Drugs made me do it – Boy George

BOY George has claimed he was having a drug-induced “psychotic episode” when he kept a male escort prisoner at his flat in London in April 2007.

The Culture Club singer, pictured, was sentenced to 15 months in prison – serving only four – in 2009 for false imprisonment after he handcuffed sex worker Audun Carlsen to a wall, whipped him with a chain and hurled abuse at him. Although he is ashamed of what he did, he’s blamed his behaviour on drugs.

Speaking on Britain’s talk show Piers Morgan’s

Life Stories, George said: “One thing people don’t know is that I was prosecuted on my own evidence. I sent myself to prison. I told the police why I did what I did. In hindsight, I was having a psychotic episode. I was a drug addict so I can’t sit here and say my reasons for doing it were founded in any way. But I told the truth. I said: ‘This is why I did it. I was having a paranoid episode’. ”

George, 55, said: “I have always denied beating the guy. I don’t think (apologising to the victim) would make any difference. I always felt like not talking about it was dignified. All of it was the drugs. There is no way on God’s earth this would happen if I had not been on drugs.

“I kind of took responsibility but in my way. It is in my nature to spill my guts. I never really tell lies and sometimes it has worked against me.”

During his time in Pentonville Prison in London, George – who used his real name of George O’Dowd at the time – fell victim to a string of homophobic attacks. “When I was in prison a lot of my friends blew me away. But Stephen Fry wrote to me, it was very humbling. I had a few altercations with other prisoners who were homophobic but it was not a shock. I was not scared. I made friends with people. I worked in the kitchen, which was great.” Prior to his prison sentence, the Karma Chameleon hit-maker spent up to £400 a day on heroin and thinks he was probably close to death but didn’t realise the danger he was in at the time because he was too high on the drug to focus on real life.

His family and friends begged him to get help and Sir Richard Branson allowed him to use his mansion as rehab but George thinks prison saved him.

“The best thing that happened to me was getting sober. My friend told me to go with him to a meeting and I went and it was awful but then I thought: ‘This is where I need to be.’

“By the grace of God, I have stayed sober.” – Bang Media