Fallen star: The decline of Boy George

Just over a week ago, Boy George was found guilty of falsely imprisoning a male escort at his East London apartment. The singer - who was tried under his real name George O'Dowd - was warned he could face a jail sentence for handcuffing Norwegian Audun Carlsen, 29, to a wall during a naked photo shoot.

Speaking at London's Snaresbrook Crown Court, Judge David Radford explained: "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."

George, 47, will be sentenced on January 16, a day which will mark his transformation from clubland superstar into fallen pop idol. So, where did it all go wrong for the outrageous former frontman of top 80s band Culture Club?

The star found fame in 1982 when Culture Club - consisting of singer George, bassist Mikey Craig, drummer Jon Moss and guitarist Roy Hay - signed with Virgin Records in the UK and Epic Records in the US. Their first single 'Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?' hit number one in singles charts across the world, and reached number two in America. The band's next two singles from their debut album 'Kissing To Be Clever' also charted in the US top 10, making them the first group since the Beatles to score three US top 10s from a debut album.

Their second album, 1983's 'Colour By Numbers' was equally as successful, with single 'Karma Chameleon' topping the charts in 16 countries. In America, the track stayed at number one for three weeks, while it sat in poll position for six weeks in the UK.

George's success began to fall apart in 1985 when he became addicted to deadly drug heroin. During his early years in the music business - and as an avid club goer before that - he had always maintained he would never touch drugs, but finding himself surrounded by both occasional and habitual users he eventually succumbed.

"There's no one that I can blame apart from myself. It was just the people I started mixing with. I had always said in early interviews that I would never take drugs. I really felt there would never be a point where I would need them," the singer later said in a 1987 interview. "It wasn't even that I needed them. I was going to parties with really rich people like Adnan Khashoggi. Socialite Cornelia Guest, whom I was going around with, wasn't taking drugs and used to tell me not to do it, to look after myself. But I did cocaine, ecstasy, pot, acid and all those things, and then I got involved with taking heroin. I was experimenting, and I went too far."

As rumours of George's drug use intensified, the singer was eventually arrested while receiving treatment from acclaimed drug therapist Dr. Meg Patterson. The singer blames a media "witch hunt" for his arrest, adding he wishes he had never admitted his addiction."Basically the British press had me arrested," he said. "I was away for a few days, and they started printing stories saying, 'Get him! Find him!' I was never caught and charged with possession of heroin, but they made a new law that said, 'because you have admitted taking heroin, we are charging you with possession' and they fined me. I thought there wasn't anything else I could do, so I pleaded guilty. At the time I wished that I had pleaded not guilty because I would have won, but then again, it probably would have meant more publicity, more pain for my family. I just really felt like my family didn't deserve any more."Things went from bad to worse for the star when musician Michael Rudetsky - who had flown to London from America to help George work on his solo album - was found dead of a heroin overdose in the singer's home in August 1986. George was cleared of any wrongdoing by a coroner, but Michael's family filed a $44million lawsuit in November of the same year claiming he had "actively participated" in their son being "injected with heroin".That December, George and two friends, including close pal Mark Golding, were walking home from a party when they were stopped by police and arrested for marijuana possession. They were held for 12 hours and then released, but a day later Mark was found dead from a methadone overdose at a friend's home. George says it was Mark's death which made him decide to quit drugs for good."When Mark died, that's when I decided to come off everything - methadone, valium, tranquilizers and a whole list of things," he has said. "I was almost like an Elvis Presley-type figure. It was just unbelievable. I had a whole cupboard full of pills. Whenever I had a moment of doubt, I would just swallow a load of pills."With the support of his family and close friends - comedian Joan Rivers and musician Elton John frequently phoned George as he battled to get clean - the singer eventually managed to kick his habit. Although he continued making music and releasing albums, he never managed to emulate the success of Culture Club.George enjoyed something of a resurgence in popularity at the beginning of this century, when he embarked on a new career as a club DJ. His life was turned into the hit West End musical 'Taboo' - in which George starred, although he chose to play Australian-born performance artist Leigh Bowery rather than himself - and later moved to New York's Broadway, for which the singer secured a Tony Award-nomination for the show's musical score.George's career went from strength to strength in the following years, with the star releasing a number of records under the pseudonym The Twin. He also presented a weekly show on London radio station LBC for six months and contributed the foreward for a feng shui book. Alongside this, the star launched his own fashion line, B-Rude, which he has presented in shows in London, New York and Moscow.However, the singer's life began to unravel once again when he was arrested on suspicion of cocaine possession in New York in October 2005. George was arrested after police were called to his luxury Manhattan apartment to investigate a burglary. It later transpired the singer had actually summoned the police himself, and while at the residence police uncovered the drugs.Speaking at the time, the singer's former agent Tony Denton said: "Basically, he did call the police himself. He actually thought somebody was breaking into the apartment. They turned up and they searched the apartment and found traces of cocaine on the computer table, which George has said he was not taking and was nothing to do with him."Although the charges were later dropped, George was eventually found guilty of wasting police time by falsely reporting a burglary and sentenced to five days community service. Although he was initially reticent to clean streets as his punishment - he even asked a judge if he could stage a fashion and make-up workshop instead - he eventually came round to the idea."I don't care about doing cleaning up. My mum was a cleaner," he said at the time. "I was worried I would have to wear an orange boiler suit, but apparently I can wear what I like. I'm going to dress up - I'll wear something loud."He completed his service in August 2006 amid a furious media melee, resulting in him being moved into a fenced-off area after just 30 minutes to escape photographers.More heartache was to follow for the star, when he was denied a visa to perform a series of shows in America due to his 2006 conviction. He had wanted to perform a free concert in New York to show his appreciation to the Department of Sanitation for their kindness during his community service, and was devastated when his application was turned down."I committed a crime and I happily paid the consequences and I should be allowed to move on," he said at the time. "The people I worked alongside showed great kindness to me at a very difficult time, and I wanted to thank them all in a way that would show my appreciation."Despite his well-publicised battle with heroin addiction, subsequent trips to rehab, and declarations to get clean, George revealed earlier this year that he only actually quite drugs fully at the end of 2007. He even admitted taking illegal substances every day for the last five years, but now insists his life of debauchery is behind him."I've been strung out on drugs for the last five years. But this time I'm clean for good. I don't want to die. I've spent five years in this chemical cloud. Getting clean at the end of 2007 was a very big thing. I was using half my brain, half my personality on drugs," he explained. "One day I took a little and then I was on four grams a day. Up until six months ago, I had a really bad problem. A friend took me to a Narcotics Anonymous meeting and I was like an old f***ing man. I could barely walk I'd been using so much f***ing drugs. Everything that's gone wrong in my life has been because of drugs. Now I know it won't happen again I've done the tour, worn the T-shirt. When I gave up before, I thought I was losing something. I was 'giving up' drugs. Now I know I'm gaining half my mind back."However, George's previous brushes with the law pale into insignificance when compared to his latest bout of illegal activity.During the trial, embarrassing details of the singer's private life were revealed. He was found guilty of handcuffing Audun Carlsen to a wall during a naked photo shoot, with Carlsen also claiming George had beaten him with a chain when he tried to escape. There were also allegations of drug use and sex acts, with Carlsen painting a picture of an unstable George who apparently "ranted" about repeated attempts to hack into his computer and said a "fixated lesbian" was operating his system remotely from America.Famed for his ability to bounce back from almost any situations, it seems George's uncanny ability to land on his feet may just have run out. With a prison sentence looking likely and intimate details of his private life laid bare for all to see, it remains to be seen whether the star will manage to bounce back this time or whether this is one scandal too many for the flamboyant pop star from London.By Hannah Ferrett.