Stephen Bear pleaded guilty at Thames Magistrates' Court to five offences over breaches of the sex offenders register. He thanked the magistrates before leaving the dock.
The five admissions covered separate failures tied to his reporting duties after his 2023 conviction. They included a trip to Brazil in January 2025, a return to the UK in April 2026, a replacement passport obtained abroad, and two new bank cards.
2023 conviction for Bear
The register requirements followed his 2023 conviction for voyeurism and two counts of disclosing private sexual photographs and films with intent to cause distress involving Georgia Harrison. He was sentenced to 21 months in prison and placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years after that case.
Bear had already served half of his sentence before his release. The new guilty pleas extend the legal consequences of the earlier case by turning missed notifications into fresh offences of their own.
January 2025 travel trip
Bear's defence said he had not realised he needed to notify police within the relevant timeframe when he came back from Brazil. His solicitor said he had also needed replacement bank cards after his account was blocked while he was overseas, and later obtained a new passport after losing his travel documents.
That explanation sits alongside the plea itself. Bear admitted the offences even as the defence set out a practical account of why some of the paperwork changed, which leaves the court to decide how much weight to give the explanation at the next stage.
Thames Magistrates' Court return
Bear is due to appear before Chelmsford Crown Court over a separate case concerning an alleged breach of a restraining order, with sentencing in that case due on 6 August. He is expected to return to Thames Magistrates' Court on August 14.
For Bear, the immediate outcome is simple: five guilty pleas are now on the record, and the court will next have to decide what penalty follows those admitted breaches. The rest of the story now turns on whether those admissions lead to a separate sentence, and how the court treats the timing failures around his travel, passport and bank cards.
