Boy George Could Be Jailed

Snaresbrook Crown Court told Boy George that he faces a jail term for falsely imprisoning a male escort.

He was told that a prison sentence was “the most likely option” after a jury convicted him of handcuffing Norwegian Audun Carlsen to a wall at his flat.

The 46-year-old singer, whose real name is George O’Dowd, was also accused of beating Carlsen with a metal chain as he tried to escape from the flat in Shoreditch, East London, after a kinky photographic session.

O’Dowd claimed he handcuffed Carlsen to a wall while he investigated whether Carlsen had tampered with his home computer on April 28 of last year.

The jury reached its verdict Dec. 5 but Judge David Radford adjourned for sentencing until Jan. 16.

“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,” the judge explained.

The defense said that the dispute was over whether Carlsen had stolen photographs and, in so doing, “messed up” O’Dowd’s computer.

It also claimed any suggestion that it was because Carlsen refused to have sex with O’Dowd on a previous occasion was “entire fantasy or a lie.”

O’Dowd denied to police that he punched or assaulted Carlsen or swung a chain at the 29-year-old escort. Jurors saw photos of welts on Carlsen’s head and injuries to his arm, although O’Dowd said the bruises sustained could have been due to the fact the Norwegian was HIV positive.

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.

“I think he couldn’t handle the refusal,” Carlsen explained.

The prosecution said the pair first made contact on the Gaydar Web site, a social networking site primarily for gay and bisexual men.

Prosecuting barrister Heather Norton said their first meeting seemed to be going well until the singer started to suspect Carlsen of trying to hack into his computer.

However, they parted on good terms and the singer paid Carlsen £300 of the £400 they had agreed.

In the weeks that followed, O’Dowd and Carlsen exchanged e-mails in which the singer again accused Carlsen of breaking into his computer system.

But in later e-mails, O’Dowd said he would be “perfectly happy to see you naked asap.” Eventually they agreed to meet for a second time.