[James]

BB STAR TO SUE OVER X-RATED SEX TAPE
RON CANT
RONCANT@SWWP.CO.UK

10:00 - 14 September 2006
Llanelli's Big Brother glamour girl Imogen Thomas has instructed lawyers to act over an x-rated video showing her in the nude. The BB star only discovered a former boyfriend had allegedly put the film on a website after she left the reality TV show house.

She admitted yesterday: "When I was told I just died. I felt my heart had gone straight up in my throat. I could not breathe."

Imogen said she thought she had destroyed the tape years before.

The 23-year-old said the video was made after persistent nagging by her ex-boyfriend while the pair were on holiday. She also said she was a teenager and had drunk too much.

She added: "We were together for three years so it wasn't as if it was a dirty fling or with some random guy."

Imogen said she was angry with herself afterwards and asked for the tape back.

"He gave it to me and I burned it in a field behind my mother's house.

"I was sick at first to think people had seen me like that, especially my family.

"They had to deal with all that when I was in the Big Brother house.

"It was awful for them to see their little girl like that but they have been supporting me 100 per cent.

"I can't say sorry enough to my nearest and dearest. They know it is not my fault that it has gone out like this. It is all so upsetting."

Imogen said she had no intention of speaking to her former boyfriend about the tape.

"If I was to call him I can imagine he would record the conversation and try to sell that. I still can't believe he did it.

"I was so careful in the house not to appear topless or show too much skin when all about me were peeling off.

"What I did with him was private and was meant to stay that way.

"If I had known there was a copy of the tape I would have thought twice about going into the BB house.

"I am embarrassed and ashamed.

"But I am taking legal action. What has been done for monetary gain without my consent is wrong."

It is thought sales of the tape may have netted the man more than £120,000.

Clips from the video tape - which can be downloaded directly to mobile phones - are being advertised in national newpapers.

A friend of Imogen said: "We are all right behind her."

www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=161389