News

Boy George Gets 15-Month Sentence

Judge David Radford delivered a 15-month prison sentence to Boy George today, stunning friends and family who were gathered in east London's Snaresbrook Crown Court. The 47 year old (real name: George O'Dowd) was found guilty of falsely imprisoning a Norwegian male escort at his London flat in 2007.

"This offence is so serious that only an immediate sentence of imprisonment can be justified for it," Radford told the court, adding that the escort, Audun Carlsen, was "shocked, degraded and traumatized" after being attacked by George and an unidentified friend.

Adrian Waterman, George's lawyer, asked for leniency in the case, citing George's problems with drug addiction and saying he's a "kind and generous man... he is on the way back from that nether world [of illegal drugs]. I am emboldened to say that there is enormous hope."

George told police he asked Carlsen to come to his home after a cocaine-laced photo shoot because he thought the escort stole pictures from George's computer. It's unknown whether the former Culture Club frontman will file an appeal, but his lawyers said he would probably spend six or seven months in jail, not the full 15.

—The ARTISTdirect Staff
01.16.09