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A man accused of plotting to rape and murder the TV presenter Holly Willoughby has told a court he spent 99.9% of his time online as he struggled with mental health problems triggered by his life-threatening weight gain.

Gavin Plumb, 37, who denies plotting to kidnap, rape and murder Willoughby, told the judge, Mr Justice Murray, he would be unable to stand as he started to give evidence in his defence at Chelmsford crown court on Friday.

Plumb described Willoughby as his “celebrity crush” whom he would frequently think about “four, five, six times” a day and said some of the “dark” conversations he had about her online were “massively regrettable”.

Under cross-examination by the prosecutor, Alison Morgan KC, Plumb repeatedly told the jury the discussions he had online about raping and kidnapping Willoughby were “fantasy” and “bravado”.

Turning to his previous convictions, he said he had a “stewardess fantasy” at the time he attempted to kidnap two female cabin crew members from separate trains in August 2006.

He told the jury that similarly in 2008, when he attempted to tie up two 16-year-old female colleagues in a stockroom in Woolworths at knife-point, he had wanted to “try something really big again to get away from the relationship”.

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