Chris Langham, the award-winning comic actor and scriptwriter, is in jail after being found guilty of downloading pornographic images of children being abused.
Langham has been acquitted of indecently assaulting a girl
The 58-year-old comedian, who was acquitted by a jury of eight charges of sexually assaulting a schoolgirl, now faces up to 10 years in prison for viewing paedophile videos and photographs on his computers at his farmhouse home near Cranbrook, Kent.
Langham, whose BBC shows 'The Thick of It’ and 'Help’ shared three Baftas last year, was ordered by a judge at Maidstone Crown Court to be held in jail until he is sentenced on September 14. His career now stands in ruins.
Clearly indicating that he was considering imposing a lengthy jail sentence, Judge Phillip Statman said that the images found on Langham’s computers - several of which were of the worst, level 5 category - "well and truly passed the custody threshold".
Ordering Langham to be remanded in custody until sentencing, the judge told him: "In my judgment - and I have thought long and hard about this - it would be a misplaced kindness to give you bail at this stage."
advertisementLangham, dressed in a dark grey suit, closed his eyes but showed no other emotion.
As he was led away to the cells, prior to being taken to Elmley Prison on the Isle of Sheppey, he blew a kiss to his three, grown-up sons in the public gallery.
David Whitehouse QC, his barrister, had made it plain to the judge that he would be seeking a suspended jail sentence next month and said that sending Langham to prison until he was sentenced would mean "he will always carry the stigma of a prison sentence for the rest of his life".
Even though he had pleaded not guilty to 15 charges of downloading indecent images of children, Langham, a twice married father of five, had admitted from the start that he had stored them on his home computers between September-November, 2005.
When police raided his house as part of Operation Ore they seized three computers containing video clips ranging in length from a few seconds to up to nearly six minutes.
The clips had titles such as "Kiddy 11-year-old", "13-year-old pre-teen underage" and "Pre-teen sex education".
Langham said that he had only downloaded them for a character he was writing for the second series of 'Help’.
Fellow comedian Paul Whitehouse, his co-writer on the series, failed to back up this claim, however, when he was called to give evidence at the trial.
Langham also claimed in court that he wanted to "look into the eyes" of the abusers after revealing that, as an eight-year-old living in Canada, he had been sodomised by a man who had taken him on a weekend’s sailing.
He said that he was denying downloading the child pornography because he did not want to be branded a paedophile.
He also claimed that viewing the images had made him feel like he was putting 'his face in a chainsaw’.
However, the jury of seven men and four women took only two hours and 40 minutes to reach their verdicts, clearing Langham of any involvement in six indecent assaults and two charges of buggery on a teenager.
His alleged victim, who had a history of mental illness, had told the court that she had lost her virginity to Langham a few weeks after her 14th birthday, when he was starring in 'Les Miserables’ at the Palace Theatre in London.
Langham had told the court that he had only had oral sex with her, and that was when she was 18.
The alleged victim, now a 25-year-old shop assistant, came forward after the police raid on his home.
In a statement Langham issued after being taken to the cells, he said: "I’m absolutely delighted my name has been cleared of all the charges I have consistently denied. I have been found guilty of charges I made admissions to from the moment of my first arrest. I’m grateful to the jury for their careful deliberation."
Thanking the press for their "restraint", he added: "I implore them to continue to grant my family the privacy they need."
Angus McBride, his solicitor, said that the actor was "OK - he’s surviving".
so what i am asking is: is it ok to to download and keep images of young children getting abused on your computer for "research" purposes?
i personally dont think so.
Langham has been acquitted of indecently assaulting a girl
The 58-year-old comedian, who was acquitted by a jury of eight charges of sexually assaulting a schoolgirl, now faces up to 10 years in prison for viewing paedophile videos and photographs on his computers at his farmhouse home near Cranbrook, Kent.
Langham, whose BBC shows 'The Thick of It’ and 'Help’ shared three Baftas last year, was ordered by a judge at Maidstone Crown Court to be held in jail until he is sentenced on September 14. His career now stands in ruins.
Clearly indicating that he was considering imposing a lengthy jail sentence, Judge Phillip Statman said that the images found on Langham’s computers - several of which were of the worst, level 5 category - "well and truly passed the custody threshold".
Ordering Langham to be remanded in custody until sentencing, the judge told him: "In my judgment - and I have thought long and hard about this - it would be a misplaced kindness to give you bail at this stage."
advertisementLangham, dressed in a dark grey suit, closed his eyes but showed no other emotion.
As he was led away to the cells, prior to being taken to Elmley Prison on the Isle of Sheppey, he blew a kiss to his three, grown-up sons in the public gallery.
David Whitehouse QC, his barrister, had made it plain to the judge that he would be seeking a suspended jail sentence next month and said that sending Langham to prison until he was sentenced would mean "he will always carry the stigma of a prison sentence for the rest of his life".
Even though he had pleaded not guilty to 15 charges of downloading indecent images of children, Langham, a twice married father of five, had admitted from the start that he had stored them on his home computers between September-November, 2005.
When police raided his house as part of Operation Ore they seized three computers containing video clips ranging in length from a few seconds to up to nearly six minutes.
The clips had titles such as "Kiddy 11-year-old", "13-year-old pre-teen underage" and "Pre-teen sex education".
Langham said that he had only downloaded them for a character he was writing for the second series of 'Help’.
Fellow comedian Paul Whitehouse, his co-writer on the series, failed to back up this claim, however, when he was called to give evidence at the trial.
Langham also claimed in court that he wanted to "look into the eyes" of the abusers after revealing that, as an eight-year-old living in Canada, he had been sodomised by a man who had taken him on a weekend’s sailing.
He said that he was denying downloading the child pornography because he did not want to be branded a paedophile.
He also claimed that viewing the images had made him feel like he was putting 'his face in a chainsaw’.
However, the jury of seven men and four women took only two hours and 40 minutes to reach their verdicts, clearing Langham of any involvement in six indecent assaults and two charges of buggery on a teenager.
His alleged victim, who had a history of mental illness, had told the court that she had lost her virginity to Langham a few weeks after her 14th birthday, when he was starring in 'Les Miserables’ at the Palace Theatre in London.
Langham had told the court that he had only had oral sex with her, and that was when she was 18.
The alleged victim, now a 25-year-old shop assistant, came forward after the police raid on his home.
In a statement Langham issued after being taken to the cells, he said: "I’m absolutely delighted my name has been cleared of all the charges I have consistently denied. I have been found guilty of charges I made admissions to from the moment of my first arrest. I’m grateful to the jury for their careful deliberation."
Thanking the press for their "restraint", he added: "I implore them to continue to grant my family the privacy they need."
Angus McBride, his solicitor, said that the actor was "OK - he’s surviving".
so what i am asking is: is it ok to to download and keep images of young children getting abused on your computer for "research" purposes?
i personally dont think so.
