Woman targeted by Gavin Plumb says he could have been stopped sooner

Before Gavin Plumb plotted the kidnap, rape, and murder of Holly Willoughby – he targeted four other women and teenage girls.

Maria is one of them; Plumb attempted to kidnap her from a train.

She has never spoken before about what happened to her, but agreed to speak me on the condition she remained anonymous.

It was 2006 and Maria was on the train on the way to the airport she worked at.

She had not done her hair and makeup so sat at the back of the train carriage so she could finish getting ready.

The train carriage was practically empty so she thought it seemed odd when someone sat opposite her.

Describing the incident, she said: “He passed me a note, I thought it’s just some piece of paper, I didn’t even look what he was doing. I ignored it. Then he pushed it forward for me to read and when I read it, it was something along the lines of ‘get off the train with me, be quiet, don’t do anything, get off the train with me and nothing will happen to anybody’.”