By Matthew Lodge and Danya Bazaraa and Greg Heffer
20:46 04 Jan 2024, updated 20:46 04 Jan 2024
Disgraced Big Brother star Stephen Bear has insisted he wants to get his ‘life back on track’ after revealing he will be released from prison this month.
Bear was jailed in March after filming and uploading footage of himself having sex with reality TV star Georgia Harrison on his OnlyFans website without her consent.
The winner of Celebrity Big Brother 2016 had been given 21 months behind bars, but looks set to be released halfway through his sentence on licence.
A source had previously claimed the sex offender would be freed around his birthday on January 15, and now he has seemingly confirmed it in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter).
Posting on the social media site from behind bars, Bear wrote: ‘I will be leaving Brixton prison on the 17th January. Can’t wait to get my life back on track. Who’s excited to see me?’
He also posted a poll asking people whether they ‘couldn’t wait to see’ him or if they would ‘rather watch paint dry’. Nearly 80 per cent of those who responded have chosen the second option.
A source had earlier told The Sun that Bear had ‘served his time’ behind bars and would be let out in ‘the next few weeks’.
‘However, he’s been telling pals he’s not the same man that went into prison,’ they said.
‘There will be no hopping back on to social media or rolling straight back into the nearest nightclub when he gets out, he says he just wants to get back to east London and his family.’
The source said ‘time will tell’ if he has ‘changed’.
Bear was jailed in March after being convicted of voyeurism, disclosing private, sexual photographs and films with intent to cause distress, and harassment without violence.
According to the Sun, his girlfriend Jessica Smith dumped him in September, after vowing to stand by him while he was in jail. Bear was said to be heartbroken by the split.
Meanwhile, in October Georgia Harrison demanded abuse cases are given priority in courts as she appeared on stage at Labour’s conference in Liverpool.
The former star of reality shows The Only Way Is Essex and Love Island spoke of her long wait for justice.
She said it took two years from the day she reported the crime for Bear to be convicted and warned about the impact of long legal processes on victims of other crimes, such as rape and domestic abuse.
The 28-year-old said she now has an ‘onslaught’ of women reaching out to her for help on social media following her high-profile case.
She also called for ‘massive online platforms’ to be required to take down sexually explicit content which had been posted without consent.
Speaking on a panel on the main stage of Labour’s conference, Ms Harrison said it was ‘really important that victims feel they are going to be taken seriously when they’re going to the police’.
‘I speak to a lot of girls who just feel like they weren’t taken seriously or no one really understood when they did go to the police,’ she added.
‘One thing I wanted to highlight from my personal experience is I feel there needs to be more support for victims when they do choose to call the police and go into the court system.
‘For me, from the day I reported the crime, it took me two whole years to get a conviction.’
Ms Harrison spoke of how the two-year legal ordeal she endured was ‘detrimental to my career and my mental health, which was really hard for me’.
She added: ‘But I couldn’t help but think, imagine if you were either a victim of domestic abuse or a sexual assault, if you had been raped.
‘And you get a phone call to say “actually you’re going to have to wait a whole other year to even get inside a court room”.
‘You’ve got to spend the next year of your life walking down the street not knowing if you’re going to get attacked, killed, violated – how would you live with that?
‘It would be so nice if the courts could make sure if it is a victim of sexual assault or domestic abuse – especially as in a domestic abusive relationship, that amount of time leaves the perpetrator so long to manipulate them to drop the charges – I think those sort of cases should be prioritised and 90 per cent of those victims are women.’
MailOnline has contacted the Ministry Of Justice for comment.
James Parker is a UK-based entertainment aficionado who delves into the glitz and glamour of the entertainment industry. From Hollywood to the West End, he offers readers an insider’s perspective on the world of movies, music, and pop culture.
