egafd.com

From www.eveningstar.co.uk
Former pornographer in financial crisis
December 15, 2002 15:47

A FORMER Ipswich convent girl turned pornographer, whose seedy empire was once valued at over ?1million, is in serious financial difficulties.
Receivers today confirmed one-time porn queen Melissa Tooke was "thousands of pounds in debt."
Assistant official receiver Dave Gibson confirmed there would be no creditors' meeting or public examination into Ms Tooke's business empire.
He said: "There are no assets for creditors to apply for."
The 29-year-old once produced a blue movie a week from her four-bedroomed home in Norwich Road, Ipswich. Her high-flying former lifestyle once boasted six homes and a ?40,000 Mercedes.
She gave her current address as a down-at-heel upstairs flat in Felixstowe Road. However, when The Evening Star called to speak to her we were told she was not known at that address.
Ms Tooke and her then partner Nicholas Pace hit the headlines in 1999 when they were exposed as the brains behind Insight, one of East Anglia's biggest porn empires.
But the case against the couple was thrown out by Lowestoft magistrates on a time-lapse technicality.
Before it collapsed the case showed that the business was not an amateur sideline with a small client base, but one of the biggest blue movie factories seen in Suffolk.
Ms Tooke always denied she ever appeared in any of the films.
When its premises in Norwich Road and Burrell Road were raided, trading standards officers were astounded to discover Insight's tentacles stretched across the length and breadth of Great Britain.
The company also had contacts in mainland Europe and America.
Among the equipment recovered from swoops were 26 video recorders, hundreds of blank videos, mailing lists, cameras and magazines, along with master copies and cassettes of the seedy films.
Ms Tooke, an ex-pupil of the former convent-run School of Jesus and Mary in Woodbridge Road, Ipswich, claimed to have made hundreds of films.
She was born into a middle-class Suffolk family with connections to a well-known Ipswich building firm.
To complete her formal education, Ms Tooke was sent to Kirby Lodge Finishing School for Young Ladies in Cambridge.
After working as a glamour model for a year, she used the money she earned to begin making her own films.
From 1996 to 1998, Ms Tooke made an average of one film a week and claimed to have made more than ?1m from her ever-expanding business. It was estimated that 200 videos a week were being run off when Insight's premises were raided late in 1998.

Thanks for info top shelf, I had no idea that she was so close to home , in sunny Ipswich, it seems amazing how you could possibly lose all of that, having 6 homes and a ?40,000 car, and also running off 200 vids per week would have generated even more money!!!!

I had no idea either and I've lived in 'sunny' (must been out of the town on that day) Ipswich for the last 20 odd years!

Interesting how the local rag delights in someone else's misey; use of "seedy empire" and "down-at-heel upstairs flat", (Perhaps whoever lives in the downstairs flat is an Evening Star reader and won't be too chuffed at being described as living in "down-at-heel" accomodation.)

And such obvious glee at the news of a woman losing her home and car. Still, she's only a pornographer so it doesn't really matter.

Needless to say, the Evening Star that gets on its high horse about "seedy" pornography is the very same Evening Star that carries classified adverts for Massage Parlours/Remedial therapies/Private Saunas etc every night of the week.

Double standards from a tabloid newspaper? What are the chances?

I get the same in my local paper, on th4e front pages shock, horror at some soul making a living from the sex trade, ie set up a brothel in their own home yet in the classifieds, adverts aplenty for "ahem" 'massage parlours'

"One of the biggest blue-movie factories seen in Suffolk"!!!!!!!!
How many are there in the County?....lol
Mart

I recon reports of Melissa's supposed wealth are greatly exaggerated - which is precisely what you expect of a crap bullshit newspaper. Saying that a 29-year-old woman earned a few quid from porno vids, got busted and is now skint (which is the case) just doesn?t sound quite as exciting does it? So hey, if the news is not very exciting of a day then just make something up!

Someone I know extremely well has been in the biz longer than Melissa and has done more trade than Melissa but he certainly isn?t a millionaire. Also, I believe the properties mentioned were probably something to do with her wealthy family and not what she had bought from the proceeds of porn.

Melissa isn't even in the country never mind at the address in Ipswich. She lives just down the road from an ex-pat colleague of mine; he spoke to her just last week. She's trying to make a new life, but doesn?t sound very content. Life's passing her by, and she's now quite sniffy about her old business and colleagues. I guess after all of the hassle she's had over the past 4 years that may be understandable.

P R Mann

Local rag prints shite - shocker

Insight put some good stuff out - the fruits of the spread of Melissa's tentacles Northwards across the border remain in the archivea at Crimpo Towers

what I posted on the message forum (is Mr Magoo there as well?)

'Thank you for your fair and unbiased reporting on this particularly nasty story. I welcome the need to publicly denegrate this pornographer. The now legal pornography which only 2 years ago was illegal should be condemned in the strongest possible terms leaving no salacious adjective left untouched. The perverts who actively enjoy this material should be let loose in holland where this kind of absolute filth has been available for years.'

Melissa is a nice lady who was mug enough to be taken in - along with others- by a total piece of shiy called NICK PACE
PR Mann calls it right about the "normal" newspaper eggageration,
but the fact remains that Melissa fell foul of a smooth-talking small time thief(big-time LIAR) called Nick Pace who was respponsible for the financial demise of one of the nicest guys ever to grace this biz - Bob Belcher.
Many months ago I posted asking for the whereabouts of this Pace piece of shit and had many leads which all came to nought.
Any futher SOLID info would be appreciated.

Joe,
To whom is this wonderful quote attributed? Or have Sir J.Walker, The Chairman and myself missed something.

Has The Hague declared war on us for this terrible slight on their Society?

When will planeloads of strippers be unleashed on the unsuspectoing residents of East Anglia or even darkest Cambs?