Boy George guilty of false imprisonment
Updated on 05 December 2008
Pop star Boy George has been found guilty of falsely imprisoning a male escort.
A court heard how the singer beat Norwegian Audun Carlsen, 29, with a metal chain as he tried to escape from his flat after a naked photo shoot.
O'Dowd looked grim-faced as the female foreman of the jury delivered the verdict.
He licked his lips nervously and spoke only to confirm that he understood the new condition of his bail, that he live and sleep at an address which was handed on a piece of paper to the court.
Judge David Radford called for a pre-sentence report.
He said: "This is a case where custody is the more likely option. The fact that your bail is being continued does not imply that this will be dealt with by a non-custodial sentence. I don't want any false expectations created."
Snaresbrook Crown Court was told the 46-year-old, who was tried under his real name of George O'Dowd, admitted to police that 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 three months earlier when the pair met before.
He denied to police he had punched or assaulted Mr Carlsen or swung a chain at him as the escort fled the flat and suggested the bruises Mr Carlsen had sustained could have been due to the fact that he was HIV positive.
Defence barrister Adrian Waterman QC told the jury in his closing speech that the dispute was over "whether Audun Carlsen has stolen photographs and, in doing that, messed up George O'Dowd's computer".
The suggestion that it was because Mr Carlsen had refused to have sex with O'Dowd on the previous occasion was "entire fantasy or a lie", he added.
O'Dowd, who did not give evidence, denied false imprisonment.
He will be sentenced on January 16.
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