Boy George goes on Trial for False Imprisonment & Assault

LONDON - A Norwegian escort told a court Monday that Boy George manacled him to a bedroom wall and beat him with a metal chain after accusing him of hacking into his computer.
The former Culture Club singer is on trial for the false imprisonment of 29-year-old Audun Carlsen.
The 47-year-old singer, who is standing trial under his real name, George O'Dowd, denies the charge. Carlsen told London's Snaresbrook Crown Court that he met the singer through a Web site and went to his London home for a naked photo shoot. After the encounter Boy George sent a series e-mails accusing Carlsen of hacking into his computer, but Carlsen nonetheless agreed to return for a second photo session several weeks later in April 2007.
Carlsen told the jury that when he arrived Boy George and another man held him down and beat him before the singer handcuffed him to a hook in the bedroom wall.
"George was slapping me and beating me and punching me and screaming things," Carlsen said. Carlsen said he was able to escape by unscrewing the hook and running for the door.
"I took a bit of time getting the door open and he had a metal chain that he was hitting me with," Carlsen said.
Carlsen said he ran into the street clad only in his underwear. The court was shown photographs of red welts on Carlsen's head and injuries to his arm which he said had been inflicted during the attack.
Boy George's androgynous image and powerful voice made him an `80s icon, and gave Culture Club hits including "Karma Chameleon" and "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?"
But the singer struggled for years with drug problems.
In 2006 he was ordered to do community service with New York City's Department of Sanitation after pleading guilty to false reporting of an incident. He called police with a false report of a burglary at his lower Manhattan apartment, and the responding officers found cocaine inside.

In Texas, the charge "False Imprisonment" is called "Unlawful Restraint:"

§ 20.02. UNLAWFUL RESTRAINT.
(a) A person commits an offense if he intentionally or knowingly restrains another person.
(b) It is an affirmative defense to prosecution under this section that:
(1) the person restrained was a child younger than 14 years of age;
(2) the actor was a relative of the child; and
(3) the actor's sole intent was to assume lawful control of the child.
(c) An offense under this section is a Class A misdemeanor, except that the offense is:
(1) a state jail felony if the person restrained was a child younger than 17 years of age; or
(2) a felony of the third degree if:
(A) the actor recklessly exposes the victim to a substantial risk of serious bodily injury;
(B) the actor restrains an individual the actor knows is a public servant while the public servant is lawfully discharging an official duty or in retaliation or on account of an exercise of official power or performance of an official duty as a public servant; or
(C) the actor while in custody restrains any other person.
(d) It is no offense to detain or move another under this section when it is for the purpose of effecting a lawful arrest or detaining an individual lawfully arrested.
(e) It is an affirmative defense to prosecution under this section that:
(1) the person restrained was a child who is 14 years of age or older and younger than 17 years of age;
(2) the actor does not restrain the child by force, intimidation, or deception; and
(3) the actor is not more than three years older than the child.

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