Boy George charged with serious crime

November 13, 2007

Former Culture Club singer Boy George was charged with false imprisonment Monday following a complaint by a London man.

The ex-Culture Club singer was charged Monday after appearing alongside his attorney at a London police station, Metropolitan Police spokesman Andrew Newman said.

Newman said the singer, whose real name is George O'Dowd, was first arrested in April this year over an alleged incident at a premises in Shoreditch, in East London, after a complaint by Auden Karlsen.

"George O'Dowd, 47, was charged with false imprisonment of a 28-year-old male at an address in Ravey Street on the 28 April 2007," he told CNN.

Newman said the singer was released on bail and was bound to appear at the city's Thames Magistrates Court on November 22.

No one from the singer's agents, the William Morris Agency, which is based in New York, was immediately available to comment on the charge.

The star -- whose hits include "Karma Chameleon" and "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?" -- quit Culture Club in 1987 and embarked on a short solo career before reinventing himself as a club DJ and launching a fashion label, B-Rude.