Stephen Bear made £22,000 from sex tape, court hears

Former TV personality Stephen Bear made £22,305 after he uploaded a sex tape without the consent of his ex-partner, a court has heard.

Bear, 34, was jailed for uploading footage of himself and Love Island star Georgia Harrison to OnlyFans.

A Proceeds of Crime Act hearing was told he made considerable profits from subscribers after uploading the video.

The case was adjourned to allow for contribution from Ms Harrison, who is featuring on Love Island All Stars.

Judge Christopher Morgan said the 29-year-old would be asked her opinion on whether she required compensation, before he made a confiscation order for the money.

Ms Harrison, who previously waived her right to anonymity to speak out about the incident, is in the reality TV villa in South Africa.

The judge was told the original video made £1,650.98, but earned considerably more after his number of subscribers increased.

Prosecutor Andrew Bousfield said: "Mr Bear is not a billionaire. He has £60,000 in a house and not much else.

"At this time [he uploaded the video] Mr Bear was pretending to be a billionaire on his Twitter account. His most valuable asset at that time was selling sex videos."

Financial investigator Laura Mackenzie said: "He wasn't a billionaire at all, no. His bank account was overdrawn."

Bear's OnlyFans account had 1,061 subscribers when he uploaded the video on 8 November 2020, Ms Mackenzie added.

This number increased by 822 after a month of the video being published which could be viewed for $9.99 (£7.95), she continued.

Bear, from Loughton, was jailed for 21 months in March 2023 after a jury found him guilty of voyeurism and disclosing private, sexual photographs and films.

He was released from HMP Brixton, in London, earlier this month.

Ms Mackenzie said she calculated the £22,305.46 based on fees paid by viewers and based on the amount of subscribers he gained.

The prosecution said Bear had "refused to provide information he was required to".

"The Twitter billionaire is not prepared to stand in the witness box but instead stays in the dock," Mr Bousfield said.

"What he is really doing is dancing in the shadows here. He is not prepared to show how much he earned from OnlyFans."

Gemma Rose, mitigating, said it was hard to prove what a "regular amount" of subscriber growth Bear would have had in the month after he published the video.

Judge Morgan, however, agreed with the prosecution's calculation.

He said Bear had increased the cost of his subscription fee and how much people had to pay to view the video.

"That is made up from monies obtained from the video payment wall [and] monies obtained from the subscription increase, applying changes in value of money in both," the judge added.

Bear, who was supported by members of his family, appeared in court wearing a black suit.

In an earlier civil case, he was ordered to pay Ms Harrison more than £200,000 in damages, however, the court heard none of that had yet been paid.

His criminal trial heard that although the sex was consensual, Ms Harrison was unaware the footage, shot in Bear's garden, was being shared more widely.

The hearing was adjourned until 4 March.

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