Stephen Bear ordered to pay back profits from sharing private sex tape

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Former Celebrity Big Brother winner Stephen Bear has been ordered to pay back the tens of thousands of pounds he made from illegally sharing a private video on his OnlyFans site of him having sex with reality TV star Georgia Harrison.

The 34-year-old faces nine months in prison if he does not pay the £22,305 confiscation order within three months.

At Chelmsford Crown Court in Essex on Thursday, Judge Christopher Morgan also ordered that Bear pay Ms Harrison £5,000 in compensation, which he warned can be enforced through the magistrates’ court if necessary.

Speaking outside court, Ms Harrison called Bear’s profits “abhorrent”.

“Nobody has the right to earn money from any crime but to earn so much from image-based sexual abuse is quite frankly abhorrent,” she said. “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.”

The Only Way Is Essex star pledged to give some of the money to charities “who have supported me throughout this ordeal”.

Bear was jailed in March last year after being found guilty of voyeurism and of two counts of disclosing private sexual photographs and films with intent to cause distress.

He walked out of prison in January, having served 10-and-a-half months of his 21-month sentence for sharing the film.

Arriving at court on Friday in sunglasses, a pink shirt and a pair of slippers, Bear gave a thumbs-up to reporters.

Andrew Bousfield, prosecuting, said that money from a confiscation order made by the court under the Proceeds of Crime Act would go to the Treasury, police and police charities – and he invited the court to also make a compensation order to Ms Harrison.

Ms 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.”

Ms Harrison, standing at the witness box, replied: “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. Mr Bousfield said: “Reality TV stars are not rolling in money to fund the most expensive litigation in the world at the High Court.”

Ms Harrison went on to tell the court that Bear “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.”

Ms Harrison said of the private video being shared online: “For a long time it completely ruined me.”

“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 also said she had also lost work as a result of the incident.

Proceedings were briefly interrupted when three young men walked into the court and sat beside the dock while Ms Harrison was in the witness box. After the judge addressed them, they left and said “free Stephen Bear”. Bear insisted that he did not know them.

Gemma Rose, for Bear, argued that there is already a compensation order in effect – the civil judgment from the High Court.

Mr Bousfield also told the court a restraint order was in place on the £60,000 proceeds from the sale of Bear’s house, which Ms Harrison said Bear sold from prison to a company called We Buy Any House for “well under market value”.

Judge Christopher Morgan said that “it seems to me in the interests of justice” to make a £22,305 confiscation order, for the profits from the video, and a £5,000 compensation order to go to Ms Harrison.

He said that if the confiscation order is not paid within three months, and if Bear has not requested an extension, the defendant faces nine months in prison.

Addressing Bear, the judge said: “For those who are imprisoned for not paying, they serve the whole term, not half, and the serving of the term doesn’t mean the amount doesn’t have to be paid. It remains a debt and an order that must be paid until it is.”