Boy George 'too fat to have won fight with 6ft male escort'

Paul Cheston, Courts Correspondent
03.12.08

The Culture Club singer has gained so much weight since his Eighties heyday that he would not have stood a chance in a fight against his alleged victim Audun Carlsen, Adrian Waterman QC told Snaresbrook crown court.

The DJ and former pop star, appearing in court under his real name George O'Dowd, is accused of handcuffing the six-foot tall, wiry male escort to a hook above his bed and then beating him with a chain. The alleged attack took place after an erotic photo shoot by the pair at O'Dowd's Shoreditch home in April last year.

Mr Waterman told the jury: "With the greatest of respect to George O'Dowd, he is not someone you could describe as terribly fit.

"He has put on a few pounds since the 1980s. He is not going to be a match for Audun Carlsen." Mr Waterman said O'Dowd, 47, admits to handcuffing Mr Carlsen but claims he did not break the law because he thought the escort had been tampering with his laptop.

Mr Waterman said: "There has never been any doubt that George O'Dowd did handcuff Audun Carlsen to that eyehole.

"He did imprison him, he detained him. The issue in the case is whether in law he has a lawful excuse."

Mr Waterman claims O'Dowd was allowed to do what he did to investigate his belief that Mr Carlsen had uploaded erotic photographs of himself taken by George from the singer's laptop to his own Gaydar profile page.

Mr Carlsen claimed that after handcuffing him, O'Dowd produced leather bondage straps and chains and threatened him, saying "Now you are going to get it." But Mr Carlsen struggled free and as he fled the flat in Ravey Street, O'Dowd hit him with a chain.

Mr Waterman said Mr Carlsen's account of the incident was riddled with inconsistencies that were exposed by expert evidence.

A pathologist said Carlsen's injuries were unlikely to be down to punches and chains and were probably caused by the bondage photoshoot.

Computer records showed the Norwegian escort was likely to have used O'Dowd's computer, which he originally denied but changed his story when confronted with the expert evidence.

Mr Carlsen "twisted and turned" as he gave evidence, said Mr Waterman. "Either he is lying to you or he does not know what reality is," he added.

"You would not want to bet your life on Mr Carlsen's account."

O'Dowd denies one count of false imprisonment.

The trial continues.

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BOY GEORGE WAS OBSESSED ABOUT SLAPPING MY ASSE

Boy George was “obsessed” with spanking an HIV positive male escort at an erotic photoshoot, a court heard.

The Culture Club star is accused of handcuffing Audun Carlsen before hitting him with a metal chain in April last year.

Norwegian Mr Carlsen admitted agreeing to wear chains and leather straps for photos.

But George's barrister Adrian Waterman, QC said: “I suggest you wanted to put handcuffs on.

During the second photoshoot you took a pair of handcuffs and asked to put them on.”

Mr Carlsen dismissed the suggestion as “rubbish” adding: “ I said I don't want to have handcuffs on but I can take a chain around my wrists. I didn't want to be tied up.”

But he admitted having “a lot of fun” during the shoot at George's flat in Shoreditch, east London. The jury at Snaresbrook Crown Court were shown three photographs of Mr Carlsen semi-naked and in kinky poses. 

The pair first met up for a photoshoot in January 2007 and yesterday Mr Carlsen claimed that from their first meeting George was “obsessed” with slapping his backside and was upset he couldn't have sex with him. 

Mr Waterman suggested they parted on good terms but Mr Carlsen added: “I could just see he was not happy with not having sex with me. He was a bit too wired and I felt uncomfortable and left. 

“He was very obsessed, he wanted to slap my arse. I didn't want to do that.”

Mr Waterman claimed at that first meeting the escort had uploaded photographs to his profile on social networking site Gaydar without George's  

permission. 

Mr Carlsen denied this but admitted the pictures were high quality and said George, now working as a DJ, was a “very good” photographer. 

The court also heard Mr Carlsen might have taken Valium on the morning of the January photoshoot. 

Boy George, appearing under his real name George O'Dowd, denies false imprisonment. 

The trial continues.

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