Georgia Harrison on her fight against revenge porn: ‘I hope he has a nice life’
Georgia Harrison is smartly dressed in a pink boucle jacket and a white blouse buttoned up at the collar, hair swept off her face in a slick, smart ponytail. But as soon as she gets off the Zoom call, she’ll change into a Tinkerbell costume for early Halloween celebrations – as seen in photographs now shared on Instagram.
This is the fun, carefree woman the reality star and influencer used to be, before her ex, Stephen Bear, almost ruined her life.
It has been seven months since he was jailed for sharing CCTV footage of them having sex, recorded without her knowledge, and it finally “feels like the fog has lifted… I’m falling in love with the magic of life again”.
Harrison, 28, is a former The Only Way Is Essex and Love Island star. Now, she is a well-known activist following her high-profile ordeal, which she details in her new memoir, Taking Back My Power.
It began in August 2020, after she slept with Bear. While he told her afterwards about the footage and assured her it would remain private, there was a nagging doubt. She started to hear stories that people had seen it, and then received screenshots.
This was the hardest period of her life, she says, as she waited in limbo for the inevitable. When the footage did go viral, first through Bear’s OnlyFans account and then picked up by Pornhub, she says she was almost relieved.
“I was living in fear and I was imagining these situations… all these people are going to judge me, my friends and family are going to be so disappointed,” she explained.
“I think when it actually did go viral and everyone knew about it, it was almost like a weight lifted – to be able to have the conversations with my friends and family… and then also the police and people that could actually help me.
“I think I really needed to have those conversations to understand I had nothing to be ashamed of.”
‘I had no option but to go to the police’
Harrison’s influencing career crumbled as brands she worked with quickly dropped her.
It is hard to overstate the shame, embarrassment and fear she felt, she says – knowing how many people had viewed the footage or were searching for the “sex tape”.
But she never had any hesitation about going to the police or doing everything in her power to put a stop to it.
She even asked her Instagram followers to help her collate evidence, publicly waiving her right to anonymity as a victim of a sexual offence.
“As soon as I realised the scale of how many porn websites it was on and also the fact that he directly sold it himself on a verified account, I was like, absolutely there’s no other option now to just go to the police and face this head-on,” she said.
During Bear’s trial in 2022, his Twitter account shared a half-price deal for his adult entertainment website alongside a photo of him arriving at court accompanied by his girlfriend.
The image showed him walking from a hired chauffeur-driven white Rolls Royce to the court building, with the accompanying text reading: “50% off my adult site for the next 24 hours. Come see why I’m trending.”
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Stephen Bear takes selfie and sings before being jailed
‘It was really demoralising’
Harrison describes his behaviour as “appalling”. But it showed the real Stephen Bear, she adds.
“He was arrogant, he was rude, he was dismissive,” she says. “He treated women outside [the court], especially the reporters, like they were completely insignificant. And that is him. So if anything, it was nice for the public to be able to see what I was dealing with in reality.”
She had to relive her ordeal in court, verifying photos of the footage that were shown to jurors.
“You feel really exposed, having to go through, one at a time, pictures of you in different sexual positions you had no idea anyone would ever see you in,” she says.
“It was really, really tough. And it wasn’t just tough for me. I felt embarrassed but I could tell the whole room felt embarrassed, the jury must’ve felt really uncomfortable as well.
“But I knew I had to do it. So it was just like, bite the bullet and push through. It was really demoralising.”
Bear, now 33, was found guilty of voyeurism, and two counts of disclosing private, sexual photographs and films. In March this year, he was sentenced to 21 months in prison.
It was a hugely significant conviction. According to data collated by the women’s charity Refuge earlier this year, of 13,860 intimate image offences recorded by 24 police forces between 1 January 2019 and 31 July 2022, the alleged offender was charged or summonsed in just 4% of cases. A conviction is even less likely.
Changes to the law
Following campaigning by Harrison and others, the government in June announced changes to make it easier to convict those who share revenge porn.
While the act was criminalised in 2015, the new amendments will remove the requirement for prosecutors to prove perpetrators intended to cause distress in order to secure a conviction.
“I still find it hard to comprehend that that actually happened,” she says. “I think it’s going to change conviction rates. I really hope in a year’s time I’m having these discussions and I have statistics to show it’s made a difference.”
She adds: “Because for the girls I speak to, the victims I’ve spoken to in the past, it really has let them down so many times, that clause.”
Harrison now wants online platforms to face tougher consequences for hosting images or footage taken or shared without consent.
She says: “One of the most traumatising things wasn’t even coming to terms with the fact he’d done it to me. It was coming to terms with the fact these powerful platforms – who are making billions of dollars a year and are in such a huge position, where they have a responsibility to be looking after their subscribers or their viewers – were just so ignorant.”
“None of them wanted to answer me,” Harrison says. She received automated responses of “we’ll get back to you in five to six days”.
A spokesperson for OnlyFans said the site took down the video “within 24 hours of being notified, closed the account and aided the prosecution of Stephen Bear”.
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‘It’s not a lot to ask’
Harrison does not have much faith in tech companies but does have faith in the Online Safety Bill, which will place new duties on social media platforms to protect users from harmful content.
For the biggest platforms, failure to protect users could see them face significant fines of up to £18m or 10% of global revenue – potentially billions of pounds – and tech bosses could even face prison in extreme cases.
“I think once that comes into play, they’re going to put more money into compliance,” Harrison says.
She wants social media firms to have employees who can deal with complaints about any form of abuse online.
She explains: “You should be able to speak to a human being who can immediately take the relevant steps to either pause or stop content until it’s further reviewed. It’s not a lot to ask.”
Harrison’s life now is vastly different from the one she had mapped out as a reality star and influencer. She worked with multiple underwear brands before all this, but not now.
“I find it weird there was such a stigma in that industry,” she says. “I definitely think a lot of brands should be looking into the way they do treat women in these situations and also be doing more to empower women, especially when that’s their main clientele. It’s a bit hypocritical.”
But on the flip side, she says she is “really lucky to be opening new doors”. Earlier this month, she received Glamour magazine’s activist of the year award. Last month, she visited Downing Street.
“I think when you go through so much in such a small amount of time, it takes a while to adjust back to everything being happy… not having a fear that things are going to go wrong,” she says.
Georgia Harrison poses for photographers upon arrival at the Glamour Women of the Year Awards 2023 on Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023 in London. (Scott Garfitt/Invision/AP)
What would Harrison say to Bear?
Harrison has her book out and film projects in the pipeline. “I’ve got a few things that are going to show my resilient side, which I don’t think the UK has seen before,” she says.
I’m not sure that’s true, I say. If there is one word to sum up the Georgia Harrison of the past few years, it is probably resilient.
She smiles. “You have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of,” is her message to anyone else suffering in the same way she did, she says.
I ask her what she would say to Bear, should she ever come across him again.
“Nothing,” is the quick response. All she wants is for him to admit to himself, not necessarily even publicly, that he was wrong, and “take steps to rehabilitate himself as a better human being and learn how to respect women, treat women well, and also not break the law in the future”.
Harrison finds her stride: “I believe that every human being who has lost their way in this world should have a chance at rehabilitation and bettering themselves and learning from the mistakes, I just don’t believe every human being has the ability to do it. But hopefully, he does and he goes on to live a nice life – but a moral life.”
Harrison is proud of everything she has achieved and determined to keep being a voice for others who may have suffered similar injustices, but says she needs to still be the old Georgia Harrison, too.
“I’m quite upbeat and comedic, I am a light-hearted person and I feel like those aspects of my personality tend to get a bit drowned out,” she says.
“I’m campaigning or speaking about things that are really important subjects, but also really quite mentally draining and quite tiring. So I’m just trying to figure out getting a balance.”
She wants to help other people, she says again. “And apart from that, I try and keep it sunshine and rainbows.” With that, she grins – telling me she’s eager to get changed into her costume for her Halloween party.
Tinkerbell – the fairy who fixes things.
Taking Back My Power, published by Renegade Books, with eBook and audio also available, is out now.
Fewer police officers are working on unsolved murder cases amid warnings the Metropolitan Police is dangerously stretched.
Five officers from the force are moving from a specialist cold case department investigating the 30-year-old murder of Atek Hussain to instead bolster basic command units.
Mr Hussain, 32, was stabbed in the heart as he returned from work in September 1994. He managed to stagger to his home and tell his family that his attackers were Asian before collapsing.
No charges have ever been brought in the case despite two focused appeals by the police on the 10th and 20th anniversaries of his killing.
Mr Hussain’s daughter Yasmin was 10 when she watched her father die in their family home. She told Sky News she had hoped the Met would launch a renewed appeal on the 30th anniversary of his death this week.
“I waited and waited as September approached, hoping they’d say something but all of the officers I’d been dealing with have either retired or moved on, and it seems nobody knows what to do with me,” she said.
“One person told me to call 101.”
Yasmin Hussain has launched her own appeal for help to find her father’s killers
The Met told Sky News the case is not currently active. However, no unsolved murder investigation is ever closed and Mr Hussain’s case was last reviewed by its Serious Crime Review Group in August.
“Should any new information come to light, it will be assessed accordingly,” it said in a statement.
“In order to better protect the public, including the prevention of future homicides, we are moving some experienced officers from specialist units to bolster BCU (basic command unit) public protection teams to ensure they have the right skills, experience and capacity.
“The MPS (Metropolitan Police Service) continues to maintain a strong capability to investigate cold case homicides. No unsolved homicide is ever closed and all cases remain under review.”
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Clive Driscoll, a former Detective Chief Inspector of the Met Police who finally secured two convictions for the murder of Stephen Lawrence, explains how the forces deal with cold cases.
“Every two years you would review the case to see if there are opportunities. The one that always stands out is forensics opportunities. Forensics moved on while we’ve been talking. So that’s what you would do with a review, you would be looking to see whether or not something has changed from the last time you saw it.”
Mr Driscoll says forces across the country are facing challenges including a shortage of officers and staff, greater scrutiny of the police and an issue with confidence among officers.
Former Met Police DCI Clive Driscoll
“They feel that maybe their job has become harder,” he told Sky News before urging police units to go the extra mile.
“As hard as it may be for a police officer, it can’t be even a slightest comparison of how hard it must be for Mr Hussain’s children who’ve lost their father.”
Recent data shows the annual number of unsolved homicides across Britain has more than doubled since 2010. That is thought to be driven almost entirely by a surge in larger police forces, in particular the Met.
On Wednesday, Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley described the force as “dangerously stretched”, telling an audience at the Police Foundation that a wave of new pressures, a lack of investment, abuse and insults of the police and reduced confidence among officers has left London less safe.
Mr Driscoll warned that failing to properly review unsolved homicides sends a dangerous message.
“We don’t want to send the message out to people that feel they can take the life of a human being and after a certain amount of time ‘oh that’s alright then I’ve got away with it’. The message must always be that if there is an opportunity to affect an arrest, put someone before a court then we will take it. We must always show that we will not forget the victim and also that out there is someone who felt that they can take someone’s life.”
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Atek Hussain had spent the evening working at his family-run restaurant in Croydon before arriving home to Burnels Avenue in East Ham at around 2.35am on 18 September 1994.
Officers believe he had just got out of his blue Vauxhall Cavalier and was walking towards his front door when he was attacked and stabbed in the chest.
In the absence of a renewed public plea from the police, Yasmin Hussain has launched her own appeal for help finding her father’s killers.
If you have information that could help police, call 101 or post @MetCC, or to remain 100% anonymous contact the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111, or visit crimestoppers-uk.org.
UK
Mohamed al Fayed ‘carried Viagra’ and ‘cherry picked’ women from Harrods shop floor, ex-employee claims
A former member of the Harrods management team has told how Mohamed al Fayed would “cherry pick” women from the shop floor.
Speaking to Sky News anonymously, the woman described the billionaire, who died last year aged 94, as “demonic” and said he “controlled everything with fear”.
Lawyers representing 37 alleged victims of sexual abuse at the hands of Fayed branded him a “monster” who was “enabled by a system that pervaded Harrods” at a news conference on Friday.
The former employee of the luxury department store, which the Egyptian businessman took control of in 1985, worked at Harrods at the height of his power.
“We were all told Harrods is the greatest place on Earth – but he controlled everything with fear,” she said.
“The power dynamic was so strong, in the blink of an eye you would lose your career and they would try and destroy you. It was this dark psychological trap and everybody was caught.”
She said she heard stories Fayed, known to staff as “the chairman”, would grope people although she was never a victim herself.
Harrods department store in London. Pic: AP
“The chairman would walk around the store and he would cherry pick people from the shop floor, if you had blond hair and brown eyes you were favoured,” she said.
“He used to say, ‘I want that one up in my office now’. He used to carry Viagra around in his pocket, and people were so scared of his ‘floor walks’ – if you weren’t smiling enough you were in the shit, if you smiled too much you were also in the shit.”
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The ex-employee, who worked at Harrods in her first job after leaving university, said when women were called to Fayed’s office they “couldn’t say no”.
“I would sit her down and I would say I need to let you know what you are walking into,” she said.
“It’s suddenly a pay rise, and you’ll be invited to expensive events and lavished with expensive gifts but really you need to be aware of something.
“I said you will get invited to Park Lane, and parties where there will be lots of rich men, and you would be invited to sleep with people.”
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
She said she was once asked to see Fayed in his lounge-like office where he was wearing his slippers and said: “When are you going to come up and work for me here?”
The woman said she told him she did not want to work there and went back to her normal job.
“Afterwards he would smile at me and was courteous but then I started getting extra money in my pay packet. I went to the pay office and they said it’s a bonus for what you are doing. It didn’t last long but it happened just after he’d asked to meet him.”
The woman said she now feels “really conflicted” as she was “vulnerable too”.
“It was my first job leaving university. It leaves me feeling angry that we put up with things in that generation, that was our norm,” she added.
Harrods has said in a statement it is “utterly appalled” by the allegations of abuse and apologised to Fayed’s alleged victims.
The department store has also set up a page on its website inviting former employees to come forward if they have allegations.
A body has been found in the search for a missing hospital chaplain who starred in a Channel 4 documentary.
Katherine Watson, 50, was last seen in the Heaton Road area of Newcastle, at about 1pm on Thursday and Northumbria Police had become “increasingly concerned” for her welfare.
But after “extensive searches”, the force said a body had been found in the Jesmond Dene area of the city. Although formal identification has yet to take place, “it is believed to be Katherine”, they added.
“Her next of kin have been made aware and are being supported by specially-trained officers,” it said.
“This is an incredibly sad outcome and our thoughts are with Katherine’s loved ones at this difficult time. We will continue to support them in any way we can and we ask that their privacy is respected.”
Also known as Reverend Captain Katie Watson, she joined the army in her late teens, serving in Bosnia in the 1990s and as part of the Royal Military Police.
“Once you have seen genocide first-hand on the streets of a European country, there is nothing left in the world that can faze you after that,” she told the Church Times in 2022, as the Geordie Hospital documentary was first aired on Channel 4.
“I have seen the worst of humanity and I have seen, and continue to see, the very best of it.”
Ms Watson worked at the Newcastle-Upon-Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust for more than 16 years and was made head of chaplaincy in 2020.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Channel 4’s documentary Geordie Hospital was a six-part series that filmed hospital staff through a shift, featuring a cast including porters, surgeons, dental nurses and chaplains.
Speaking about her role in the show, Ms Watson said: “We only have two things to offer, the gifts of time and presence, but we give them whole-heartedly.”
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There was an outpouring of support online for Ms Watson following the news she was missing.
“She baptised our baby boy when he passed away at birth and presided over his funeral,” one person wrote on X. “She’s such a wonderful person who gave us unwavering support through our darkest hours.”
Another said: “The compassion and care you gave me and my family when our mum passed last year was a tremendous blessing and support.”
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