Former Culture Club frontman Boy George is being charged with chaining a male escort to his bedroom wall and beating him with a metal chain.

During a court hearing jurors heard the story of Boy George, whose real name is George O’Dowd, handcuffing Audun Carlsen, 29 in his home in east London last April after accusing the escort of hacking into his laptop.

O’Dowd met Carlsen through the online social networking site, Gaydar. According to the charges Carlsen said the attack occurred during the second visit he paid to the singer’s home. Carlsen claims that he was beckoned into the singer’s bedroom, and there he discovered a second unidentified man was waiting for him.

“As soon as I saw the other guy they were both jumping on me, Carlsen said. “They held me down and beat me. I could not move. I was so scared – I managed to get loose and I started running. They pulled me down on to the floor and they were sitting on top of me. The other man didn’t beat me he just helped George to hold me down. George was slapping me and beating me and punching me and screaming things.”

Carlsen told the court that he was dragged along the floor towards a bed and a handcuffed. The manacle was attached to a hook drilled into the wall by the bed. He eventually managed to free himself from the restraints and began his escape.

The escort explained that, during their first meeting, the pair arranged a pornographic photo shoot during which they took cocaine and O’Dowd allegedly performed a sex act on Carlsen. Jurors were told that O’Dowd believed Carlsen had tampered with his computers during that first encounter. However the couple ended their meeting on a positive note and continued to stay in touch through the Gaydar site.

Carlsen described to the court that some of O’Dowd’s e-mails were a bit strange, saying that O’Dowd ranted about repeated attempts to hack into his system and claimed “a fixated lesbian” had cloned his machine and was operating it remotely from the United States. Carlsen said that O’Dowd later apologized for the tone of his e-mails and set up a second meeting with Carlsen, and that’s when the alleged attack took place.