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LONDON: British pop star Boy George was found guilty by a court in London on Friday of falsely imprisoning a Norwegian male escort after a nude photoshoot.
The former Culture Club frontman, 47, was accused of handcuffing 29-year-old Audun Carlsen and beating him with a metal chain when he tried to escape the musician's east London apartment following the photo session.
He will be sentenced on January 16, and was warned he may well face jail, although he was freed on bail pending the judge's decision.
Standing trial under his real name George O'Dowd at Snaresbrook Crown Court, the singer and disc jockey admitted to police to handcuffing Carlsen to his bed on April 28, 2007, as he investigated the Norwegian's alleged tampering with his computer.
He denied, however, that he assaulted Carlsen, or hit him with a metal chain, suggesting to officers that the bruises suffered by the escort could have been there due to the fact that he was HIV positive.
O'Dowd was downcast as the verdict was delivered, speaking only to confirm that he understood his bail conditions, and he left the court without addressing reporters.
Judge David Radford warned O'Dowd that he could face jail. "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," he told the former singer.
O'Dowd and Carlsen met on the gay website Gaydar, and Carlsen first went to O'Dowd's apartment in January 2007, when they posed naked for the photoshoot and took cocaine.
Carlsen said the singer performed a sex act on him for "five seconds before I said no", and the pair later split on good terms, with O'Dowd paying Carlsen 300 pounds (345 euros, 440 dollars), of the 400 pounds that they had agreed.
The Norwegian claimed that the star proceeded to then send him a string of e-mails accusing him of hacking into his computer.
Despite that, Carlsen returned to O'Dowd's flat in April 2007 and said that when he arrived, he was handcuffed to a wall hook, called a "whore," punched repeatedly and beaten with a metal chain when he tried to flee.
Explaining why the attack happened, Carlsen told the court: "I think he couldn't handle the refusal -- me not having sex with him."
Using the handcuffs to unscrew the wall hook, Carlsen then ran out of the apartment onto the street wearing just his underwear, a T-shirt and running shoes.
Defence lawyers arguing on behalf of O'Dowd, who did not give evidence to the court, said that the dispute was regarding claims that Carlsen had stolen photographs from O'Dowd's computer.
They argued that Carlsen's suggestion that the attack occurred because of his refusal to have sex with the artist was "entire fantasy or a lie".
O'Dowd has had brushes with the law in the past -- in August 2006, he carried out a week of court-ordered community service in New York City for filing a false police report over a non-existent burglary.
As well as the community service, he agreed to undergo drug rehabilitation.
Boy George briefly embarked on a solo singing career after leaving Culture Club in 1987, before beginning a successful career as a DJ and launching fashion line B-Rude.
- AFP/yt
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