Stephen Bear ordered to pay back profits from sharing private sex tape
The former Celebrity Big Brother winner previously served 10-and-a-half months of a 21-month sentence for sharing the film.
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Former Celebrity Big Brother winner Stephen Bear has been ordered to pay back the £22,305 he made from 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.
Judge Christopher Morgan, at Chelmsford Crown Court, also ordered that Bear pay Ms Harrison £5,000 in compensation, which he said “can be enforced through the magistrates’ court” if it is “not satisfied”.
Bear walked out of prison in January, having served 10-and-a-half months of his 21-month sentence for sharing the film.
He gave a thumbs up to reporters as he arrived at court on Friday, in sunglasses, a pink shirt and a pair of slippers.
He 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.
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 Ms Harrison in addition.
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.”
Nobody has the right to earn money from any crime but to earn so much from image-based sexual abuse is quite frankly abhorrent.
Ms 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.
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 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.”
Ms 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 Ms 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.
Gemma Rose, for Bear, said there was “already a compensation order in effect which is that civil judgment” from the High Court.
Judge Christopher Morgan said “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, he 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.”
Speaking outside court, Georgia 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”.