Boy George facing jail sentence

Singer Boy George has been found guilty of falsely imprisoning a male escort at his flat in east London.

Audun Carlsen, 29, said the Culture Club frontman attacked him as he tried to escape the Shoreditch flat and handcuffed him to the wall.

The musician, whose real name is George O'Dowd, alleged Mr Carlsen stole photographs from a laptop. He denied one count of false imprisonment.

He will be sentenced on 16 January, but was told he was likely to face jail.

'False expectations'

Judge David Radford said: "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."

O'Dowd did not give evidence himself during the trial.

However, the court heard that the musician told police he handcuffed Mr Carlsen to his bed on April 28 last year while he investigated the alleged tampering of his computer.

O'Dowd accused Mr Carlsen of obtaining photos of himself from his laptop, taken by the singer when the pair had met three months earlier.

Mr Carlsen told the court that O'Dowd concocted the story about computer tampering so he could punish him for not having sex during the first meeting.

The male escort, who met the singer through the social-networking site Gaydar, told the trial: "I think he couldn't handle the refusal - me not having sex with him."

Their first meeting seemed to be going well until the singer started to suspect Mr Carlsen of hacking into his computer, jurors heard.

However, they parted on good terms and the singer paid the younger man £300 of the £400 they had agreed.

In the weeks that followed they exchanged emails in which the singer accused Mr Carlsen of breaking into his computer system.

-BBC News