Boy George declines to give evidence at his trail

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Pop singer and DJ Boy George will not to give evidence at his trial for allegedly imprisoning a male prostitute at his London flat.

The star, real name George O’Dowd, denies the charges against him.

Snaresbrook Crown Court has already been played a tape of a police interview in which O’Dowd admitted handcuffing Audun Carlsen because he feared the sex worker had tampered with his laptop computer.

As the defence began their case yesterday Judge David Radford asked O’Dowd’s lawyer Adrian Waterman QC.

“Have you explained to your client that the time has come when, if he chooses not to give evidence or refuses to give evidence while sworn under oath, a jury may draw such inferences as appear proper by his failure to do so?”

Mr Waterson confirmed he had fully informed his client.

The singer allegedly handcuffed 29-year-old Mr Carlsen to a wall in his house and beat him with a metal chain, thinking the Norwegian had taken information from his computer during a naked photo shoot three months earlier.

The police officer had earlier admitted to the singer’s barrister that he had not recorded the conversation with the star.

Although he said that as it was “unusual” to speak to a celebrity, he remembered the conversation well.

Mr Carlsen claims that the former Culture Club star handcuffed him as he suspected him of hacking into his computer.

Snaresbrook Crown Court was told that 28-year-old Mr Carlsen met the star on the dating website Gaydar in 2007 and agreed to go to his flat in London’s Shoreditch late one night for a “photo session.”

In the following months the pop star sent the prostitute a series of messages on Gaydar and eventually arranged to meet again.

On April 28th Carlsen returned to the apartment and Mr O’Dowd, who believed that Carlsen had tampered with his computers, chained him up, the court was told.

He fled the apartment the next morning in his underwear after working his bonds loose and rang police from a local shop.

The fire brigade were called out to cut his handcuffs off.

Boy George was arrested in May, charged in November and released on bail.

He denies false imprisonment. The case continues.

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