'Drug-crazed idiot' Boy George jailed for 15 months for chaining male escort to wall and beating him



Boy George was jailed for 15 months yesterday for falsely imprisoning a male escort.

The former Culture Club singer - real name George O'Dowd - shackled Audun Carlsen to a wall of his flat and lashed him with a chain while shouting insults at him.

The 29-year-old Norwegian managed to free himself and fled in his underpants into the street, screaming for help.

Facing the music: George O'Dowd on the way to court, where he was condemned for his 'premeditated, callous, drug-fuelled actions' which 'traumatised' his victim

In court yesterday, O'Dowd's own barrister admitted that his client's career had hit rock bottom and likened the behaviour of the two men to 'two drug-crazed idiots'.

Adrian Waterman added that the cost of the incident would be 'truly enormous', adding: 'He will not now very likely ever be permitted to perform in the U.S and Japan where he has a very, very significant fan base. The humiliation of this is going to live with him for ever.'

The singer's defence team also said he would struggle to raise the £5,000 he has been ordered to pay in costs.

Boy George seen arriving at Snaresbrook Crown Court in East London where he received a 15-month jail term

Snaresbrook Crown Court in East London had heard that the incident happened in April 2007. Matters turned to violence after O'Dowd suspected Mr Carlsen had hacked into a laptop and stolen pictures taken when the pair first met three months earlier.

O'Dowd, who noticeably gained weight during his trial, was convicted of false imprisonment last year. Yesterday he was sentenced by Judge David Radford, who told him he had been guilty of 'gratuitous violence'.

Condemning his 'premeditated', ' callous' and drug-fuelled frenzy which 'traumatised' Mr Carlsen, the judge said his victim had been 'deprived of his liberty and his human dignity'.

'Lashed': Audun Carlsen



He said the offence was 'so serious that only an immediate sentence of imprisonment can be justified'.

O'Dowd has repeatedly denied swinging the chain at the younger man.

But Mr Carlsen claimed the theft story was concocted to justify the 'punishment' meted out to him for refusing to have sex with O'Dowd at an earlier meeting.

The pair had made contact through the Gaydar website. Heather Norton, prosecuting, said their first meeting went well until the singer suspected Mr Carlsen of hacking in to his computer.

They parted on good terms and O'Dowd paid the younger man £300 of the £400 they had agreed.

In the weeks that followed, they exchanged emails in which the singer accused Mr Carlsen of tampering with his computer. But he eventually appeared to relent and arranged to see the younger man again.

At the second meeting, O'Dowd beckoned his victim into his bedroom, before he and an unidentified man leapt on him, wrestled him to the floor and started beating him.

Mr Carlsen was dragged along the floor towards O'Dowd's bed and a manacle was put on his right hand and attached to a hook drilled in the wall.

The second man left, Mr Carlsen said, and O'Dowd fetched a plastic box containing chains, sex toys and leather straps.

Giving evidence, Mr Carlsen told the court: 'George hit me, slapped me, and screamed, "****ing whore, ****. Now you are going to get what you deserve".'



The despair of Boy George's friends and family at hearing the prison sentence

He said he was able to unscrew the hook from the wall using handcuffs as a tool. He ran to the door with O'Dowd pursuing him while wielding the metal chain. The victim managed to escape and ran out into the street.

O'Dowd previously suggested that bruises Mr Carlsen sustained could have been due to the fact he was HIV positive.

The singer did not give evidence in court - his brother David O'Dowd said it was because he wanted to protect their elderly mother.

The flamboyant singer has repeatedly reinvented himself as a solo artist, club DJ and writer of musicals

But Mr Waterman said the former star's continuing battle with cocaine addiction had contributed to his actions.

'He was not himself when addled by the habitual and relatively long-lasting using of illegal drugs,' he said.

But he said O'Dowd was making a concerted effort to deal with his drug addiction.

He added: 'This defendant is a kind and generous man who is particularly mindful of others' needs. He is the antithesis of the haughty bullying star.'

As he heard his fate, O'Dowd looked worriedly towards the public gallery, where relatives gasped as they heard the length of the jail term. One male family member kicked one of the courtroom doors, shouting: 'Fifteen months!'

It was all a far cry from the heights O'Dowd scaled with Culture Club in the 1980s. They had a string of hits and sold millions of records in the UK and abroad.

But in 1985 O'Dowd was exposed as a heroin addict and his career plunged into freefall. Drugs problems and internal feuding led to Culture Club's demise in 1987.

However, the singer bounced back to launch a successful career as a solo artist in the late 1980s and in the 1990s he reinvented himself as a DJ.

But there was more scandal in 2006 when he admitted falsely reporting a burglary at his apartment in New York. He was ordered to perform community service and found himself sweeping the city's streets.

O'Dowd was given community service in New York in 2006 after pleading guilty to falsely reporting a burglary at his apartment in the city



THE HIGHS AND LOWS OF BOY GEORGE'S CAREER





Boy George has courted controversy ever since bursting on to the music scene in the 1980s.

The entertainer caused shockwaves with his outlandish clothing and androgynous appearance as lead singer of the pop band Culture Club.

Since then the flamboyant singer from Eltham, London, has repeatedly reinvented himself as a solo artist, club DJ and writer of musicals, while simultaneously attracting headlines for a variety of scandals.

Boy George, centre, with Culture Club in their Eighties heyday

Boy George was first thrust into the limelight with Culture Club's 1982 number one hit Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?

The band followed that with another huge number one, Karma Chameleon, in 1983, and sold millions of records in the UK and abroad.

But controversy has always stalked the musician and in the mid-1980s he was exposed by the tabloids as a heroin addict.

Further drugs problems and internal feuding led to Culture Club's eventual demise shortly after.

The singer bounced back to launch another successful career as a solo artist in the late 1980s, and reinvented himself once again a decade later as a critically acclaimed DJ.

In 2003, Boy George moved to the US when his autobiographical musical Taboo transferred to Broadway.

But his previous drugs troubles returned to haunt him in 2005 when he was arrested in New York on suspicion of possessing cocaine.



The charge was eventually dropped, but the singer was given community service in 2006 after pleading guilty to falsely reporting a burglary at his New York apartment.

The revelations from his trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court have thrust Boy George, who famously once said he preferred 'a nice cup of tea' to sex, into the public eye for the wrong reasons once again.



