Boy George ‘suffered homophobic abuse in prison’

Boy George has told of the anti-gay abuse he suffered from fellow prisoners.

The singer, who was jailed for four months in 2009 for falsely imprisoning a male escort, told National Prison Radio about his experiences.

He said: “When you first arrive, it’s terrifying, I don’t care how hard you are. But eventually you just go, ‘You know what? I’m here!’ Acceptance is a huge thing.”

He added: “[The bullying] was mainly young guys shouting out ‘batty boy’ and things like that. It was nothing I hadn’t heard before and I dealt with it in the way I would on the street:

“Telling me I’m gay is not news to me. Why are you telling me I’m gay? Yeah, I know, I’m 50.”

George has previously said that his sense of humour helped him through his punishment.

“I’m not the sort of person who can maintain a dark perspective on life for very long,” he told Metro last year. “Having had a good sense of humour is very useful in certain situations. Being insanely optimistic has its advantages.”