Boy George 'handcuffed, beat escort'

A court has heard that Boy George handcuffed and beat a male escort at his home in East London.

The former Culture Club star arranged to meet Audun Carlsen on website Gaydar and paid him £300 to pose for pornographic pictures.

Carlsen said he agreed to take part in a second shoot with the singer, real name George O'Dowd, even though they had argued after O'Dowd accused him of hacking into his laptop.

When the second shoot was finished, O'Dowd allegedly beckoned Carlsen into his bedroom, where there was another man waiting. Carlsen claimed that the pair then beat him and handcuffed him to a hook on the bedroom wall.

"They held me down and beat me. I could not move. George was slapping me and beating me and punching me and screaming things," he told London's Snaresbrook Crown Court.

He said he managed to escape the Shoreditch flat and ran out into the street in only his underwear.

O'Dowd, 46, denies charges of assault and false imprisonment. The trial continues.