Ice video ‘filmed in Geoff Bainbridge’s bedroom’

The ice pipe video Geoff Bainbridge claims was shot six years ago overseas as part of an extortion plot was actually filmed in his Melbourne bedroom.

Geoff Bainbridge smoking near the distinctive light shade at his home in Middle Park in Melbourne.

The ice pipe video that multi-millionaire entrepreneur Geoff Bainbridge claims was taken six years ago as part of a sophisticated extortion racket was actually filmed in the bedroom of his Melbourne home in the past 18 months.

The revelation discredits Mr Bainbridge’s claim that the video depicting his methamphetamine use was filmed in a Southeast Asian country in 2015 after a night out with mystery people who went on to try to extort him.

His well-scripted story – provided to The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald and dutifully reported by media outlets The Guardian, The Australian Financial Review and Seven – documented a horror tale overseas that haunted him for years.

However, the new evidence uncovered by The Australian suggests clearly that his story is a total fabrication as he obviously recorded the drug-taking video in the inner-Melbourne house he bought in late 2020.

Bainbridge near the light and shutters seen in the real estate images.

Mr Bainbridge quit as managing director of the publicly listed Lark Distillery over the video.

He bought the Middle Park home on July 20, 2020, for $3.465m and settled on it the following month, when he took out an NAB mortgage.

Online real estate photographs show the master bedroom, positioned at the front of the home, features a unique light-fitting, ornate ceiling decor, period shutters, a study nook in the corner of the bedroom, a fireplace and a distinctive bedhead.

All of these details can be seen very clearly in three full, unpublished videos recorded by Mr Bainbridge that were obtained by The Australian.

The unique light-fitting is identical to the real estate images online, along with the ceiling decor, the period shutters, the study nook, the bedhead and the fireplace.

In defending the outrageous drug footage, Mr Bainbridge made the case that it was historic and had led to seven years of misery from extortionists.

The Australian asked Mr Bainbridge and his lawyer why he claimed the video of him smoking a meth pipe had been filmed overseas when it was actually recorded at his Middle Park home in the past 18 months, and whether he still alleged the video was the subject of an extortion racket.

Mr Bainbridge replied: “No comment/no response. Just let her do what she is going to do.”

Real estate pictures of the bedroom in the home bought by Geoff Bainbridge in 2020.

Mr Bainbridge, told The Age he had woken in an unfamiliar place in December 2015 to find two strange men showing him footage of him smoking ice from a glass pipe. “I was just horrified. You are like, what else happened? What else don’t I remember? How am I going to explain this to anyone?” he said.

“The reality for me is there is footage of me consuming class-A drugs in a foreign country. That has serious ramifications.”

He denied that he was an ice user.

Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning documents confirm the transfer of the Middle Park property into Mr Bainbridge’s name as the “sole proprietor” on August 14, 2020. ASIC documents also list several of Mr Bainbridge’s businesses as registered to this same Middle Park address.

In his interview with The Age, conducted after The Australian sent him questions, Mr Bainbridge had said the video pre-dated his time at Lark Distillery.

He claimed to have made a series of 14 payments to two extortionists totalling nearly $9000.

The Age also reported the extortionists were so technically proficient they were able to alter the time stamp on the video to make it appear it had been filmed in 2021 instead of 2015.

Given Mr Bainbridge settled on the house in August 2020, it would indicate the video was taken in the past 18 months. The issue of the identical light-fitting was first unearthed by The Herald Sun.

A scene from the video showing the framed mirror seen in the real estate photos.

Mr Bainbridge was appointed as managing director at Lark in October 2019 but resigned effective immediately from the company after The Australian asked him questions about the video.

The explicit videos were filmed by Mr Bainbridge. In one video, he films himself smoking a meth pipe in skimpy underwear while making sexually explicit comments.

In the video, Mr Bainbridge lights the meth pipe and says: “Let’s get f..king high together baby. I’d smoke meth and just blow it all over your c..., babe.”

He then inhales and blows into the phone before taking another two inhalations. He ends the video by saying: “I’m so high, I’m so f..king horny.”

He filmed two other extremely sexually explicit videos of himself masturbating, watching hardcore pornography and, in one of the videos, there is an ice pipe next to him on his bed.

In all the videos, Mr Bainbridge appears alone in his bedroom and verbally addresses an absent sexual partner, to whom it is understood he sent the videos.

Neighbours told The Australian Mr Bainbridge still lived at the same Middle Park address, and a package on his doorstep was addressed to him.

He is Lark’s fifth-largest shareholder, with a stake valued at $17m prior to revelations of the videos.