Boy George’s conviction thirteen years ago was the topic of conversation on Wednesday night’s installment of I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here!
Speaking with his campmates in the latest episode of the ITV reality show, the Culture Club singer, 61, was questioned over his jail time in 2009 in relation to an attack on a man he handcuffed to a wall on a drug-crazed night.
George pleaded not guilty to false imprisonment and has repeatedly denied a court claim that he beat the man with a chain, but was convicted of assault and false imprisonment and jailed for 15 months.
READ MORE: Boy George sends ‘secret message’ to Irish mum in middle of I’m A Celebrity trial
Boy George, whose real name is George O’Dowd, said he was high on cocaine and having a psychotic breakdown at the time of the attack.
He was released from prison after serving four months for good behaviour with an ankle tag and said he sought treatment afterward - and has been drug-free since.
The incident arose in camp conversation last night as co-star Scarlette Douglas asked the pop icon about ‘some guy in handcuffs and a radiator’.
Boy George immediately insisted that was not the case, and said: “It’s not true, no radiators.”
Scarlette replied: “Oh, just handcuffs,” and Boy George admitted that was true, adding: “But the radiator bit wasn’t true, but thanks for bringing it up.”
Scarlette said: “Sorry, it wouldn’t surprise me if that was a fake story,” to which Boy George replied: “Sometimes these things, they go into the ether, and people keep saying them and they become folklore.”
Boy George then said: “I think if it was true I wouldn’t be working now.”
Scarlette said: “I don’t even know what the full story was, I just remember hearing handcuffs and radiator.”
So, what actually happened?
According to court reports, on January 16, 2009, Boy George was sentenced to 15 months in jail for falsely imprisoning a male escort.
The court heard that the star had handcuffed the man to a wall and began beating him.
The Guardian reported that the presiding judge told the then 47-year-old former Culture Club frontman that he had left the escort "shocked, degraded, and traumatised" by the ordeal.
The victim was a 29-year-old Norwegian model, Audun Carlsen, who O’Dowd had invited over to visit his flat in London in April 2007 after meeting on a dating app.
Judge David Radford said the singer's offence was "so serious that only an immediate sentence of imprisonment can be justified”.
He described the events as “callous and humiliating” before adding that Carlsen had been "deprived of his liberty and his human dignity".
During O'Dowd's trial - thirteen years ago - the jury was told that he had asked Carlsen into his bedroom after a naked photo session, during which they both allegedly took cocaine.
With the help of an unnamed man, he then allegedly ambushed Carlsen, who said the atmosphere changed when O'Dowd came back to the flat after leaving to buy milk and cigarettes.
Carlsen managed to break free when the fixture on the wall came loose, he told the jury, but said he was then beaten by the singer as he tried to flee the home.
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