Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Zara Woodcock

Richard Madeley slams I'm A Celeb stars for not quizzing Boy George on prison spell

Richard Madeley called out I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! stars for not grilling Boy George about his past stint in prison.

In the late 2000s, Boy George was convicted of assault and false imprisonment after he was found guilty of handcuffing Norwegian model and male escort Audun Carlsen to a wall fixture and beating him with a metal chain.

The Karma Chameleon singer, 61, plead not guilty and was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment, with four of them being spent in prison.

He was required to wear an ankle monitor and submit to a curfew for the remainder of his sentence.

Good Morning Britain star Richard was wildly unimpressed with the lack of probing from Boy George's fellow campmates regarding the situation.

He said to GMB co-presenter Susanna Reid: "He’s not been questioned about it. He chained someone to a radiator for a very long time and beat them up."

Boy George was jailed in 2009 (ITV)

Susanna kept things calm and said: "Well he denies the beating," to which Richard responded: "Well he was convicted and spent four months in prison and no one has mentioned it to him at all."

He added: "I wonder if that’s because they’ve forgotten it."

Susanna reminded him that it happened 'more than 10 years ago'.

"Yeah. He says it was a psychotic episode partly fuelled by drugs, that’s his rationale," Richard added.

Richard wondered why no one has asked him about it (ITV)

Audun, now 43, previously slammed I'm A Celeb for having Boy George on the reality show.

"Had I been a woman and he did what he did, he would never have been given the platform," he told the Mirror.

"It’s hurtful that big organisations like ITV give him that platform.

“I think giving him this sort of platform and a record fee sends the wrong message to survivors of violence and abuse and is plain wrong.”

Audun previously slammed the show for putting him on it (Julian Hamilton/Sunday Mirror)

Get all the biggest showbiz news straight into your inbox. Sign up for the free Mirror Showbiz newsletter.

Boy George claimed he was high on cocaine and having a psychotic episode at the time of the attack.

He sought treatment afterward and has been drug-free since.

George pleaded not guilty to false imprisonment and has always denied a court claim that he beat Audun with a chain.

In 2017, he appeared on Piers Morgan’s Life Stories and broke down talking about the event.

He said: “I sent myself to prison. I told police why I did what I did. I was having a psychotic episode. I was a drug addict so I can’t say my reasons for doing it were founded in any way. But I told the truth. I have always denied beating the guy.”

Do you have a story to sell? Get in touch with us at webcelebs@mirror.co.uk or call us direct at 0207 29 33033.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.