TV actor Chris Langham's 'affair with 14-year-old he met at stage door'

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12 April 2012

Award-winning actor Chris Langham groomed then repeatedly had sex with a 14-year-old fan, a court heard.

Langham, 58, was starring in the West End production of Les Miserables when he met the girl, and first indecently assaulted her in his theatre changing room, it was claimed.

He went on to have full sex with and carried out unlawful sex acts on her over more than three years - in cars, hotel rooms and his own marital home, the jury was told.

Twice-married Langham, who stars in the TV political comedy The Thick Of It, was accused of the sex offences while already being questioned over child pornography found on three of his computers.

The father of five admits he and the girl, who is now 25 and cannot be named for legal reasons, did perform sex acts with each other but insists it only happened once, when she was 18. He claims she fabricated the earlier sexual encounters.

He also admits watching the films of men having sex with children between September and November 2005. But he says it was research for a paedophile character in the BBC TV comedy Help, which he wrote and co-starred in.

The jury at Maidstone Crown Court in Kent heard yesterday that the star of Help, actor Paul Whitehouse, is due to give evidence. Langham, of Cranbrook in Kent, denies ten charges of indecently assaulting a child, between 1996 and 1998, when she turned 16, one charge each of carrying out an illegal sex act when the girl was under 16 and under 18 respectively, and 15 of storing child pornography on his computer.

Prosecutor Richard Barraclough QC told the jury: "This case concerns an allegation of grooming and systematic abuse by a 47-year-old man of a 14-year-old girl.

"On her 14th birthday her mother took her to see Les Miserables at the Palace Theatre. Mr Langham was starring as the character Thenardier.

"At the end of the show the girl managed to get his autograph. Thereafter, the girl and her mother saw Les Miserables in excess of 50 times. They used to wait at the stage door, and both became friendly with Mr Langham.

"The girl became very close to Mr Langham, so much so that she asked him for help learning Shakespeare for an audition. He bought her books including The Merchant of Venice. He gave her acting lessons.

"She was very vulnerable. Her parents had split up, and she developed anorexia. Mr Langham took advantage. He made her feel very special.

"But then, during one acting lesson in his theatre dressing room, he took the opportunity to kiss her on the lips - under the guise of teaching the correct way to breathe. She told her mother, but her mother seems to have thought little of it."

The prosecutor-went on: "Their relationship became more intense. He took her to art galleries. He took her to the Ivy restaurant. He was considered a family friend, and she met his family.

"The next occasion anything sexual happened was again in his dressing room, when he kissed her and rubbed himself against her."

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Starring role: Langham (left) in TV comedy 'The Thick Of It'

Shortly after, when the girl was still 14, they had full sex for the first time, said Mr Barraclough, in a room Langham booked at the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington, where he asked her to bite his nipples.

The previously alcoholic actor went on to have sex with her over the next three years in various locations, the jury was told.

Once, in his own home, Langham showed the girl a pornographic video featuring girls showering, the court heard - and when police later raided his home in 2005 they recovered just such a video.

By around 1999 the relationship "fizzled out", said Mr Barraclough - although they had sex once again in 2005. The prosecutor continued: "After they'd had sex then, the defendant said 'You're still a little girl to me'."

In November 2005, the court heard, police searched Langham's home, and found a collection of child porn films on computer. Some were 'category five', the most serious level.

In July 2006 he was arrested over indecently assaulting the fan, who kept a scrapbook of their alleged affair. He initially refused to comment on any offence, before eventually claiming the films were "research".

Mr Barraclough said: "That is a spurious explanation unworthy of belief - but in any case, if you deliberately download this type of image you are guilty of an offence."

David Whitehouse QC, defending, said his client denied sexually abusing the girl but added: 'He accepts there was one sexual encounter between them in 2001, when she was 18.

"After that he tried to distance himself from her.

"This was a big mistake - as big a mistake as having sex with her in the first place - because she cannot cope with rejection. The girl was a very disturbed young woman. She turned to Chris Langham. He was trying to help her."

Langham has three sons by his first wife, actress Sue Jones-Davies, and two children by his second, stage director Christine Cartwright.

He won the 2006 Bafta Best Comedy Performance award for his role in The Thick Of It.

The trial continues.

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