A TV magician who appeared on Jonathan Ross’s Fool Us show and regularly performs for celebrities is facing jail after sending naked pictures to a 15 year-old-girl.
Creepy Richard Bellars, 31, also sent sexual texts to the girl including one where he shockingly said: “I will hold you down and rape you”
Father-of-one Richard, who performed on the last series of Britain’s Got Talent, committed the crimes during a 100 hour magic show in Kent.
Bellars pleaded guilty to sending the pictures and causing an underage girl to engage in sexual activity at a hearing at Sevenoakes Magistrate’s Court after handing himself in to police over the text messages.
Speaking after the hearing he said: “I hope people can see what I did for what it was. I am not a bad man, I am a good man that did a bad thing.
“I handed myself in to the police and will be punished for my actions. I have almost lost my family, my self-respect and my career for what was a stupid, stupid mistake.
“I would like to say sorry to everyone who has been affected by my behaviour.”
The creepy magician managed to fool Penn and Teller, on Jonathan Ross’s ITV ‘Fool Us’ show, with a Derren Brown like mind trick where he successfully predicted the outcomes of various tasks.
The court heard Bellars swapped contact details with two 15-year-old girls during his marathon magic act.
One of the girls and Bellars became friends on Facebook and were soon chatting on Skype.
Days later, unprompted, the girl texted a topless picture of herself. Bellars deleted it, but then asked her to re-send it.
He then sent her a picture of himself in the bath, and several of him performing a sex act, as well as the text suggesting rape.
Bellars pleaded guilty to two charges under the Sexual Offences Act and has now been placed on the Sex Offenders Register – he will be sentenced on October 12.
Defending, Brian Ferris, said the girl texted Bellars “something like, ‘we’d better get our story straight’,” after she discussed a ‘hypothetical situation’ with a police office who gave a talk at her school.
Instead, Bellars walked in to Tonbridge police station, Kent, and admitted to the texts and pictures.
Mr Ferris said: “He went in to the station and said ‘I have been texting a girl. She is only 15. It has gone beyond something I should have done.
“As a self-employed magician one supposes that his career will be very much over.”
it seems his friends and family feel that it is the victims fault and that she is to blame for him sending out pics of his…….a lot of us magicians and entertainers are a bit ticked that he is still performing for teens and others, his magic career should be over.