AdamSmith Posted January 17, 2009 Posted January 17, 2009 George O'Dowd has my sympathy for the morass his life seems to have descended into. But a bright spot in his recent travails is the simple respect accorded his 'rent boy' by the British justice system, with no quibbling that the escort's chosen profession makes him less worthy of his rights than anyone else. Boy George: A hero destroyed by drug 'degradation' An unrecognisable Boy George was yesterday jailed for 15 months for imprisoning a rent boy. The grim, beat-up, overweight old man dressed in black leather, with shaven, tattooed skull, who is beginning a prison sentence for a false imprisonment, could hardly have looked less like the 1980s superstar he used to be. George O'Dowd, who was a household name a generation ago as Boy George, lead singer of Culture Club, was sentenced yesterday to 15 months in jail for false imprisonment, after he chained and beat a man in a cocaine-fuelled outburst of paranoid fury. O'Dowd, who is now 47, listened impassively as Judge David Radford explained why he was going against the advice of experts who had recommended a suspended prison sentence and unpaid community work. Although the judge said news that O'Dowd had kicked his cocaine habit was "welcome", he described the singer-turned-DJ's attack on a male escort as "an act of wholly gratuitous violence" which left his victim "shocked, degraded and traumatised". Afterwards, women were crying outside the courtroom. A large contingent from O'Dowd's extended south-east London family had come to hear sentence being passed, along with some no-longer-young Boy George fans. One woman had candy floss pink hair, and two elderly gay men were exchanging outrageous comments as they waited for the court to resume. "His name's Queen, but he is not well equipped," they said of one man who walked by. At least one court attendant, however, was underwhelmed. "All this fuss about a has-been," he commented. On being reminded that Boy George was a megastar 26 years ago, he added grumpily: "Was he?" Boy George was one of the most intelligent of the so-called "New Romantics" who revived British pop after the slump of the early 1980s. At a time when it was risky to be seen to be gay, even in showbusiness, he always appeared in public heavily made up and dressed like a girl. He grew up in Eltham, in a large, tough, Irish working-class family. One of his brothers was a professional boxer. Yet in his memoirs, written when he was 33, he said: "I wanted people to know I was gay. In many people's eyes, I was the premier poof, the benchmark by which others would be measured." His sexuality did not prevent Culture Club's single "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?" from reaching No 2 in the US, and No 1 in the UK and numerous other countries. But by the age of 25, he had such a drug problem that one of his brothers denounced him, hoping the shock would jolt him into giving up the habit. Two decades later, in 2005, in a fit of paranoia brought on by cocaine, he told New York police that his flat in Manhattan had been burgled. That led to him doing community service for wasting police time. More seriously, in 2007, he attacked a Norwegian male escort, Audun Carlsen, 28, handcuffing him to a bed in his east London home and beating him with a chain. Both men were high on cocaine before the assault. O'Dowd denied false imprisonment, claiming he had reacted in anger because he suspected Mr Carlsen of downloading compromising photographs from his computer. He was unanimously convicted by a jury in November, and was back in court yesterday for sentence. O'Dowd's counsel, Adrian Waterman, said drugs had sent the singer to "the depths of degradation", but claimed that "he is, when sober and free from drugs, a kind and generous man". He added: "There is something of an irony in that Mr Carlsen will make money out of this while the cost to the defendant is enormous. He will probably now never be permitted to perform in the United States or Japan, where he has an enormous – I believe the word is – fan base. Not only will he lose the money but, more importantly, the chance to do what he loves." But the judge told O'Dowd: "This offence is so serious that only an immediate sentence of imprisonment can be justified for it." He ordered O'Dowd to pay £5,000 costs but said it was for a civil court to decide whether he should pay compensation to his victim. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime...on-1418230.html Quote
