Hollywood Sex Therapist’s Killer Gets Life in Prison

The ex-boyfriend of Hollywood sex therapist Amie Harwick has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole over her death almost four years ago.

Harwick, 38, was found unresponsive in the early morning hours of February 15, 2020, after plunging from the third-floor balcony of her Hollywood Hills home. Police who found Harwick were responding to reports of a woman screaming.

Gareth Pursehouse, 45, of Playa del Rey in Los Angeles, was convicted of first-degree murder after a jury on September 28 found him guilty of killing Harwick. He was also found guilty of the first-degree burglary of the victim’s home. His sentence was handed down on Wednesday.

During the trial, prosecutors argued that Pursehouse had broken into Harwick’s home and waited for three hours for her to return from a Valentine’s night out with friends. The prosecutors argued that Pursehouse then violently attacked the victim before throwing her from her balcony.

In his closing argument, Deputy District Attorney Victor Avila characterized Pursehouse as a “man who couldn’t move on,” and pointed out that Harwick had sent text messages to friends stating her fears regarding him after rebuffing his requests to resume contact after they ran into one another at an event.

Harwick, who was briefly engaged to comedian Drew Carey in 2018, dated Pursehouse several years before her death for about 18 months. She subsequently obtained a restraining order against him in 2012.

Robin Bernstein-Lev, an attorney for Pursehouse, told jurors that her emotional and overwhelmed client “impulsively” broke into Harwick’s home in a “desperate attempt” to talk with her.

Pursehouse, she said, was “suffering a great emotional upheaval—one that interfered with his thought process” after his chance encounter with Harwick about a month earlier that “left him reeling.”

“Her death was never his goal,” Bernstein-Lev told jurors.

Records from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office show that an autopsy determined Harwick died from blunt force injuries of the head and torso. There was also evidence of “manual strangulation.”

Newsweek has contacted the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office via email for comment.

In April 2020, The Price is Right host Carey opened up about his former fiancée’s death during an appearance on The Talk @ Home.

“After Amie’s murder, I took a week off. Really, I couldn’t function,” he said at the time. “My first day back, we taped the high school show for ‘Kids Week.’ It was all high school kids. It was my very first show back, and everybody knew what happened to me. And so I took time during the break to talk to these kids.”

“I wish he never did it. I wish he never met her,” Carey continued, adding: “I really try to practice instant forgiveness and unconditional love. The closest you can get to that, the better you are.”

Harwick specialized in family and sex therapy, and often advocated for sex workers. She also supported a nonprofit offering subsidized counseling for workers in the adult sex industry.

In 2014, Harwick released her book, The New Sex Bible for Women: The Complete Guide to Sexual Self-Awareness and Intimacy. She also featured in several podcasts and other forms of media, such as the documentary Addicted To Sexting.

Harwick earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from California Polytechnic University and a master’s degree in clinical psychology from Pepperdine University. According to her website, she graduated from the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality with a doctoral degree in human sexuality.

Anyone seeking help should call The National Domestic Violence Hotline, a free and confidential hotline available 24/7 that can be reached on 1-800-799-7233 or TTY 1-800-787-3224. The Hotline also provides information on local resources. For more information, visit https://www.thehotline.org/.