Boy George jailed for 15 months

[Irish Alan]

Boy George jailed for 15 months

Singer Boy George has been jailed for 15 months for falsely imprisoning a male escort in his flat in east London.

The singer, whose real name is George O'Dowd, denied the charge and claimed the victim, Norwegian Audun Carlsen, 29, had stolen photos from his laptop.

O'Dowd, 47, admitted handcuffing him to a wall in April 2007 but said he did so in order to trace the missing property.

Judge David Radford told the former Culture Club singer he was guilty of "gratuitous violence".

O'Dowd's family and supporters reacted emotionally as the singer was handed the jail sentence at Snaresbrook Crown Court.

Judge Radford said: "Whilst I accept that Mr Carlsen's physical injuries were not serious or permanent, in my view there can be no doubt that your premeditated callous and humiliating handcuffing and detention of Mr Carlsen shocked, degraded and traumatised him.

"He was deprived of his liberty and human dignity without warning or proper explanation to him of its purpose, length or purported justification."

He also ordered the singer, who had decided not to testify, to pay £5,000 costs.

The two men first came into contact through a gay social-networking site and met up for a pornographic photo shoot at O'Dowd's Shoreditch flat, Snaresbrook Crown Court heard.

O'Dowd believed Mr Carlsen stole data, including personal photographs from his laptop, during the photo shoot.

The court was told that weeks later O'Dowd invited the Norwegian back to his flat and it was then that he, with the help of a second man, chained Mr Carlsen to his bed and beat him.

Mr Carlsen testified that he was manacled to the bed, but managed to escape and ran from the flat wearing only his boxer shorts, trainers and a pair of handcuffs.

During the trial the court heard that the escort sold the story of his ordeal to a Norwegian magazine for £5,500, which he said he needed to flee the UK as he was "too scared".

The singer has previous convictions for theft as a juvenile in 1977 and a drugs offence 10 years later.

He was also given community service in New York in 2006 after admitting to falsely reporting a burglary at his flat there.

Boy George, who is now a DJ, was one of the most well-known stars and recognisable faces in the 1980s.

With Culture Club he notched up seven British and nine American Top 10 hits such as Karma Chameleon and sold more than 50 million records.

He has also struggled with drug addictions and he told the world about his personal battle in his autobiography Take It Like A Man.

Earlier his barrister Adrian Waterman told the court that O'Dowd was the "antithesis of the haughty bullying star".

He said: "At the heart of the matter was a descent into self-destructive behaviour at the hands of the drugs."

Following the sentencing, O'Dowd's solicitor, Steven Barker, said: "George is on the road to recovery, I sincerely hope this sentence does not knock him back."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/u ... 832565.stm

Published: 2009/01/16 15:27:47 GMT

© BBC MMIX

[izzix]

surely it should be old man george by now ,not a boy any more ,he's got no hair on his bonce

[arjay]

He sounds like a bit of a (Chama, Chama), Chameleon!

[Irish Alan]

surely it should be old man george by now ,not a boy any more ,he's got no hair on his bonce

Naw Izzix, just this tattoo...

[beer monkey]

A Bit Harsh I Thought...

George with a paint spill...what a clumsy boy.



And a recent photo of a porky George..



And in the lyrics of one of his hits..Karma Chameleon..." I'm A Man...Without Conviction...We Come And Go.... We Come and Go...Ohhh"


Well you got convictions...and you can't come and go, well not for a while anyway.

Still A Bit Harsh on The Old Chap...suppose he will appeal and be successful.

[Aardvark]

3 meals a day, a roof over his head and as much time spent in the showers as he desires he should be in Heaven