Stephen Bear ordered to pay £22,000 over profits made from Georgia Harrison sex tape
28 March 2024, 16:59 | Updated: 28 March 2024, 19:51
Stephen Bear has been ordered to pay £22,305 over profits he made from a sex tape he posted of his former partner Georgia Harrison.
The former Celebrity Big Brother winner was released from prison earlier this year having served 10-and-a-half months for posting on his OnlyFans page intimate footage of him and Harrison, a former The Only Way Is Essex star, without consent.
Bear, 34, has now been ordered to pay the £22,305 that prosecutors said he earned from illegally sharing a sex tape during the Proceeds of Crime Act hearing at Chelmsford Crown Court. He faces nine months in prison if he does not pay the money back within three months.
He has also been ordered to pay £5,000 in compensation to Love Island star Harrison.
Bear gave a thumbs up to reporters as he arrived at court on Friday, in sunglasses, a pink shirt and a pair of slippers.
The former reality TV star, who was found guilty of voyeurism and of two counts of disclosing private sexual photographs and films with intent to cause distress, was jailed in March 2023.
Andrew Bousfield, prosecuting at Friday's hearing, said a restraint order was in place on the £60,000 proceeds from the sale of Bear's house.
He said that money from a confiscation order made by the court under the Proceeds of Crime Act goes to the Treasury and to police and police charities.
The barrister invited the court to make a compensation order to Harrison in addition.
Harrison said that following a High Court case she was awarded £207,900 damages, and £213,515 in costs to her no-win no-fee solicitors, but that Bear had paid "not one penny" of it.
Bear interjected, from the secure dock of the court: "You shouldn't have to pay if you're innocent."
Harrison, standing at the witness box, said: "It got proven, literally, in a court."
She said she had been advised it could cost her more to enforce the High Court ruling than she could expect to get back.
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Mr Bousfield said: "Reality TV stars are not rolling in money to fund the most expensive litigation in the world at the High Court."
Harrison said Bear "sold his house from prison - he sold his house to a company called We Buy Any House for well under market value".
She said he "has never shown a scrap of remorse for what he's done or apologised".
Bear shouted from the dock: "I've got a restraining order."
Harrison said of the private video being shared online: "For a long time it completely ruined me."
She added: "One thing that will always really affect me is the fact if one day I want to have children that footage will always be out there."
She said she had also lost work as a result of the incident.
Proceedings were briefly interrupted when three young men walked into the court while Harrison was in the witness box, and sat beside the dock.
Bear said he did not know them and they left and said "free Stephen Bear" after the judge addressed them.
Speaking outside court, Harrison said: "Nobody has the right to earn money from any crime but to earn so much from image-based sexual abuse is quite frankly abhorrent.
"I think it's important that anyone who commits this awful crime should be made to give any money they made back to the victim and also the judicial system, especially after a successful conviction."
She said she would give some of the money to charities "who have supported me throughout this ordeal".
(c) Sky News 2024: Stephen Bear ordered to pay £22,000 over profits made from Georgia Harrison sex tape
