Pop star Boy George handcuffed a male prostitute to the wall and beat him with a metal chain as he tried to flee from a naked photo shoot, an east London court has been told.

The singer & disc jockey - being tried under his real name George O'Dowd - chained up Audun Carlsen on April 28 last year, Snaresbrook Crown Court heard at the start of Boy George's trial on assault and false imprisonment charges.

O'Dowd, 47, screamed "whore" as he and another man pinned the Norwegian to the floor in his east London home, the court heard. Carlsen met the singer on the Gaydar website and agreed to visit his house to pose naked for a photo shoot.

They took cocaine together and O'Dowd performed a sex act on 29-year- old Carlsen.

The star briefly suspected Carlsen had done something to his laptop but the pair parted on good terms.

However, O'Dowd sent him a string of e-mails accusing him of hacking into his computer and of ignoring him. They agreed a date for a second photo shoot. This time the DJ beckoned Carlsen into his bedroom, where the escort noticed a third man: "The other man didn't beat me, he just helped George hold me down. George was slapping and beating me and punching me and screaming things."

Carlsen later freed him self from a manacle attached to a hook on the wall.

The trial continues.

The Standard