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Boy George sentenced to 15 months in prison

By Ruth Doherty on Monday 19 January 2009

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Boy George, news, Marie Claire

Boy George was sentenced to 15 months in jail on Friday after being convicted of falsely imprisoning a male escort by handcuffing him to a wall in his London apartment.

Judge David Radford said the former Culture Club frontman – real name George O’Dowd – was guilty of ‘gratuitous violence’

Friday’s sentencing took place at Snaresbrook Crown Court in East London.

The singer - best known for the hit Karma Chameleon - had

been convicted in December of handcuffing Norwegian escort Audun Carlsen to a

wall hook at his East London apartment. During the trial, prosecutors said

Carlsen was held by O'Dowd for under an hour.

The singer denied the charge, saying he had restrained Carlsen with handcuffs while trying to figure out if a computer had been tampered with.

Carlsen, 29, said O'Dowd swung at him with a metal chain as he ran from the apartment after a naked photo shoot.

Speaking to Judge Radford on Friday, O'Dowd's lawyer, Adrian Waterman, defended him - blaming his behaviour on drug use: ‘This defendant is a

kind and generous man who is particularly mindful of others' needs,' he said. ‘He is the antithesis of the haughty bullying star. He was not himself when addled by the habitual and relatively long-lasting using of illegal drugs.’