Boy George jailed for 15 months

Praxius

Praxius

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The judge said the singer's drug-fuelled actions were 'premeditated'


The singer's family and friends were angry at the sentence



Audun Carlsen met the singer on a gay social-networking site

BBC NEWS | UK | England | London | 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.

Gay website

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."
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Yeah, but Cops do this all the time and usually don't explain what's going on until your already sitting in a jail cell.... what's the diff?

When you get cuffed by a police officer, you are deprived of your Liberty, it's degrading and usually you never know when you'll be released.

Just being devil's advocate here...... moving on.


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.
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Ah, well beating him is a different story.

'Self-destructive behaviour'

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".
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That's the first time I heard anybody ever being scared of Boy George.
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."
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Well maybe if people would stop stealing his dirty porn he will......

I wonder if the other guy will ever be charged with theft?

Sorta reminds me of the whole OJ Simpson thing not too long ago.
 
Praxius

Praxius

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JLM said:
That sounds about right. Maybe the punishment meted out was kind of harsh methinks- he never molested the guy.
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Well 15 months isn't that bad considering he held the guy against his will, beat him up a bit and had to escape in his underwear.

15 months would be excessive if perhaps you went on a rampage of ripping tags off of matresses.
 
JLM

JLM

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Praxius said:
Well 15 months isn't that bad considering he held the guy against his will, beat him up a bit and had to escape in his underwear.

15 months would be excessive if perhaps you went on a rampage of ripping tags off of matresses.
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I suppose although I'm not convinced Boy could do much "beating up".
 
Risus

Risus

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Praxius, When I started reading through your first post, OJ, jumped right into my mind. I see you beat me to that analogy.
 
Cannuck

Cannuck

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JLM said:
That sounds about right. Maybe the punishment meted out was kind of harsh methinks- he never molested the guy.
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I don't necessarily agree He may have played all his Culture Club CDs while the guy was handcuffed. I'm not sure if any punishment could make up for a horror like that.
 
W

wrigleys

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Dec 30, 2008
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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".
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Although I don't condone BG's actions, it seems to be tit-for-tat - Boy George being the tit and the other just tat.
 
Ron in Regina

Ron in Regina

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Boy George is to go to jail for 15mo and this is a punishment for him?
Confinement, communal showers, and all the man-love he can force (or
have forced upon him)? Do you think Boy George will ever want to leave
jail?
 
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