Rocco Luka Magnotta: murder, video, arrest and hypocrisy

I haven't watched the video. What disturbs me most about this whole story right now is how hypocritical everybody is about censoring his videos.

Natalie Wood, truth drowned

I finally heard a few days ago news that I longed to hear ever since reading about the weird circumstances of Natalie Wood’s death.

Begging Fraudsterinae

High-street wisdom has it that donating to African women gives a bigger bang for the buck, for more of these donations will be spread within the community, benefitting more people. Perhaps this is why so many people were surprised by the latest round of cancer fakers, such as Ashley Kirilow and Jessica Ann Leeder in Ontario, Canada and Dorothy McGurk (more like a bum) in USA.

Save a life, get accused of murder

A man, awakened late at night by some major hubbub, woke up an jumped into the freezing water to save a woman from a sinking car.

Farmville infanticide

Recently, the Supreme Court has been debating suppressing violent games. There is clear evidence that they should be taking a closer look at the "innocent" Farmville (or, better yet, do nothing). We’re looking not only at Farmville, but also at South Korean game addictions and Supreme Comedy.

We do not believe that violent games cause violence anymore than so-called “click-games” the epitome of boredom and addiction on Facebook. As if to prove this assertion in the most vile manner, a Jacksonville Florida mother entered a guilty plea in the death of her son:

Alexandra V. Tobias, 22, was arrested after the January death of 3-month-old Dylan Lee Edmondson. She told investigators she became angry because the baby was crying while she was playing a computer game called FarmVille on the Facebook social-networking website. She told investigators the baby cried loudly as she played the game, which prosecutor Richard Mantei identified as FarmVille, a simulation game in which players raise crops and livestock with the help of Facebook friends.

Furthermore,

Tobias then put the baby on the couch and stepped out for a cigarette to regain her composure, the arrest report says. When she came back in, the family dog knocked the baby off the couch. The crying started again and Tobias shook the baby a second time before calling for an ambulance, the arrest report says. (..) She told the judge she'd graduated from high school. Court papers say she went to Samuel W. Wolfson Senior High School in Jacksonville. The paperwork also said Tobias did not have a job. (..) According to court records, her child abuse arrest violated a six-month probation she began serving just a few weeks before after pleading no contest to a domestic battery charge.

Farmville may have had other, even more counterintuitive effects. A story from just a few days ago in SeattleWeekly suggests that 27 y.o. Gary A. Veldhuizen from Ferndale, FarmVille player, pleaded guilty to raping a goat (i.e., bestiality):

The billy buggering took place at a farm near Enterprise Road at Willeys Lake Road in May. Apparently a family member caught Veldhuizen in mid-shag and called sheriff's deputies who came and arrested him. Veldhuizen's Facebook page shows the pudgy Ferndalian's love of ranch life extends to the virtual world as well, as he is a big fan of the game FarmVille. One of the more recent posts says he wants to "share some grape bushels with you."

Incidentally, Farmville has also other similar “click” games, one involving Mafia and organized crime, but that game has yet to result in someone’s death.

South Korea Online

Sad as it may be, this is not the first time addictive, non-violent games were involved in the death of children. Only a few months earlier, in February-March 2010, a South-Korean couple was arrested for starving their 3-month-old prematurely born daughter.

Once a day, between 12-hour stretches at a neighborhood Internet cafe, they fed their baby.  Instead of nurturing their own daughter, they became obsessed with raising a virtual child in the popular role-playing game called Prius Online. The couple were arrested in Suwon, a suburb of Seoul, 5 months after reporting the death of their baby.  The baby’s autopsy showed that she’d died due to a long period of malnutrition. (..) This is the dirty underbelly of South Korea’s fast and cheap Internet connections.  Over the last ten years, there have been many stories of Internet addiction and compulsive gaming leading to serious consequences and even death. In 2007, South Korea established an Internet addiction camp to help people overcome their addiction to the Internet.

According to PBS, in the more than 20000 Korean “PC Bangs” (i.e., Internet cafes), the more time you spend playing, the less you pay:

• Roughly 50 percent of South Koreans play games regularly, and 75 percent of gamers prefer online games
• Currently, the most played game in Korean "PC bangs" (Internet cafes) is Aion, a massively multiplayer online role playing game. It is due for release in the U.S. in fall 2009.
• In December 2008, the Korean government announced it would invest $237 million in the game industry to help expand gaming exports, which topped $1 billion for the first time in 2008.
• The South Korean online games market is expected to exceed $1.7 billion by the end of 2009
• Korea hosted the first Global Online Game Awards in 2008
• One-third of South Korea's population of 48 million has registered to play the game KartRider at least once
• Video game consoles, such as Sony PlayStation or Nintendo Wii, are less popular than PC games, in part because of widely available broadband Internet and a previous ban on Japanese cultural imports.

In 2005, a 28-year-old Korean man died after playing Starcraft almost non-stop for 50 hours. He inspired (or was he inspired by) the South Park WoW episode. He had just been fired for playing games too much. The government solution is Jump Up Internet Rescue School, a boot camp to cure online gaming addiction. According to New York Times,

South Korea boasts of being the most wired nation on earth. In fact, perhaps no other country has so fully embraced the Internet. Ninety percent of homes connect to cheap, high-speed broadband, online gaming is a professional sport, and social life for the young revolves around the “PC bang,” dim Internet parlors that sit on practically every street corner. (..) Up to 30 percent of South Koreans under 18, or about 2.4 million people, are at risk of Internet addiction, said Ahn Dong-hyun, a child psychiatrist at Hanyang University in Seoul who just completed a three-year government-financed survey of the problem. (..) To address the problem, the government has built a network of 140 Internet-addiction counseling centers, in addition to treatment programs at almost 100 hospitals and, most recently, the Internet Rescue camp, which started this summer. Researchers have developed a checklist for diagnosing the addiction and determining its severity, the K-Scale. (The K is for Korea.)

NYT offers even insight into how such addictions get started:

One participant, Lee Chang-hoon, 15, began using the computer to pass the time while his parents were working and he was home alone. He said he quickly came to prefer the virtual world, where he seemed to enjoy more success and popularity than in the real one. He spent 17 hours a day online, mostly looking at Japanese comics and playing a combat role-playing game called Sudden Attack. He played all night, and skipped school two or three times a week to catch up on sleep. When his parents told him he had to go to school, he reacted violently. Desperate, his mother, Kim Soon-yeol, sent him to the camp. “He didn’t seem to be able to control himself,” said Mrs. Kim, a hairdresser. “He used to be so passionate about his favorite subjects” at school. “Now, he gives up easily and gets even more absorbed in his games.” Her son was reluctant at first to give up his pastime. “I don’t have a problem,” Chang-hoon said in an interview three days after starting the camp. “Seventeen hours a day online is fine.” But later that day, he seemed to start changing his mind, if only slightly.

The Supremes

In USA and especially California, addiction is not seen as a problem. The “problem” is solely violent games. Recently, the Governator signed a strict law to control game violence, a law eventually appealed by a Game producers association all the way to the Supreme Court. The hearings were, according to the Hollywood reporter, cause for comedy:

1. Justice Alito getting a sly dig at his colleague over "original intent" in the U.S. Constitution: "I think what Justice Scalia wants to know is what James Madison thought about video games. Did he enjoy them?"
2. Justice Kagan, the junior member of the high court, trying to show she's hip: "You think Mortal Kombat is prohibited by this statute? It's a candidate, meaning, a reasonable jury could find that Mortal Kombat, which is an iconic game, which I am sure half of the clerks who work for us spent considerable amount of time in their adolescence playing."
3. Justice Breyer creating, excuse the pun, a tortured metaphor about a 13-year-old playing video games depicting violence: "I have tried to take as bad a [scenario] as I could think of, gratuitous torture of children. OK. Now, you can't buy a naked woman, but you can go and buy that, you say to the 13-year-old. Now, what sense is there to that?"
4. Justice Scalia muses about whether it would be a good thing to let juries act as censors: "Juries are not controllable. That's the wonderful thing about juries, also the worst thing about juries."
5. Just about anything out of the mouth of Justice Sotomayor, including these questions:

• "One of the studies, the Anderson study, says that the effect of violence is the same for a Bugs Bunny episode as it is for a violent video. So can the legislature now, because it has that study, say we can outlaw Bugs Bunny?"
• "Could you get rid of rap music? Have you heard some of the lyrics of some of the rap music...?"
• "Would a video game that portrayed a Vulcan as opposed to a human being, being maimed and tortured, would that be covered by the act?"
• "So if the video producer says this is not a human being, it's an android computer simulated person, then all they have to do is put a little artificial feature on the creature and they could sell the video game?"
• "What happens when the character gets maimed, head chopped off and immediately after it happens they spring back to life and they continue their battle? Is that covered by your act?"

It seems to me that Schwarzenegger, though not a big fan of such a law, signed it stating “children must be protected” not because he believes that, but rather because he thinks that reason is unconvincing for parents. All hopes that such ill-conceived legislation will be stopped so that it does not push game development to Asia rest now with the Supreme Court.

Video: PBS: Digital Nation: Life on the Virtual Frontier, 1 Game Too Many, sp-mlnw, sp-s10e08-inside

Sources / More info: [yt-fv-parody], [yt-fv-tr], [yt-h8-fv], [yt-h8-fv], [yt-h8-fv], [yt-fv-prblm], [yt-h8-fv], [yt-h8-fv], [Supreme Court], SC-hearing, Jacksonville-mom, jacksonville-sentencing, huff-j, /.-exodus, /.-sc, atlantic-arnold, nxtwb-sk, st-kd, nyt-kbc, gzm-bsy, Kogia-study, wiki-lv,notwc, sw-veldhuizen, fb-veldhuizen, bbc-spanish-piglet

VerbaVolant, farmville, violence, game, games, online, online games, supreme court, supremes, mmog, mmorpg, massive multiplayer, massively multiplayer, schwartzenegger

British Amazons: Female violence in UK

One woman was cleared of planting her stiletto through a man’s eye and brain. Two young women tortured a third for almost an entire day for sleeping with one's ex-boyfriend. A normal week in UK.

After learning about the woman stamping her stiletto through a man’s eye and brain, we are told that the next day she was cleared of any wrongdoing, on orders of a judge. Apparently, the man who suffered life-threatening injuries and underwent two operations was “uncooperative” and had been previously charged, though not found guilty. Here’s how the BBC describes the event:

A woman who kicked her stiletto heel through her boyfriend's eye and into his brain has been cleared of all charges on the orders of a judge.

Bradford Crown Court was told Staci Hargreaves, 34, kicked Gavin Taylor, 28, during an argument in a taxi. Mr Taylor became unconscious and had to undergo two operations in hospital. Miss Hargreaves, of Greater Manchester, was acquitted after a judge ruled there was no evidence against her claim she kicked in self-defence. On the second day of her trial, the defendant, of Stalybridge, was cleared of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and an alternative charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm.

Directing the jury to find her not guilty, judge Peter Hunt said: "There is no evidence to lead you to the conclusion the defendant was not acting in instinctive, reasonable self-defence." The jury had previously heard Miss Hargreaves was wearing 3in (7.6cm) heels, one of which caused her boyfriend serious injuries. Jurors were told she was in the back of the taxi with two other people after a night out in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, when she kicked Mr Taylor after he turned round in the front seat. He suffered life-threatening injuries and was in hospital for a month. The court was told he refused to co-operate with police and to give evidence in the trial. The judge said it was clear everyone in the group had been "heavily intoxicated with drink". One witness said Mr Taylor had slapped Miss Hargreaves earlier in the evening, knocking her to the floor. The judge was also told of a series of convictions Mr Taylor has for violence dating back more than a decade.

In 2005 he was jailed for 16 months for false imprisonment following an incident in Greater Manchester in which a man was tied up and put in a car boot before being driven to a river where he eventually drowned. After being acquitted, Miss Hargreaves said: "I just want to get my life back together again."

As for the two women torturing their friend, the Telegraph tells us:

Lucy Viner-Mood, 22, and Lois Gibson, 18, locked Georgia Fenn in a flat for 18 hours while they beat her unconscious repeatedly. Miss Fenn, 19, suffered burns from a cigarette lighter, had her ponytail cut off and suffered two black eyes and a broken nose. The two flatmates attacked her in March after hearing that she had slept with Viner-Mood’s former boyfriend, Maidstone Crown Court heard. A judge, who described the attack as “evil”, sentenced Viner-Mood to five years in jail and Gibson to three years in a young offenders institute. The pair, both of Langton Green, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, each admitted false imprisonment and assault causing actual bodily harm. Anne Phillips, prosecuting, told how terrified Georgia tried to flee her attackers by trying to get out the front door but was dragged back for further punishment. She said: “Viner-Mood stopped Miss Fenn from leaving by grabbing her arm and took her away from the door pulling her back into the living room. “At this point Gibson then got a yellow red hot lighter and pushed it onto the victim’s chin for a few minutes and also burnt her hand.” Eventually, at 2pm the next day Miss Fenn was thrown out the flat wearing just a dressing gown and no shoes. She managed to stumble onto the streets with a broken nose, second degree burns to her chin, two black eyes and covered in blood. Police arrested Viner-Mood and Gibson the following day.

It seems that Britain continues to have a serious problem with youth violence and particularly female violence. In the photo you can see Georgia Fenn, 19 (left) who was battered and imprisoned by Lucy Viner-Mood, 22 (right) - photo credited to FERRARI.

Sources / More info: women-jailed, bbc-stiletto

VerbaVolant, torture, jealousy, jealous, possessive, obsessed, obssessed, evil, beating, s&m, bdsm, discipline, sadomaso, sado-maso, sado-masochism

Cougar (46) had sex with animals

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She killed BF by sitting on him

Only in America.. This obese woman sat on her 120 lbs boyfriend during an argument, killing him.

Only a few months ago we were decrying the disastrous state of north-americans’ gut. This Cleveland woman got only 3 year probation for killing his much thinner boyfriend, also the father of her children.

Police said Mia Landingham and Mikal Middleston-Bey, who have three children together, got into an argument in August. During the altercation Landingham sat on Middleston-Bey.

Landingham pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter.

Her attorney told said there was a long history of domestic abuse in the relationship. He asked the judge for leniency and pointed out she has no prior criminal record.

Landingham she was sorry for squashing the father of her children.

"I just want to say that I am sincerely sorry about this situation. I wish I could take it back,” she said.

Landingham was sentenced to three years probation and 100 hours community service. She was immediately released from jail.

The victim’s family said they were surprised that she got no additional jail time.

"So basically you can say that I can go sit on somebody and get probation? I feel there wasn't no justice. My brother's gone and all she gets is three years probation," the victim’s brother said.

Sources / More info: dmail, fox, yt-killer-woman

More videos of female domestic violence:

yt-wbm by Philgood37

 

yt-Female Domestic Violence by vaderkenniscentrum

VerbaVolant, woman killer, kill, mdk, murder, deaths, murder death kill, Mia Landingham, obesity

ye dopes!

Stratford is known as the location of the Shakespeare Theatre Festival. It is now also the place where people get sick after stealing a marijuana cousin.

The latest hoopla that wakes people up at night in Stratford is not Shakespeare, but rather the illness resulting from confusing hemp with marijuana:

Stratford Police have issued a public alert after reports of people – “adults and youth” – helping themselves to a crop of commercial hemp that looks like marijuana but instead of delivering a high can make users “violently ill” with severe headaches, nausea and vomiting.

The crop, located just south of the Festival Marketplace Mall off C.H Meier Blvd., has become the target of thieves, police say.

“People, both adults and youth, have been going onto the property and stealing the crop, thinking it is marijuana,” said Insp. Sam Theocharis.”

“Our biggest concern is from a public-safety standpoint. Hemp is not meant for ingestion and the user will become violently ill and may very well require hospital care.”

Hemp has many industrial uses (health supplements, fibre, paper, textiles and even building materials), while marijuana is only “recreational”. The active ingredient in marijuana, THC (tetrahydrocannabino) is also present in hemp, but with a much lower concentration. Historically, one had to consume a very large quantity of hemp in order to get the high obtainable from only a few grams of marijuana, and would never get there, because of getting sick long before getting high. Furthermore, lately, because of hi-tech weed cultivation, the concentration of THC in grass has steadily increased over the years. As such, there’s no way you can get high with hemp. Just stick to your pusher, maaaaaan.

Sources / More info: lfp-dopes

Verba Volant,marijuana, dope, pot, grass, weed, smoke and mirrors, smoke, smoking, steal, stealing, hemp, thc, tlc

i had to drive - mommy was tired!

Episode 4 (season 3) from Mad Men featured grandpa teaching his granddaughter how to drive on a quiet neighbourhood street, as probably many people were doing in the 60s. Today, if a child is driving her stoned mom home, it’s news. Should it be? Really?

Our society has changed a great deal since the 60s. We live in one big safety bubble, with the president and vice-president no longer interested in upholding the US Constitution, but rather concerned with the nation’s safety at all costs. Was it that long ago that Benjamin Franklin said his famous words, warning against trading off freedom for security, as we’ll end up with neither?!?

Well, anyhow, two moms were busted for being so stoned / drunk that their kids did a better job driving. The first, had her 6-year-old drive the car because, as the kid said, mommy was too tired to drive after smoking that smelly stuff:

In the second news, mom was too drunk, ending up driving her child to the wrong school:

Said the admission officer at Harvard: “to get into our school, you have to smoke crack and your father must be head of the CIA. Then, you have to sleep in crypt. Wait, scratch that last one; it’s true only if you plan to run for president.”

As you can tell, the main thing the two mommies have in common, apart from kids, is a certain aristocratic flair – even the MILF descriptor would seem like an insult.

Here’s the sneak preview of S03E04 of Mad Men, where a grandfather is teaching his young granddaughter to drive on a residential street:

This is not the first time that show is playing with the safety and youth obsessions that have come to define our age. It wasn’t long ago that safety was not paramount and kids enjoyed a less greenhouse-bound existence, better preparing them for real life. Today, this can be seen only in developing countries..

Sources / More info: msn-stoned, msn-drunk, mad-men-ep-4, yt

Verba Volant,mom, mommy, drive, dui, stoned, kids, driving, joyride, pot, dope, marijuana, grass, smoke, weed, w33d

Consuela et Tornada en Canada

Two recent news had me scratching my head. A tornado hit northern Ontario, throwing a cabin in the lake and a teacher was found dead in the trunk of a car.

Consuelo Valencia-Russo, a 44-year-old Toronto teacher was found in the trunk of her Toyota Corolla, died by asphyxiation. She lived on Gambello Crescent, had a 14-year-old boy with Cesar Palacio, a Toronto city counsellor and had also been married to Alex Carrillo-Baquero, an Ecuadorian man. I certainly hope that the murderer is apprehended.

On the same date, it has been reported that an F2 tornado, with winds of 181-252 km/h blasted through Fisherman’s Cove Resort on the tip of Lac Seul, 200 km NE of Kenora, just after 8:30 pm. The resort is very popular with people from USA, who are attracted by excellent fishing and form over 90% of guests. The torando had lifted several cabins off the ground and tossed one into the lake. The 3 people inside, from Ponca City, Oklahoma, died. CBC reported:

Environment Canada said it issued warnings hours before the tornado hit, but those who witnessed it firsthand said they didn't expect a funnel cloud, a rarity in the region.

Kyle Kurchheidt of Wisconsin was in another cabin that was hit by the tornado, but somehow he escaped with minor injuries.

"I tried to hold on and closed my eyes and hoped I didn't get hit by something," he said.

Cody Kahoot said he was driving to Ear Falls from Dryden when he saw a large amount of debris on the highway. He said he turned into the camp to see what was happening.

"One end of the camp got hit. There's three cabins and two of them were pretty much in the lake. It just looked like a little path went right through," he said.

"There was a fridge sitting in a boat out in the lake and the whole dock had been moved."

What most fishing tourists don’t seem to know is that the fish in the Great Lakes is laden with chemicals. Although previous studies seem to indicate that salmon has the lowest concentration of mercury, this seems to no longer be the case. Environmental Defence released their report also on Friday:

The report, Up to the Gills: 2009 Update on Pollution in Great Lakes Fish, analyzes the latest fish advisories published by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment for eight species of fish in 13 locations across the Great Lakes. Many categories of fish were found to be somewhat or completely unfit for human consumption. The report also looks at fish advisories over a period of time (2005 to 2009), and finds the situation is not improving.

The major chemical contaminants that cause consumption advisories for Great Lakes fish include mercury, PCBs, pesticides, dioxins and furans.  Health effects of these chemicals include damage to the nervous, respiratory and immune system, as well as cancer.

While some lakes showed some improvements since 2005, such as Lake Huron, many areas remain very polluted.  In Lake Ontario for example, 40% of the advisories examined in this report stated that it was unsafe to eat the affected fish in any quantity.  Larger fish typically receive more severe advisories because they are generally older and have accumulated more toxins in their tissue but in Lake Ontario, even small sizes of fish are receiving the most severe advisories. 

Almost 400,000 Canadian anglers fish the Great Lakes every year. The commercial and sport fishing industries are estimated to be worth $2.45 billion a year.   While the report highlights the benefits of fish in a healthy balanced diet, it does caution consumers to watch what kinds of fish they eat and from where.

The governments of Canada and the United States recently announced that they will update the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, the bi-national agreement in place to protect and restore the Great Lakes.  First signed in 1972, the agreement has not been revised since 1978.

It is unknown if those who endured and survived the tornado exclaimed, as their cabins were lifted off the ground, gosh darn! we’re not in Kansas anymore!

Sources / More info: cbc-tornado, cbc-slain-teacher, g&m-pcb, env-def-great-lakes, yt

Verba Volant,toro, consuela, toronto, canada, ontario, valencia-russo, tornado, oklahoma, cabin, lake, fishing, salmon, trout

How Travis the Chimp went kookoo

Recently, we learned that a movie star chimp was killed by the police. Here we take a look at the story behind the story.

Here’s a list of edifying video clips:

What has really happened (our comments in red, Travis’ in italics):

• Travis was 15 years old, suffered from Lyme disease and had 200 lbs (90 kg) – trait Bush was treated of Lyme disease a few years back (wp, cbc)
• In his youth he appeared in ads for Old Navy and Coca-Cola, at the Maury Povich Show and a TV pilot – cultured and with a penchant for the finer things in life
• Travis would go for rides in his owners’ cars and trucks (they had a towing business), opened doors, dressed himself, brushed his teeth, was toilet trained, would bathe, eat at the table and drink wine from a long-stemmed glass, surfed the ‘net for porn and watched TV with the remote – if he kept the toilet seat down, he was certainly the ideal mon! 
• His owner was Sandra Herold and her 55 year old friend Charla Nash – There are a few documentaries around the sex trips taken by old, rich white women to Africa (reuters, ipinions). There’s even a German tourist who went berserk in Kenya in a similar episode (indy).
• Travis also went kookoo in 2003 when he escaped from his owners’ car and roamed the streets of downtown Stamford. He was caught only when he got exhuasted. – Travis : We goin’ downtooown, baby! Let good ol’ Travis show you a goooood tiiiime!
• The day of his death, the owner had called her friend for help. She could not manage him, even though she had given him Xanax. – Travis : Bitch, what did you put in my tea, I feel funny?!? NOOO! We ain’t gonna talk about our relationship again! I don’t luv u, can’t you get it through your head?!?
• When her friend arrived, Travis attacked her as she was getting off the car. - Travis : What don’t tell me that you thought bringing a 2nd old, useless pussy will make me happy? I liked to screw you when you were younger, now you’re like used tires! Take your pussy off my face, you make me sick! Let me just go away, fo’ Chris’sakes! Gimme the key, bitch! JUST GIMME THE FREAKIN’ KEY!!!
• The owner came back with a butcher’s knife and started to stab him (numerous times) – Travis : Oh, no. Not again. You wanna stab me cuz I won’t pleasure u no mo’?!? And what is that? You call that a knife?!? THIS is a knife!! And I won’t stab u wid it no matter how well u beg!
• Police and an ambulance came to care for the owner’s friend, then Travis attacked a few policemen. As they ran to their cars, Travis went after them, and opened the door of a cruiser. The police officer inside shot Travis numerous times. - Travis : Ye freaks! I’ll show you who’s the King of this castle! What’s that, mon? Drop the gun, let’s fight it out, mano a orangutano!
• Travis ran away and seeked shelter in his cage, where he died. – Travis : Checkmate. ‘Tis a good day 2 die.

At the end, a few clips from Monkeybone – watch it, if you’re in the mood for a weird and krazy comedy.

Sources: ng, ap, msnbc, cnn, cnni, bbc, mw, register, torstar, gm, lyme, xanax, yt

Overheard,chimp, idiocy, rage, peta, animals, pets, wild, call of the wild, dementia, monkey, bonobo, chimpanzee

Boy George allegedly imprisoned Norwegian escort

The 47-year-old singer is on trial for the false imprisonment of 29-year-old Audun Carlsen. The Norwegian escort alleges that Boy George (George O’Dowd) manacled him to a bedroom wall and beat him with a metal chain after accusing him of hacking into his computer.

They apparently met through a web site and went to Boy George’s home for a naked photo shoot. Afterward Boy George accused Carlsen of hacking into his computer, but nonetheless Carlsen agreed to a second naked photo shoot several weeks later.

Carlsen told the jury that when he arrived Boy George and another man held him down and beat him before the singer handcuffed him to a hook in the bedroom wall. "George was slapping me and beating me and punching me and screaming things," Carlsen said. Carlsen said he was able to escape by unscrewing the hook and running for the door. "I took a bit of time getting the door open and he had a metal chain that he was hitting me with," Carlsen said.

Carlsen said he ran into the street clad only in his underwear. The court was shown photographs of red welts on Carlsen's head and injuries to his arm which he said had been inflicted during the attack.

Boy George's androgynous image and powerful voice made him an `80s icon, and gave Culture Club hits including "Karma Chameleon" and "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?"

But the singer struggled for years with drug problems. In 2006 he was ordered to do community service with New York City's Department of Sanitation after pleading guilty to false reporting of an incident. He called police with a false report of a burglary at his lower Manhattan apartment, and the responding officers found cocaine inside.

Source: AP

VerbaVolant,crime, imprisonment