Boy George jailed

10 months ago 19th Jan 15:00

Boy George has been sentenced to 15 months in prison.

The singer - who was tried under his real name George O'Dowd - received the jail term today (16.01.09) at London's Snaresbrook Crown Court after he was found guilty of falsely imprisoning a male escort at his East London apartment during a drug-fuelled naked photo shoot.

gratuitous violence and branded his actions callous and degrading

Judge David Radford, when handing down the punishment, told George he was guilty of "gratuitous violence" and branded his actions "callous" and "degrading".

The former Culture Club frontman was found guilty last month of detaining Norwegian model Audun Carlsen when he visited the singer's home in April 2007.

The 29-year-old Scandinavian alleged that George and an unnamed male attacked him, handcuffed him and attached him to a hook drilled into the wall next to his bed.

Carlsen also claimed George, 47, beat him with a chain as he tried to escape from the property in just his underwear, trainers and the handcuffs.

Carlsen - who managed to free himself by unscrewing the hook from the wall using the handcuffs - said in court: "I would never have consented to that. I would never have been chained up... I was so scared. I started running for the front door. He tried to stop me and he had a metal chain he was hitting me with. It hit my head and back."