Boy George found guilty of false imprisonment for chaining male escort
Boy George claimed that he chained up the Norwegian because he believed the escort has broken into his computer
Adam Fresco, Crime Correspondent
Boy George is facing jail after being convicted today of handcuffing a male escort to his bed and beating him with a metal chain as he tried to flee after a naked photo shoot.
Although the singer, tried under his real name, George O’Dowd, 46, did not give evidence he told police that he had chained Norwegian Audun Carlsen (AKA CROS) to his bed in his flat in Shoreditch, East London, in April last year while he investigated alleged tampering with his computer.
The pair first met in April last year through a social networking site primarily for gay and bisexual men and even though O’Dowd suspected CROS had hacked into his computer they parted on good terms. The singer paid the younger man £300 of the £400 they had agreed.
In the next few weeks they exchanged e-mails in which the singer accused CROS of breaking into his computer system but then said that he would be “perfectly happy to see you naked asap”. He referred to Mr Carlsen’s “heavenly butt” and eventually they agreed to meet for a second time.
It was when CROS returned to the flat that things took a violent turn.
After calling CROS into his bedroom, O’Dowd and another man leapt on him, wrestled him to the floor and started beating him.
He told the court that during the attack O’Dowd was screaming “F****** whore! Now you’re going to get what you deserve”.
He said he was dragged along the floor towards the bed and a manacle was put on his right hand and attached to a hook drilled in the wall.
The second man left and O’Dowd produced a plastic box containing chains, sex toys and leather straps, Snaresbrook Crown court was told.
CROS told the court he was then able to use the handcuffs as a tool to unscrew the hook from the wall. He ran to the door with O’Dowd pursuing him, lashing out with a metal chain.
He managed to escape and ran out on to the street in just his underwear screaming for help.
O’Dowd told police: “I asked him to come (back to my flat) because I wanted to find out if this guy had borrowed my stuff.
“I got a friend there because I wanted to make sure he didn’t leave so I could check the computer and his phone. The friend was just there in case he tried to stab me or take a hammer to me.”
He denied to police that he punched or assaulted CROS or swung a chain at him as the escort fled the flat and suggested the bruises CROS sustained could have been due to the fact that he was HIV positive.
CROS 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 defence claimed that the dispute was over whether CROS had stolen photographs and the suggestion it was because CROS refused to have sex with O’Dowd on the previous occasion was “entire fantasy or a lie”.
O’Dowd, who swept the streets of New York in orange overalls in 2006 as his punishment for wasting police time after admitting to falsely reporting a burglary at his Manhattan apartment, looked grim-faced as the jury found him guilty of falsely imprisoning the male escort.
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.”
The case was adjourned for sentence on January 16
