Stephen Bear is found GUILTY: Jury convicts reality TV star of sharing video of him having sex with his ex-girlfriend Georgia Harrison on OnlyFans – and could now face up to two years in jail
- Stephen Bear was found guilty of disclosing private sexual photos and films
- He and Georgia Harrison were captured having sex on CCTV in Bear’s garden
- She claims he recorded their encounter without her consent and shared it online
- The star denied all charges but was found guilty by unanimous verdicts today
Reality TV star Stephen Bear has been found guilty of disclosing private sexual photographs and films over a sex video of him and ex-girlfriend Georgia Harrison that was shared on the OnlyFans.
The former Ex on the Beach star and Ms Harrison, 27, were captured having sex on CCTV cameras in Bear’s garden on August 2, 2020, Chelmsford Crown Court heard. He then allegedly shared the footage on the subscription website.
Ms Harrison said she did not know that they were being filmed and told Bear not to share footage when he showed it to her, but she said that he went on to share it on WhatsApp and the online subscription site.
Bear had denied all charges, but today a jury found him guilty by unanimous verdicts of two counts of disclosing private sexual photographs and films with intent to cause distress. He was found guilty by a majority verdict of 10 jurors to two of voyeurism.
The judge bailed Bear until January 31 to return to the same court for sentencing, after a report has been prepared about him. He faces a maximum sentence of two years’ imprisonment.
Jurors have resumed their deliberations in the sex tape trial of reality TV star Stephen Bear at Chelmsford Crown Court. The former Ex on the Beach star is pictured yesterday with his girlfriend Jessica Smith outside Chelmsford Crown Court
Bear and Georgia Harrison , 27, (pictured yesterday outside Chelmsford Crown Court) were captured having sex on CCTV cameras in Bear’s garden on August 2, 2020. He then allegedly shared the footage on subscription website OnlyFans
Bear, who wore a black suit and tie, looked straight ahead as the jury foreman returned the verdicts after more than eight-and-a-half hours of deliberation.
After the guilty verdicts were returned, Bear said in court: ‘My barrister said not to…
‘In my opinion from the very beginning it was never a fair trial, what the press said against me.
‘I was fighting a losing battle and it is what it is.’
Judge Christopher Morgan told the defendant: ‘Thank you for that observation.’
Ms Harrison appeared to breath a sigh of relief as the guilty verdicts were returned.
She said, in a statement released through police, that the ‘last two years have been absolute hell and this verdict will allow me to start to put the pain I have suffered in the past and start embracing the future’.
‘I hope me taking a stand gives other men and women who have fallen victim to revenge porn the courage to seek justice and most importantly show them that they have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of,’ she said.
‘I have felt ashamed, hurt, violated, even broken at times but today I stand here feeling empowered, grateful and a huge sense of unity with all of those who have reached out to support me throughout this ordeal.’
The judge bailed Bear (pictured yesterday with Jessica Smith) until January 31 to return to the same court for sentencing, after a report has been prepared about him
Ms Harrison told the trial she met Bear in 2012 and the two went on the reality show The Challenge in 2018, where they began a relationship. The pair are pictured together in 2019
The prosecution said that the sex at Bear’s home was consensual but that Ms Harrison, who waived her right to anonymity, did not know that they were being recorded.
The complainant said she saw Bear send the footage to someone on WhatsApp later that day, and that later that year she was made aware that it was circulating online.
Ms Harrison – who has appeared on The Only Way Is Essex, Love Island and Olivia Meets Her Match – said that when Bear showed her the footage she told him ‘never to send’ it to anyone and ‘made it plain how upset she would be if he did’.
Prosecutor Jacqueline Carey KC said that Bear uploaded the footage ‘either himself or had it uploaded to OnlyFans and profited financially’.
Bear, who won Celebrity Big Brother in 2016, claims he deleted the footage and did not send it to others.
He previously told the trial he ‘thought it was funny’ that the cameras had captured himself and Ms Harrison having sex.
‘We played it on the monitor screen,’ he said. ‘She asked for a copy of it.
‘I said ‘of course I will send you a copy’, it was 20 minutes long.’
Bear said that Ms Harrison ‘told me to delete the footage, which I did’.
‘Why would I want that on my phone?’
He said his ‘intention’ that day ‘was to catch up with a friend – sex was a bonus and the footage was quite funny to watch back’.
He described Ms Harrison’s allegation that she saw him send the footage to someone on WhatsApp that evening as a ‘complete lie’.
Bear (pictured at Chelmsford Crown Court on December 8), who won Celebrity Big Brother in 2016, claims he deleted the footage and did not send it to others
During his police interview, Bear had claimed Ms Harrison laughed about the sex video when he showed it to her in the garden and said he ‘put in a good performance’.
He told officers she had shared it with her friends and told them: ‘I said ‘F****** hell, babe, look at that, I’ve got it on camera.’
‘It turned her on, she was horny, she just laughed about it, it’s funny.’
Bear made repeated claims that his Instagram had been hacked but answered only ‘No comment’ when police asked him specific questions.
Ms Harrison’s mother and manager, Nicola Harrison, gave evidence during the trial and said her daughter was ‘tearful’ and ‘crying’ when she phoned her the day after being filmed.
She said Ms Harrison told her not to worry as Bear had promised he would delete the video.
Nicola told jurors: ‘She said he sent the video to someone in front of her and she asked him to delete it. She thought it had reached the end of it – she said ‘Don’t worry, he has deleted it.’
‘She said people were contacting her and saying they had seen the video and some people contacted her from America. She said it must be online and it was not just people showing it.’
As her manager, Nicola had access to her daughter’s Instagram account and said that after a request for information her daughter posted in December 2020 she saw 20 replies, one of which sent her a screenshot of the video.
She said she then went onto Bear’s OnlyFans page, paid 15 dollars and saw the video but did not watch it, adding: ‘It is something I would never, ever want to see.’
When asked about footage being uploaded to OnlyFans, Bear told his trial: ‘I don’t know of any video being uploaded.
‘All I know is a 20-minute video I had at the time. I don’t know of any other video that’s been uploaded.’
He also said he had never changed his subscription price on his OnlyFans account, which was deactivated in December 2020.
During his trial, Bear’s Twitter account posted a ‘50% off’ deal for his adult entertainment website alongside a photo of him arriving at court accompanied by his girlfriend Jessica Smith.
The photo showed him walking from a hired chauffeur-driven white Rolls Royce to the court building, and the accompanying text said, in block capitals: ‘50% off my adult site for the next 24 hours.
‘Come see why I’m trending.’
Giving evidence, Bear had described himself as ‘like the jack-of-all trades’ who was a labourer and did roofing before doing some ‘TV work’.
He added: ‘Now I do a bit of adult entertainment because my TV work has been on hold for two years because of this case.’
Bear (pictured on Dec. 6) denied all charges, but today a jury found him guilty by unanimous verdicts of two counts of disclosing private sexual photographs and films with intent to cause distress. He was found guilty by a majority verdict of 10 jurors to two of voyeurism
Ms Harrison (left, at Chelmsford Crown Court earlier this month) says she never gave consent for the video to be shared and is seeking civil compensation alongside a criminal trial. She said she discovered the video was online in December 2020, and had to hire someone to remove it from porn sites
Ms Harrison told the trial she met Bear in 2012 and the two went on the reality show The Challenge in 2018, where they began a relationship.
She said: ‘We spent 24 hours a day together for six weeks and you could say it was casual but it was pretty intense as well.’
Describing how the relationship broke down, she said: ‘He slept with someone else in our hotel room and locked me out of it.’
Giving evidence last week at Chelmsford Crown Court, Ms Harrison said he also kissed one of her friends after a clothing event she held.
She said: ‘I heard he kissed my friend at his house but I got over that straight away. I had a lot of love for Stephen Bear when we were filming together but he is not someone I wanted a relationship with in the real world.
‘I was upset by the way he disrespected me and I had been there for him and he kissed another girl who was my friend. It was a bit embarrassing because it was my clothing launch.’
Last week, during her closing speech to the jury, Jacqueline Carey KC said Bear bragged from the witness stand about sleeping with Lauren Goodger and other models.
She said: ‘He broadcast their private sexual lives in open court and gave no thought to their privacy at all.
‘If it gets him fame, money, notoriety or trending on Twitter he will say whatever he wants, he will do whatever he wants and distribute whatever he wants.
‘The prosecution are not asking you to convict Stephen Bear because he sleeps with women and doesn’t call them back.
‘As ungentlemanly as it is, that is not what he is charged with.
‘He is not charged with being a self-obsessed show-off. The prosecution are asking you to convict him because the evidence proves he is guilty.’
He told a court he deleted a video of himself having sex with his ex-girlfriend Georgia Harrison (pictured on December 6) in his garden, caught on his CCTV cameras, when she asked him to the same day
During the trial at Chelmsford Crown Court, jurors heard how Bear earned £40,000 from OnlyFans and more than £2,000 from the sex tape with Ms Harrison.
Ms Carey told jurors that Bear upped his OnlyFans subscription price after it began to attract attention from people talking about the video online, increasing it from seven to 50 dollars before logging in 90 minutes later to reduce it to 20.
She said: ‘The suggestion that his account was hacked at all is palpable nonsense. He was the only person who had access by December 7.
‘And he was the only one to profit from the subscription hike. By December 7 the rumour mill was going.
‘He was getting traction on social media, a lot of people were looking at him. That is why he put the price up, so he could make a quick buck.’
Gemma Rose, defending Bear, told the jury: ‘You may not agree with Mr Bear’s views or his work online but this is not a court of morals. You must judge the case on the evidence that is put before you.
‘He has tried to assist the best he can in the circumstances. You may think, what more can he do? Mr Bear cannot give you the magic answers.
‘He received around £40,000 from OnlyFans but in respect of that video OnlyFans state the payment was 2,000 dollars.
‘What motivation is there to upload that video when clearly he made money from other content? You cannot be sure that Mr Bear uploaded that video or instructed anyone to upload it.’
Ms Harrison said after the video was shared online ‘I was in the worst state of my life.’
‘I can’t explain the shame I felt. I did not want to leave my room. Instead of apologising, he put his subscription price up from £25 to £50,’ she told the court.
‘If he did it or not, which I believe he did, that is no way to act. It is brazen and he knows what he has done.’
The defendant, wearing a black suit and pink shirt and tie, took several deep breaths as he walked from the dock to the witness stand to give his evidence on December 8
Bear exited a Rolls Royce with cane, cigar and animal print coat yesterday morning (pictured)
The alleged offences are said to have taken place in August 2020 and in November 2020. Bear was arrested after returning from Dubai in January 2021.
Ms Carey said that he spent five minutes in the toilet of the aeroplane before being taken into police custody.
Officers searching his suitcase and another bearing his brother’s name, Robert Bear, said they could not find a phone or any other electronic device.
Bear denied travelling with his brother and during a search at the police station officers found a sim card key in his joggers.
He also claimed to police that his Instagram account had been hacked but he was unwilling to answer any specific questions and his phone has never been recovered since his arrest.
His mother Linda Bear, who was called as a character witness during the trial, told the court that he is a ‘lovely boy’.
She described her son as a ‘bit of a showman really’, but said that at home he was ‘a really private person’.
The witness added: ‘I know I’m his mum but he’s a lovely boy, he’s fun, enthusiastic, he loves his mum and dad, he loves his family.’
Asked by the prosecutor if she was aware that Bear had shared ‘photos of himself masturbating in the shower to make money’ online, Mrs Bear replied ‘no’.
She said she knew he had had ‘a few girlfriends’, adding: ‘And as far as I’m aware he’s treated them very well.’
How reality TV star who arrived at court in a white Rolls Royce flourishing a gold cane has never strayed far from controversy
By Paul Thompson for MailOnline
Stephen Bear has never been far from controversy from the moment he swaggered onto TV screens 11 years ago.
But aside from his on-screen antics, designer-clad jack-the-lad Bear’s varied love life has ensured him more than his share of publicity, mainly due to a string of glamorous partners, who rarely hang around long due to his serial cheating.
His biggest claim to fame was winning 2016 Celebrity Big Brother which allowed him to cash in on his fame to the tune of £1m with personal appearances and even a biography.
In recent years, his TV career has been largely on the slide and he turned instead to porn site OnlyFans to make his money.
While awaiting trial Bear also posted a clip to his site depicting a sex act with his current girlfriend Jessica Lily Smith. She has been ever present by his side during his trial at Chelmsford Crown Court, as he arrives in a white Rolls Royce, (pictured) dressed in a variety of gaudy suits and coats, flourishing a gold or silver cane
His own defence barrister Gemma Rose certainly didn’t sound like much of a fan when she told the jury: ‘You may not agree with Mr Bear’s views or his work online but this is not a court of morals.’
Bear impressed the producers of a show called Shipwrecked in 2011 with his good looks and brash cockney geezer persona, but there was nothing loveable about Bear.
Contestants were stranded on a desert island and had to fend for themselves with Bear’s nasty streak showing itself during one episode when he threatened another contestant who he believed had taken his food ration.
Heavily-tattooed Bear’s appearance didn’t lead to much TV work and he disappeared from view.
But in 2015 he was chosen to appear in the reality series Ex-On the Beach where he starred alongside his ex-girlfriend Connie Wiltshire.
During the MTV show he hooked up with Vicky Pattison.
Their romance didn’t last and Pattison, who would go on to win I’m A Celebrity, accused Bear of using her fame to get on Celebrity Big Brother.
Pattison’s withering assessment of her own Ex left little room for doubt: ‘He’s literally been the most vile, horrendous, snaky, conniving and manipulative person I have ever met.
Bear claimed the short clip with Ms Smith had earned him tens of thousands of pounds and he boasted that he was buying a club in Las Vegas although that has not materialised. The pair are pictured together last week
During the MTV show he hooked up with Vicky Pattison (pictured with Bear in 2015). Their romance didn’t last and Pattison, who would go on to win I’m A Celebrity, accused Bear of using her fame to get on Celebrity Big Brother
‘I’m truly shocked that I’ve allowed myself to get so taken in – but there you go. Love is blind, or in my case, blind, deaf, stupid.’
Nevertheless, the series proved to Bear’s launching pad and he went on to win the show in 2016.
He beat a host of well-known names to win the reality show which featured his X-rated antics with Playboy bunny and X-Factor reject Chole Khan as they licked chocolate of each other’s bodies.
Bear landed another show called ‘Just the Tattoo of Us’ alongside former Geordie Shore regular Charlotte Crosby.
The pair became an item off camera but Bear had to pretend to producers he was single when he landed a place on Celebs Go Dating.
As with most of his romances the relationship with Crosby lasted a matter of months and they split after several public spats.
Further work followed in the shape of three versions of ITV reality show ‘The Challenge.’
Bolstered by his new-found fame Bear released an autobiography called Bear’s Necessities: A Simple Guide to Life.
The book mostly gave advice on how people could become reality stars.
Its tag line read: ‘The School of Life has a new headmaster and Stephen Bear is going to teach you all you need to know to become the next reality TV sensation. Whether it’s how to wind people up, how or find yourself on the cover of Hello or OK Magazine, even how to land your own show, Bear’s Necessities has got it covered.’
The book rated a surprising 4 stars out of 5 on Amazon, but some of those 20-odd reviews are suspiciously brief.
One-star reviewer Helen, who spent 15p on the book in a charity shop, did not mince her words, telling prospective purchasers: ‘The person this book is about is a vile human being, you only need to read a small amount about him online to see what sort of person he is.
‘If narcissistic, mysoginistic, compulsive liars that treat women like absolute dirt is your thing, then by all means go ahead and have a read. Absolute sicko.
‘Current behaviour clearly demonstrates that. It nearly made my eyes bleed. It’s gone straight in the bin as I wouldn’t want to be responsible for anyone else having to endure this absolute drivel.’
Bear’s love life has centered around other reality stars. Apart from Crosby and Pattison he has been linked to inked glamour model Jemma Lucy and fashion influencer Ellie O’Donnell.
It was his relationship with former Love Islander Georgia Harrison – who he met on ‘The Challenge’ – that has led to the current trial after [allegedly] posting a video – without her consent – of them having sex.
Since 2020, Bear’s TV work has dried up because, according to insiders, he’s too unreliable. Instead, turned to posting explicit sex content on his OnlyFans site where he described himself as the ‘baddest guy you would ever meet’.
When giving evidence, Ms Harrison –waiving her anonymity – said Bear had ‘hung her on a wall naked for millions of people to see.’
She revealed their relationship was ‘casual but intense’ during the filming of The Challenge. She claimed he had told her he ‘loved her’ but the pair fell out when he slept with another person.
She became tearful recalling when she found out the video of them having sex was being shared. Learning he had [allegedly] shared the video on WhatsApp, she said: ‘He said he loved me and would never do this to me and at the time he had a promising career in TV and I believed him. But looking back I was an absolute idiot.’
Ms Harrison, who has appeared on Love Island and The Only Way is Essex, said she never gave consent for the video – captured secretly on CCTV – to be shared and is also seeking civil compensation alongside a criminal trial.
While awaiting trial Bear also posted a clip to his site depicting a sex act with his current girlfriend Jessica Lily Smith. She has been ever present by his side during his trial at Chelmsford Crown Court, as he arrives in a white Rolls Royce, dressed in a variety of gaudy suits and coats, flourishing a gold or silver cane.
Bear claimed the short clip with Ms Smith had earned him tens of thousands of pounds and he boasted that he was buying a club in Las Vegas although that has not materialised.
In her closing speech, prosecutor Jacqueline Carey KC delivered a damning assessment of Bear, telling the jury: ‘If it gets him fame, money, notoriety or trending on Twitter he will say whatever he wants, he will do whatever he wants and distribute whatever he wants.’
She added: ‘We are not asking you to convict Stephen Bear because he sleeps with women and doesn’t call them back. As ungentlemanly as it is, that is not what he is charged with.
‘He is not charged with being a self-obsessed show-off.’
After all, if that were a crime, reality TV might have to dream up a new title – The Only Way is Wandsworth?
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