Hack attack lesbian defence rejected as Boy George faces jail

Angus Kidman
Saturday, 06 December 2008 05:09

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Eighties pop star Boy George is likely to face a jail sentence in January after being found guilty of false imprisonment for chaining a male escort he met online to a bed in his London flat.


Boy George (real name George O'Dowd) was found guilty of the charge in a London court on Friday. It's not Boy George's first encounter with the law; the singer performed community service cleaning the streets of New York after a charge of wasting police time in 2006. But this time around the tale has a distinct technology twist.

O'Dowd had told police that the escort, Auden Carlson, had stolen images from his computer during a previous encounter, and that he wanted to confront him with this evidence. However, Boy George did not give evidence as a witness during the 2-week trial.

Carlson and Boy George first met via the Internet, through the gay social networking and dating service Gaydar. After meeting, Carlson posed for a series of nude photos in January 2007 and was paid 300 pounds.

In subsequent emails, Boy George accused Carlson of having stolen pictures from his computer. During a second meeting in April 2007, Carlson found himself chained to the bed, though he eventually escaped partially clothed and sought police assistance.

The trial provided a wealth of controversy for the UK tabloid press, as arguments were presented over if Boy George's laptop showed evidence of tampering, whether Carlson would ever be willingly chained, and why he had sold his story to the Norwegian media.

One particularly bizarre detail reported by the BBC was the claim that Boy George believed his computer had been cloned by a "fixated lesbian" who was operating it from the US.

Boy George will be sentenced on January 16.