The Voice fans react with horror to judge Boy George's shocking past

Younger fans of The Voice Australia have reacted with sheer horror after learning the sordid details of coach Boy George’s past.

From battling a heroin addiction to imprisoning a male escort and chaining him to a radiator, the ’80s hitmaker wasn’t always the family-friendly TV star we know today.

After details of his darker days resurfaced on Tuesday, viewers flocked to Facebook to question how he was allowed on The Voice’s judging panel in the first place.

‘How’d he get a work visa?’ Younger fans of The Voice Australia have reacted with sheer horror after learning the sordid details of coach Boy George’s past. Pictured: Boy George flipping the bird at paparazzi in the streets of London on August 21, 2009

‘How’d he get a work visa? Chris Brown and other singers get denied visas,’ one bewildered fan commented.

‘I didn’t think he would be allowed into Australia with that sort of conviction,’ another person agreed.

‘Who would employ him?’ wrote a third horrified viewer.

He’s a Karma Chameleon! He may seem harmless today, but The Voice judge Boy George was once a deeply troubled man battling legal problems and a heroin addiction

‘I didn’t think he would be allowed into Australia’: After details of Boy George’s darker days resurfaced this week, viewers flocked to Facebook to question how he was allowed on TV

Other people wondered if things would be different if the male escort who George imprisoned back in 2007 had been a woman.

‘If his victim was female, he’d never have been allowed in [to Australia] without a fuss,’ one Facebook user wrote.

However, there were just as many fans ready to defend the Culture Club star’s past mistakes, with one commenting: ‘Everyone deserves a second chance’.

Support: However, there were just as many fans ready to defend the Culture Club star’s past mistakes, with one commenting: ‘Everyone deserves a second chance’

Similar comments included: ‘Go George, I like the new you,’ and, ‘He’s proof you can turn your life around and come back from rock bottom.’

Long before he was a prime time TV personality, Boy George was a notorious tabloid fixture who battled a heroin habit and once imprisoned a Norwegian male escort.

He burst onto the music scene in the early ’80s with his band Culture Club, known for their No. 1 hits Do You Really Want To Hurt Me? and Karma Chameleon.

Throwback! Boy George burst onto the music scene in the early ’80s with his band Culture Club, known for their No. 1 hits Do You Really Want To Hurt Me? and Karma Chameleon. Pictured with Debbie Harry in London in 1987

At the time, the English singer sent shockwaves across the globe with his flamboyant clothing and androgynous appearance.

Since then, he has reinvented himself several times as a solo artist, DJ and writer of musicals, while also making headlines over a variety of scandals.

By the mid 1980s, George was exposed by the tabloids as a heroin addict. Further drug problems and internal feuding led to Culture Club’s demise in 1986.

Demons: By the mid ’80s, Boy George had been exposed as a heroin addict. Pictured after a pre-trial hearing following his arrest for cocaine possession in NYC on March 8, 2006

He later bounced back with a successful career as a solo artist in the late ’80s, before reinventing himself once again in the ’90s as a critically-acclaimed DJ.

In 2003, George moved to the U.S. when his autobiographical musical Taboo transferred to Broadway.

However, his previous drug problems returned to haunt him in 2005 when he was arrested in New York on suspicion of possessing cocaine.

Paying his debt to society: The Culture Club star was given community service in 2006 after pleading guilty to falsely reporting a burglary at his New York apartment. Pictured: Boy George cleaning the streets of lower Manhattan on August 15, 2006

His face says it all! In 2006, Boy George was ordered to sweep rubbish from the streets for a week in New York City as part of his community service

The charge was eventually dropped, but George was given community service in 2006 after pleading guilty to falsely reporting a burglary at his NYC apartment.

He was ordered to sweep rubbish from the streets for a week as part of his community service.

George hit rock bottom in December 2008, when he was convicted for the assault and false imprisonment of Norwegian male sex worker Audun Carlsen during a ‘psychotic episode’ the previous year.

End of an era: Culture Club disbanded in 1986, partly due to Boy George’s drug problems

The superstar, who famously once said he preferred ‘a cup of tea’ to sex, shackled Mr Carlsen to a radiator and whipped him with a chain while screaming abuse.

At the time, George was in the grips of an expensive heroin habit.

The pair had met through the gay dating service Gaydar Commercial, where Mr Carlsen offered his services for ‘£400 a night’.

Scandal: Boy George hit rock bottom in December 2008, when he was convicted for the assault and false imprisonment of Norwegian male sex worker Audun Carlsen during a ‘psychotic episode’ the previous year. Pictured: Audun Carlsen at court on November 24 2008

Mr Carlsen, then 28, said he was forced into handcuffs by George and another man before he was dragged across the floor, attached to a large bolt on the wall and beaten.

He managed to free himself and fled in his underpants into the street, screaming at pedestrians for help.

Condemning his ‘premeditated’, ‘callous’ and drug-fuelled frenzy which ‘traumatised’ Mr Carlsen, the judge said George had ‘deprived [the victim] of his liberty and his human dignity’.

Judgment: Condemning his ‘premeditated’, ‘callous’ and drug-fuelled frenzy which ‘traumatised’ Mr Carlsen, the judge said Boy George had ‘deprived [the victim] of his liberty and his human dignity’. Pictured: Boy George outside his London home in January 2009

The star was jailed for 15 months for the attack of ‘gratuitous violence’.

Since then, George has turned over a new leaf and celebrated a decade of sobriety in April 2018.

Speaking of this incredible feat, George said last year: ‘I would say everything good in my life is because I’m clean and I’m able to really enjoy what I do in a way I couldn’t before.’

New leaf: Since the regrettable incident with Mr Carlsen, Boy George has turned over a new leaf and celebrated a decade of sobriety in April last year. Pictured in August 2009

In 2012, he said that practicing Nichiren Buddhism was the secret behind his sobriety. By 2014, he had also adopted a completely raw vegan diet.

George joined the cast of The Voice UK in 2016, replacing Tom Jones, and debuted on the Australian series the following year.

He also makes regular appearances on The Real Housewives Beverley Hills as a friend of cast member Dorit Kemsley, whose husband Paul ‘PK’ Kemsley happens to be George’s manager.