Disgraced TV personality Stephen Bear has been ordered by a judge to pay his ex, Georgia Harrison, more than £200,000 in damages after leaking a ‘revenge porn’ video.
The 33-year-old filmed himself and Georgia engaged in sexual intercourse on CCTV without her permission before leaking the tape on Only Fans, with the video then ‘circulating globally and on other porn sites.’
The court heard how the reality TV star also sent the video to his friends despite Georgia insisting for it to be deleted.
Georgia bravely decided to waive her lifelong anonymity in the case, leading to a successful campaign for tougher punishments in ‘revenge porn cases’ where explicit videos and images are deliberately leaked.
Stephen, who was jailed for 21 months and has now been ordered to pay Georgia a total of £207,000, after a judge ruled he had ‘deeply violated her privacy.’
At the High Court in London today, 26 July, Georgia was awarded the damages and an injunction, meaning he cannot use the video again.
The payout is the highest sum to be awarded in an image abuse case and one of the highest awards of all time in a privacy cases.
Georgia told the court how she felt “violated and used” during the ordeal, adding that her sex tape being leaked was her “worst nightmare.”
Judge Master Victoria Cloud accused Stephen of trying to ‘gaslight’ the 28-year-old by ‘trying to convince her that she was responsible for posting the video online.’
She said: “This is a gross act of violation by a man towards a woman through the medium of the internet. A more appropriate term is ‘image-based abuse.’
"Pornography is generally actually something done consensually. It was consensual sex but it certainly wasn’t consensual filming, and it was deeply violating.”
The judge also noted that Stephen had appeared to have used the incident as a way of launching his own porn career in the time before he was sentenced.
He claims to have made a fortune from various businesses as well as his explicit Only Fans page where he posted sexual content with his fiancée Jessica Smith.
Georgia’s lawyer Gervase de Wilde told the court how Bear has been trying to ‘ignore court proceedings’ while attempting to sell one of his properties through a company promising a “quick sale.”
She accused Stephen of being “completely unrepentant” and “brazen,” offering Georgia “no apology.”
She added: “The only activity he had undertaken is to attempt to dissipate assets, being more focused on the consequences of this claim than actually engaging with the substance.”
Georgia responded to the ruling, pledging to donate part of the money to 'charities that have helped support her and other victims of image-based sexual abuse.'
She said: “I couldn’t be more thankful to everyone who has helped support my civil clam, which after almost 3 years has finally been settled.
"it’s no secret that Payne Hicks Beach is one of the most sought-after and respected legal teams in the UK, so it was a real honour to have them support me, especially as I didn’t have the finances necessary to afford a legal team at the time.
"They have been true heroes on my journey to justice, and I will forever be in awe of how talented they are. Once I officially receive the settlement sum, I will be donating part of it to multiple charities that have helped support me and other victims of image-based sexual abuse."
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