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Topics: News, True Crime
Lucy Devine
Georgia Harrison has revealed that she only realised footage of her having sex with ex boyfriend Stephen Bear had been released when someone contacted her online.
Take a listen to what she had to say below:
Bear, 32, appeared at Chelmsford Crown Court on Tuesday, where the jury gave unanimous verdicts on the two counts of disclosing private sexual images and a majority verdict of 10-2 on the count of voyeurism.
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The verdict arrives after Georgia, 27 — who has waived her right to anonymity — accused Bear of covertly filming them having sex when they were in a relationship and showing the tape to his friends.
In a new interview this week, the former Love Island contestant explained she had been sent a screengrab of the video from someone in America, adding: "That was when the world fell beneath my feet and I knew it had gone global."
Georgia explained she then reached out to her followers to see if they could help.
"I reached out to my followers because I was fed up of living with this and not knowing where it was coming from," she said.
"Saying, if anyone has seen some sort of a video could they please send some evidence over to an email address, which at the time was my mum's because she was my manager.
"We had 100 different videos from all different platforms, it was on multiple platforms across the internet.
"As soon as I let it be known that I was looking for some sort of evidence, it just spread like wildfire."
Bear was arrested in January 2021 but has been out on bail since. He will be sentenced in Chelmsford Crown Court on 31 January next year.
Georgia, who rose to fame on Love Island, told the court that she had never consented to being recorded while she had consensual sex with Bear and that she hadn’t given permission for it to be shared online.
Following the decision, she shared a powerful statement in which she described the past two years as 'absolute hell'.
"The only way to describe how I am feeling now is relieved," she said.
"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.
"Bear’s behaviour was completely unacceptable and those who choose to commit such crimes should and will be prosecuted."
She added: "We are living in a time where so much of our lives and our children’s lives are spent online and it is so important that individuals are protected in the virtual world just as they are in reality.
"Social media has given us the egalitarian belief that we are all publishers but what it hasn’t done is regulate what we should responsibly publish.
"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.
"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.
"I want to take the time to thank the Essex police force (especially Brian Sitch) and also Michelle Roycroft who have been such a huge support to me throughout and have worked tirelessly for two years to get to this point.
"I also want to thank my KC Ms Carey, the jury, the judge Christopher Morgan and all of the victim support team at Chelmsford for ensuring justice was served and helping make my experience as comfortable as possible.
"And of course my friends and family for being by my side, especially my mum who I couldn’t have done this without."