Irish Daily Mirror

REALITY STAR

- BY ASHLEIGH RAINBIRD Diary Editor and LUCY NEEDHAM in Cape Town

After three years of tirelessly campaignin­g for laws to protect other women from becoming victims of sex videos, Georgia Harrison is looking forward to being on Love Island All Stars... for some time off.

By coincidenc­e, two days after she enters the villa near Cape Town in South Africa, her ex, Stephen Bear, will be released from prison.

The former Celebrity Big Brother contestant has served 11 months of his 21-month sentence after he was convicted of voyeurism and sharing images, in a high-profile trial for which brave Georgia waived her anonymity.

In December 2020, Bear posted CCTV footage of the couple having sex, which had been recorded without Georgia’s knowledge, on the Onlyfans website.

The 29-year-old is completely unfazed by his release, due on Wednesday.

She says: “I have confidence in the justice system. There’s restrainin­g orders in place.”

Bear, 33, is bound by a five-year restrainin­g order that prevents him from contacting Georgia, or speaking about her publicly – not that she is concerned by anything he could say about her.

She adds: “It’s kind of irrelevant. I think he can’t say anything about me legally, unless he wants to risk going back to prison. So I don’t worry.

“That’s in my past, what happens with him is his journey. Now my journey hopefully is going in a very fun, exciting, loving new direction.”

While giving evidence at the trial, Georgia had to identify herself in the images that violated her privacy. Bear played the fool by turning up to Chelmsford crown court in Essex wearing silly outfits.

In July, after his sentencing, the High Court ordered him to pay Georgia a record-breaking €220,000.

Georgia has since lobbied UK Parliament to introduce legislatio­n against using sex images as a weapon. It led to the Online Safety Bill being amended to make prosecutio­n easier. But she has no plans to stop, as she is still campaignin­g to make posting footage or images a criminal offence. She has even spoken about pursuing a career in politics.

The former TOWIE star says: “It’s been amazing to feel like I’ve made a big

It’s in my past. Now my journey is hopefully going in a very fun direction

difference to society, that means so much to me. Obviously, I changed the law, I got to go into Downing Street.

“I’ve taken some large steps within the political sector. I’ve loved that new area of my life, but it can be really drowning, always having to talk about a negative subject.

“This is the last year of my 20s, sometimes I just feel like I lost aspects of my personalit­y slightly where everything I was doing was just always so serious.

“So I feel like it’s going to be so refreshing to have no phone and being in an environmen­t where, for once, I just get to be a 29-year-old, having fun. I feel like I’ve been missing out on that in the last couple

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 ?? ?? SICK Bear during his trial
SUN TIME Posing for Love Island photograph
SICK Bear during his trial SUN TIME Posing for Love Island photograph
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On BBC with Laura Keunssberg last March
CHAT On BBC with Laura Keunssberg last March

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