Stephen Bear court updates as disgraced Celebrity Big Brother winner in court again days after release from prison

In his judgement on the planning matter, Judge Morgan told Bear: “You are entitled to take measures to protect your house, but that must be done lawfully. I have little doubt that if you were not pressed by your circumstances at the time, you would have sought advice and not placed yourself in that situation.”

Prosecuting, Andrew Bousfield said that Georgia Harrison’s view on whether a simple confiscation order is made would be agreeable to her, instead of a confiscation order and another compensation order alongside it, should be sought. Mr Bousfield says Georgia cannot be contacted by her team at present due to her filming the latest series of Love Island All Stars.

Mr Bousfield said Bear “clearly doesn’t want a single penny to go to Georgia Harrison.”

We’re now moving on following the summary of the planning dispute. It is now to be decided if a compensation and confiscation order will indeed be granted by Judge Morgan.

Gemma Rose has made the argument that another compensation order by the court would not make sense given she has a civil damages judgement already “which she can enforce”.

Mitigation for Bear has said he was being “hounded” at the time of the fence being present, saying his address was leaked online “for the purpose of him being hounded”. The court has heard that Bear was allegedly targeted by crooks who tried to break into his home, including one who “broke the handle off” his back door.

Nails were also placed in the tyres of his mother’s vehicle, it has been said.

The court is now hearing about a planning dispute regarding a fence around Bear’s house. Regarding the planning dispute with Epping Forest District Council, the court has heard the complaint was first made about the fence around Bear’s house in November 2020.

By March 2021 it was still there when officers returned, and enforcement action was taken in May that year. The time for compliance was until August 2021, and this wasn’t met, with planning officers returning in January 2022 to find it still there.

Bear initially claimed he “didn’t know” about the enforcement, before changing his plea in November 2023.

Judge Morgan has said there were around 600 new subscribers to Bear’s account since the video of himself and Georgia was uploaded. He said: “It’s my judgement then and it is now that before the material was closed down, the defendant upped his subscription fees to maximise from the profit.”

For the first time, there is acknowledgement from Stephen Bear that he uploaded the video of himself and Georgia Harrison to his OnlyFans account. In his summary, Judge Morgan says Bear “accepts there was a benefit” from sharing the video to his subscribers.

Judge Morgan has begun his summary of the case and will rule how much Stephen Bear must pay shortly.

Essex Live reported last year that Bear, previously of Bryony Close in Loughton, was found guilty of voyeurism, disclosing private sexual images without consent and breach of bail conditions. The former Celebrity Big Brother winner had uploaded a sex tape of himself and fellow reality TV star Georgia Harrison to his OnlyFans account without her consent.

A civil claim at the High Court in London today (July 26) ended with Bear being forced to pay £207,900 in damages, including special damages, to Ms Harrison. It is the highest sum to be awarded in an image abuse case and one of the highest awards of all time in a privacy claim arising from a single act.

Read more by clicking here.

Judge Morgan makes the point of Bear sharing “trailers” for his videos on Twitter – now known as X – encouraging more people to view them. He said: “By sending out the trailers, he’s saying ‘if you want more, you can subscribe to the sites’.”

But Gemma Rose says there are too many questions arising from the investigation for the confiscation figure to be fair. She said: “There are too many unknowns in my submission to obtain what was made from particular criminal conduct.”

She continued: “We need to ensure this is far on the defendant from a lack of information.”

Stephen Bear changed his story about the selling of his house while he was in prison, the prosecution has said.

They said: “He said he sold his house to pay civil charges to Miss Harrison. But he hasn’t paid a penny. He released a statement from prison saying he sold the house and he’s wanting to pay for an appeal.”

Gemma Rose has defended the lack of evidence provided by Stephen Bear to show the money he made from OnlyFans. She said: “Mr Bear’s account was deactivated on December 8, 2020. He has had no access to the account since then.

“He doesn’t have access to the documents the Crown say are available to him. We have no information from OnlyFans, we rely on the limited amount of evidence the Crown has already.”

The prosecution have said Stephen Bear has tried to “pick holes” in their case but “refused to provide information he was required to by the restraint order.” They continued: “He hasn’t given evidence himself – a Twitter billionaire doesn’t want to stand in the witness box but stay in the dock.”

Laura Mackenzie is now being questioned by Bear’s barrister, Gemma Rose. Ms Rose is questioning why Ms Mackenzie included the increase in subscribers in her calculations before Georgia Harrison became aware of the video on December 1. Ms Rose said: “You have taken the percentage of increase in subscribers. But the reality is once someone has subscribed they don’t have to pay for any other content?”

Ms Mackenzie responded: “I’m not a user of OnlyFans, I don’t know.”

Ms Rose said: “But is there a difference in what he received for subscription fees than specific content?” Ms Mackenzie said: “Yes they are separate.”

Ms Mackenzie tells the court the process of calculating her figures has been “frustrating” due to the lack of information provided by OnlyFans. She also adds that Stephen Bear has provided “no evidence whatsoever” to show the money he made from the site.

Stephen Bear has shown very little emotion so far in the hearing. When asked to identify himself on arrival in the dock he said “Stephen Bear, yes” before sitting passively and sipping water.

We’re now hearing from Financial Investigator Laura Mackenzie, from Essex Police’s Economic Crime Unit, who investigated Bear’s finances. She is in the witness box describing the content of Bear’s OnlyFans account, the videos on it, and how people earn money from it.

Ms Mackenzie said the video of Bear and Georgia Harrison was put on his OnlyFans account on November 8, 2020. She said the account was charging $9.99 for followers to view the video, with 273 subscribers paying the fee to view it. Regarding new subscribers, Ms Mackenzie said: “There are a total of 822 new subscribers making the total 1,183. That is by December 8, 2020. Ms Harrison became aware of it in early December and it started to go viral.”

Ms Mackenzie said she calculated the profits from the specific video of Bear and Georgia Harrison to be £1,650.98, via the increase in subscribers, people who had paid for the video, and the amount of new subscribers gained, which she says was up 48 per cent. She said the total amount for the confiscation order by the prosecution came to £22,305.46.

Stephen Bear allegedly has just “£60,000 in a house”, according to the prosecution. They told the court: “Mr Bear is not a billionaire. He has £60,000 in a house and little else. The money has been bouncing around and has been moving around his family and has been divided and moved around from mother to brother to father.

“We don’t want proceedings to be defeated by Mr Bear moving money around. He issued a statement saying it was [when] he was in prison, it wasn’t me.”

The hearing has begun by outlining the position the case is in. Judge Christopher Morgan has said there is a “real complication” at present due to the civil ruling in the High Court where Georgia Harrison, Bear’s victim, was awarded £200,000 in compensation.

The prosecution has said Georgia’s civil lawyers have said she would like to retrieve the money through the criminal justice system, as Bear has been “ignoring” all correspondence with the civil lawyers, with no enforcement action being taken so far.

Georgia Harrison is not present today, as she is on the latest series of Love Island All Stars on ITV.

Hello all, Chief Reporter Ellis Whitehouse here. We’re set up in the courtroom now, awaiting Stephen Bear’s hearing to be called on. It is due to begin at 10.15am.

A police chief has said he “understands the concern” about sex offender Stephen Bear being released halfway through his jail sentence, but said he is “proud” of how the police managed to get him behind bars. Disgraced reality TV star Bear, 34, from Loughton was jailed in March last year for sharing a video of himself and former partner Georgia Harrison having sex without consent.

Bear, who won Celebrity Big Brother in 2016, then uploaded the video to his OnlyFans account. The pair were captured having sex on CCTV cameras in Bear’s garden on August 2 2020. Ms Harrison, who has appeared on The Only Way Is Essex, Love Island and Olivia Meets Her Match, waived her right to anonymity during Bear’s trial in December 2022, where he was convicted of disclosing private sexual images and voyeurism.

Read more by clicking here.

Disgraced reality TV star Stephen Bear has said he cried himself to sleep following his release from prison last week. Speaking to the Mirror, he said he had been readjusting to life in the outside world after “losing everything” when he was found guilty of voyeurism and two counts of disclosing private, sexual photographs and films with Love Island star Georgia Harrison.

Bear, 34, shared images and videos on his OnlyFans page without the consent of Georgia – who waived her right to anonymity. He was sentenced to 22 months behind bars and was ordered to sign the sex offenders register and pay Georgia the sum of £200,000 – the highest sum awarded in an image abuse case. But following his release, he’s shared an insight into his mindset.

You can read more by clicking here.

Photos of when Bear was released from prison on January 17 showed the disgraced reality TV star sporting a beard. Carrying his belongings in two black bags, Bear, 33, was jailed last March for sharing a private video of him having sex with his ex-girlfriend Georgia Harrison on his OnlyFans website.

The 33-year-old, who won Celebrity Big Brother in 2016, and 28-year-old Ms Harrison were captured having sex on CCTV cameras in Bear’s garden on August 2 2020. Ms Harrison, who has appeared on The Only Way Is Essex, Love Island and Olivia Meets Her Match, has waived her right to anonymity.

You can see all the photos of Bear leaving prison by clicking here.

Good morning and welcome to our live blog. We will be bringing you all the updates live from today’s court hearing. Stephen Bear is due to appear in court again for a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing.

He was convicted of disclosing private sexual images and voyeurism in December 2022, and jailed in March 2023. He has just been released from prison on January 17.

Bear, 34, from Loughton, was slapped with 21 months behind bars after he uploaded a sex tape he filmed with former TOWIE star Georgia Harrison, without her consent, to his OnlyFans page. The disgraced TV personality filmed the clip on a CCTV camera and shared it on WhatsApp and then OnlyFans a few months later.

Following his release from prison at the halfway point of his sentence last week, Bear now faces a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing at Chelmsford Crown Court. The Proceeds of Crime Act process is to determine how much a defendant should pay under a confiscation order, and if no agreement can be reached, a hearing will be held in court with a judge ruling how much they should pay.

Stay with us as Chief Reporter Ellis Whitehouse brings all the updates live from court.