17 January 2024 , 15:41
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Calls to the UK's only service for revenge porn victims are thought to have doubled in the months since Stephen Bear was jailed.
The UK Revenge Porn Helpline says it has seen a huge surge in calls and emails over the past year since the disgraced reality TV contestant was found guilty of crimes against Georgia Harrison. Bear, 33, was released from prison today halfway through his 21-month sentence.
Helpline manager Sophie Mortimer told The Mirror the number of calls and emails had "gone up hugely" over the past year. "Obviously, we've only done an initial quick look at the data, but we're looking at a doubling of reports," she said.
"The data will be released at a later date, but it's a significant increase across all the methods people use to get advice from us." Set up seven years ago, the Revenge Porn Helpline supports victims in getting intimate images removed online and helps them seek justice.
Bear on his release from Brixton prison today (PA)Figures from the first nine months of 2023 have already revealed a 31% rise in reports to the Helpline. Data from the CPS shows there were 1,048 offences across 825 cases prosecuted between April 2020 and June 2022, although more recent data is currently unavailable.
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Ms Mortimer said however that while the Bear case had helped improve the narrative around the way Brits view these crimes, the justice system still hasn't caught up. "The police need to be better trained," she added. "We've spent nearly nine years having to get people to go back to the police to explain what the law actually says because sometimes the police don't understand."
Georgia Harrison, who waived her anonymity, has gone on to campaign for improvements in how the justice system prioritises victims of sex crimes (Getty Images)"I've seen one judge recently give a man an absolute discharge after he'd admitted sharing intimate images of a woman without her consent. What is the point? It's quite offensive to victims." The man in question, fireman Jason Drury, walked free from Glasgow Sherriff court earlier this month after sharing a picture of his ex in the bath on her employer's Facebook page.
Meanwhile, some social media platforms were still allowing "harmful, but legal" content on sites which sent a terrible message to potential abusers and victims, Ms Mortimer said. "We reported [Bear's] Twitter account on numerous occasions for the kind of content he has shared on there."
Bear had previously posted several explicit photos and videos on his feed, which remained up throughout his trial although which appear to have since been removed. She added that Twitter, now known as X, remained the only mainstream social media platform which allowed people to share consensual intimate images.
Bear has been released from jail halfway into his 21-month sentence (REX/Shutterstock)"Meta platforms have policies against convicted sex offenders having accounts, but Twitter doesn't. Because of course, he is a convicted sex offender now. When you think that that is a platform which, realistically, children and and do use and it has that kind of content on it, I find that really quite repugnant."
Bear was convicted of two counts of disclosing private images and a charge of voyeurism at Chelmsford Crown Court after posting CCTV of him having sex with Ms Harrison in his garden on a number of sites, including OnlyFans. A judge told him he had clearly "wished to exploit the economic value of the recording", knowing full well he could make a lot of money.
Bear was also later ordered to pay £207,900 plus further damages to Ms Harrison – the largest fine ever given to someone in a case of image-related abuse. Ms Mortimer previously told The Mirror how the impact of a person's sexual images being shared was astronomical, with the internet now being "like Pandora's Box".
"One of our clients has 150 images which have been circulated and they are constantly being re-uploaded and, for her, it just never goes away," she shared. "People download this and it can be forever re-shared."
- Anyone who has been the victim of image-based abuse can contact the Revenge Porn Helpline on 0345 6000 459.