Boy George Begins Prison Stay

01/19/09 1:03pm

by Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

Boy George, who began serving a 15-month sentence for false imprisonment this past weekend, was reportedly terrified of going to jail because he fears he'll be killed because he's gay.

The former Culture Club frontman was crying while being kept in a holding cell on Friday before he was transferred to London's HMP Pentonville prison, according to the U.K.'s The Sun tabloid.

"He was shaking like a leaf, a total wreck," inmate Richard Lyttle said. "He kept sobbing, 'I can't go to jail, I'll be killed.'"

But another inmate told The Sun that the man born George O'Dowd should be safe because he's been put "in a cell with a Rasta guy to protect him and there is always a guard close by."

O'Dowd will make six pounds (about $11 Canadian) a week serving inmates food at HMP Pentonville's A Wing.

Another inmate said people are aware of who the singer is, but O'Dowd — who dined on microwaved fish, chips and mushy peas for his first prison meal — shouldn't expect special privileges.

"The dish was tastier than the fish," an inmate told The Sun. "It must have been a shock.

"Conditions here are rubbish and so is the food, nothing like he's used to."

The inmate added that O'Dowd has "been very quiet. He's not been crying but seems to be in another world and sleeps a lot."