Stephen Bear arrived at the courthouse on Friday in a chauffeured white Rolls-Royce, but the disgraced English reality TV star took off in the back of an Essex police vehicle.
A British court has sentenced Bear to 21 months in prison after he shared CCTV footage of himself and Love Island star Georgia Harrison having sex.
Bear uploaded the videos to OnlyFans without Harrison’s permission and earned more than £2,000 (about $2,400), according to the independent. The then couple was captured on August 2, 2020 having sex on security cameras at Bear’s garden in Loughton, Essex.
According to the independent, the prosecution said, although the sex was consensual, Harrison had no idea they were being filmed. When Bear showed her the footage, she made it clear she was upset and insisted he “never send it to anyone”.
The prosecution said she became aware that Bear had shared the footage on WhatsApp that day and discovered it circulating online later that year.
Last year, Harrison said she was a victim of revenge porn and hoped that speaking out would give other victims the courage to seek justice. Revenge porn is considered sharing sexually explicit material involving someone who has not consented to share the content. It can be especially common as a form of retaliation after a breakup. Revenge porn became a criminal offense in England in 2015, a year after California made it illegal to make or distribute revenge porn.
Bear, who won “Celebrity Big Brother” and appeared on “Ex on the Beach,” denied all charges against him, claiming he never shared the footage and deleted it the day he discovered it.
But the Chelmsford Crown Court found him guilty of voyeurism and two counts of publishing private photos and films with intent to cause distress. Now Bear has to sign the sex offender registry and is legally barred from contacting Harrison for the next five years.
After Bear was taken into custody, Harrison spoke out of court, saying she was “happy and relieved that this case is finally over”.
“Today’s verdict is a confirmation of what I have had to endure and sends a clear signal that the police and the courts are taking this case very seriously,” she said.
“I want to let all other victims of this crime know that I stand in solidarity with them and that I have absolutely no regrets about relinquishing my anonymity. I hope this deters someone from committing this kind of crime and I hope for everyone who has been victimized (that) it gives them some kind of justice.”
