Tulisa is dragged into sex tape video storm (Scandal)

By GARY O'SHEA and COLIN ROBERTSON, TV Editor (THE SUN)

X FACTOR judge Tulisa Contostavlos was dragged into a new sex tape scandal last night after an X-rated video went on sale online. The film, from a high quality camera phone, shows a blonde performing a sex act for over six minutes. An internet firm put the footage online, charging £3.90 to download it. The site was suspended yesterday afternoon. News of the video caused an internet frenzy, with users posting reviews. It is understood to have been filmed more than two years ago. The Sun revealed in August last year that a sex tape purportedly of Tulisa was being touted around for an incredible £500,000. A man claimed he was in talks with an American porn giant for rights to the film, and showed a Sun reporter explicit images. He drove a BMW and claimed to own property in London’s posh Canary Wharf area. At the time, Tulisa’s lawyers insisted it was “100 per cent fake”. They said: “She is horrified that someone would go to the extreme lengths of fabricating a video. It is absolutely not her.”

Yesterday’s website was registered through an internet hosting company on February 8, but the video went live only in recent days. Although hosted on a British server, the price to download it was quoted as $5.99 in US dollars. Money paid was channelled to the seller via a charging firm which specialises in billing for porn sites. By 4.30pm yesterday the site peddling the video was taken down. But the footage had already been seen and copied across the world. N-Dubz singer Tulisa, 23, is set to return to X Factor when auditions begin in the summer. Last night her spokesman said: “We are not commenting on this.”