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Boy George Lawyer Pleads for Suspended Sentence After Guilty Verdict in Male Escort Imprisonment Caseby Kilian MelloyFriday Jan 16, 2009 The hearing that will decide on how Boy George is to be sentenced after being found guilty of false imprisonment last spring continues, with the pop star’s lawyer pleading for a suspended sentence.
U.K. newspaper The Times reported in a Jan. 16 article that 47-year-old George O’Dowd, better known to Culture Club fans as Boy George, had been described by defense attorney Adrian Waterman as conducting himself like a "drug crazed idiot" during the incident, but added that O’Dowd was pulling his life together once more.
Waterman told the East London court, "He’s on the way up.
"The fact that he is, when sober, a kind and generous man means there is no shortage of people to help him through his recovery."
In an April, 2008, incident, O’Dowd reportedly handcuffed, chained, and assaulted an escort whom he had previously photographed.
When the escort broke free and ran into the street clad only in his underwear, and sporting red welts that he claimed came from being beaten with a chain, police investigated and O’Dowd was placed under arrest.
The fire department was called to remove the handcuffs, according to a Pink News article from last November.
The escort, 29-year-old Audin Carlsen, had come to O’Dowd’s apartment at the pop star’s invitation to pose for a second photo session, even though O’Dowd had accused Carlsen of rifling the singer’s computer during his earlier visit.
The Times article said that O’Dowd and Carlsen, a Norwegian native, had first met online, and that O’Dowd had promised the younger man a payday of about $600 for the photo session, but only paid him about $450.
After airing his suspicion that Carlsen had hacked his computer and downloaded pictures without his consent, O’Dowd, in an email, invited Carlsen back, writing that he would be "perfectly happy to see you naked asap," and praising Carlsen’s "heavenly butt," the article said.
But when Carlsen arrived for the second photo session, the escort claims, he was set upon by O’Dowd and another man, shackled, and beaten.
Early reports in the case also claimed that O’Dowd had menaced the chained Carlsen with sex toys.
The Times article quoted Waterman as pleading with the judge, David Radford, on behalf of O’Dowd, saying, "I ask you to sentence him on the basis that he did genuinely believe what he told the police--namely that Mr. Carlsen had stolen photos from his computer and willingly or unwillingly interfered with his computer and was about to do something similar again."
Waterman allowed that, "the use of prescribed substances provides no mitigation to those that have tasted riches and fame or anyone else," and cited O’Dowd’s "self-destructive behavior at the hands of drugs," but expressed the belief that O’Dowd was putting such things behind him.
The conviction will most likely keep O’Dowd out of America, where he faced a penalty three years ago in New York City when he falsely reported a robbery at his apartment in Manhattan. Police responded to the false report, and discovered cocaine on the premises.
Whatever the court decided in terms of sentencing, O’Dowd may not be popular with his London neighbors, either: according to a Jan. 15 article in the Telegraph someone wrote "Satan" on the pop star’s building in chalk.
Moreover, local media have taken to referring to the singer as looking "bloated" and "exhausted," as in the Telegraph item.
The Telegraph also reported that O’Dowd had denied any physical assault against the escort, claiming that the marks on his skin may have been the result of HIV positive status.
Carlsen, in his turn, dismissed the idea that O’Dowd had turned violent out of anger because he thought that Carlsen was rifling his computer.
The Pink News item noted that police had examined the computer and discovered no indication that it had been hacked.
Carlsen proposed the alternative theory that the beating he says he suffered was the result of having refused to have sex with O’Dowd during their first meeting.
Waterman, however, flatly denied this; the Times article quoted him as telling the court, "This case was not about retribution for sexual rejection some four months earlier, the evidence does simply not justify that conclusion."
Kilian Melloy reviews media, conducts interviews, and writes commentary for EDGEBoston, where he also serves as Assistant Arts Editor.
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