Boy George guilty of imprisonment

Dec 5 2008

Singer Boy George has been convicted of falsely imprisoning a male escort.

Norwegian Audun Carlsen, 29, said the musician beat him with a metal chain as he tried to escape from his flat after a naked photo shoot.

A jury at Snaresbrook Crown Court found that the case against the 46-year-old musician - being tried under his real name of George O'Dowd - had been made.

The star did not give evidence but the court heard he told police he handcuffed Mr Carlsen to his bed at his flat in Shoreditch, east London, on April 28 last year while he investigated alleged tampering with his computer.

He accused Mr Carlsen of obtaining photos of himself from his laptop, taken by O'Dowd when the pair met three months earlier.

He denied to police that he punched or assaulted Mr Carlsen or swung a chain at him as the escort fled the flat and suggested the bruises Mr Carlsen sustained could have been due to the fact that he was HIV positive.

The defence claimed that the dispute was over whether Mr Carlsen had stolen photographs and, in doing that, "messed up" O'Dowd's computer. The suggestion that it was because Mr Carlsen refused to have sex with O'Dowd on the previous occasion was "entire fantasy or a lie", the defence said.

Mr Carlsen told the court that O'Dowd concocted the story about computer tampering so he could punish him for not having sex during the first meeting.

He said: "I think he couldn't handle the refusal - me not having sex with him."

The case was adjourned for sentence on January 16.