Singer Boy George was found guilty today of falsely imprisoning a Norwegian male escort by handcuffing him to a wall.
The former Culture Club frontman was at Snaresbrook Crown Court in east London to hear the verdict, which came at the end of a two-week trial.
The jury broke to consider its verdict yesterday afternoon. He will be sentenced next month.
The 47-year-old, tried under his real name George O'Dowd, denied falsely imprisoning Audun Carlsen at his flat in April last year.
O'Dowd told police he had invited Mr Carlsen (29) to his home after a cocaine-fuelled pornographic photo shoot in January because he suspected the Norwegian of stealing pictures from his computer, taken by O’Dowd when the pair met three months earlier.
He denied to police that he punched or assaulted Mr Carlsen or swung a chain at him as the escort fled the flat and suggested the bruises Mr Carlsen sustained could have been due to the fact that he was HIV positive.
During the trial, Mr Carlsen countered that the singer had handcuffed him to a wall and beaten him with a chain because he was angry he had refused to sleep with him when they first met.
O'Dowd did not give evidence during the trial.
The court heard Mr Carlsen describe how he sustained injuries during their meeting in April, 2007, from being beaten and handcuffed.
O'Dowd's lawyer said the injuries were consistent with bondage gear the Norwegian had worn.
The singer shot to fame in the 1980s, thanks to his distinctive voice and androgynous image, and Culture Club topped the charts with hits like Karma Chameleonand Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?
But he has struggled with drug problems, and in 2006 served community service in New York after admitting to falsely reporting a burglary. Police responding to his call found 13 bags of cocaine in his apartment.