil," she said.

(Image: Crown Prosecution Service/PA Wire) "The thought that he was planning to do to Holly what he did to me, it is keeping me awake at night.

“When he was making his plan to go to Holly’s house and kidnap her, he actually did track me and the kids down.

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"I had court orders and he broke them. He is an evil predator.”

Plumb told the court that his “extremely toxic” relationship with Ms Roberts was to blame for his attempts to kidnap two air hostesses in 2006.

(Image: Crown Prosecution Service/PA Wire) He also said that his false imprisonment of two 16-year-old girls in a Woolworths store in 2008 was a “cry for help” to escape from his partner.

But Ms Roberts said it was Plumb who subjected her to almost constant abuse, hitting, slapping and kicking her.

“He would smirk and laugh at me as he stood over me," she said.

"He really, really enjoyed it when I was scared."

A photo showing the inside of Plumb's flat (Image: CPS/PA Wire) It was a few months after their first child was born in 2007 that she found the "strength" to leave the relationship. 

After turning to her family and police for help she said "I got my son and escaped".

In November 2008, shortly after she discovered she was expecting their baby girl, Ms Roberts reported Plumb for rape.

She said: “The police investigated after I reported it but the case was not taken further.

Court artist drawing by Elizabeth Cook of Gavin Plumb at Chelmsford Crown Court (Image: Elizabeth Cook/PA Wire) “I reported him to the police but they said they didn’t have enough evidence so it was really disappointing.

“Then it wasn’t long after that he went on to attack those girls in Woolworths.”

It was following the Woolworths attack that the restraining order was put in place to prevent him from having contact with Ms Roberts and his children.

Plumb will be sentenced for his plot to murder Holly Willoughby at Chelmsford Crown Court on July 12.