...but girl was 18, he says

Chris Langham has admitted to sleeping with a teenage girl – but claims child pornography found on his computer was downloaded in the name of research.

At Maidstone Crown Court, the comic actor has been accused of grooming, corrupting and ‘systematically abusing’ a 14-year-old girl.

However, Langham’s defence lawyer said he admitted only one sexual encounter with the girl, when she was 18, and that she could not cope with the rejection when he distanced himself from her.

The 58-year-old also says that child pornography that police found on his computers after raiding his home had been downloaded as research for Help, the comedy which he co-wrote with Paul Whitehouse and in which he played a psychiatrist.

However, prosecutor Richard Barraclough described that as a ‘spurious explanation, unworthy of belief’.

He told the jury: ‘If you deliberately download these type of images, you are guilty of an offence. It is no defence to say that you are doing it for research.’

Langham is said to have met the teenager in 1996 after she and her mother had been to see him in the West End production of Les Miserables more than 50 times.

The actor, a father of five who was 47 at the time, took her to expensive restaurants and hotels and eventually had full sexual intercourse with her, it was claimed.

Mr Barraclough said that as the girl got older, Langham asked her to shave her pubic hair, but she refused ‘because she was afraid her mother would find out’.

The teenager, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was an aspiring actress and had asked Langham to help her learn some Shakespeare.

‘She was a very vulnerable girl,’ the QC told the jury of eight men and four women. ‘She developed the eating disorder anorexia and as time went on Mr Langham took advantage of this vulnerability.’

During an acting lesson in his dressing room, he allegedly kissed her on the lips under the guise of teaching her the correct way to breathe.

The girl began visiting Langham on her own and their relationship became more intense. He took her to art galleries and The Ivy restaurant.

Mr Barraclough said the girl was still only 14 when Langham had full intercourse with her for the first time, after asking her for oral sex.

After that, the sexual relationship continued ‘in various places - his dressing room, hotels and his own home,’ he added.

‘It was at his own home that he showed her a pornographic video which has images of girls showering. It so happens that when police raided his house in 2005, they recovered such a video with such images.’

When police raided his house near Cranbrook, Ken,, they asked Langham if they would find any indecent images of children on his computer. He said: ’Yes, I was on a site last night. I occasionally browse porn sites.’

Three computers were examined and found to contain video clips of child pornography.

Langham later read out a prepared statement in which he said that at the time he writing Help and introducing a paedophile as a character. He accepted having the images on his computer but said he did not think he was committing a criminal offence.

He made no comment when asked to explain how viewing clips and saving them on three computers would assist his research.

Defence QC David Whitehouse said Langham accepted there was one sexual encounter with the girl in 2001 when she was 18 and they had oral sex.

‘After that, he tried to distance himself from her,’ he said. ‘This was a big mistake, as big a mistake as having sex with her in the first place, because she could not cope with rejection.

‘The sexual relationship she says she had with him never happened, apart from that.

He added that he helped the girl cope with her anorexia, having recovered from the similar psychological condition of alcoholism himself, which is why they spent time together.

Mr Whitehouse asked if any members of the jury saw Langham's series Help and after a brief pause, added: ‘Obviously not.’

Mr Whitehouse added: "There is no doubt that taking or looking at indecent images of children is horrific and disgusting. But the fact is the reason he was electing to get at this material was in order to use it to write about it so people would understand it."

Langham denies ten charges of indecent assault between January 1996 and April 1998, two counts of buggery and 15 of making indecent photographs of a child in 2005.

The trial continues on Monday.

Published: 12 Jul 2007