September 14, 200718 yr TV star Chris Langham jailed for 10 months for downloading child porn Last updated at 18:16pm on 14th September 2007 Comments (7) Chris Langham: jailed for ten months today for downloading child porn Actor Chris Langham was jailed for 10 months today for downloading child porn. The 58-year-old Bafta award-winning star, who wept in court during his sentencing hearing at Maidstone Crown Court, downloaded images and videoclips with names such as "bondage 11-year-old", "Philippine child prostitute" and "Lolita". Langham claimed he was researching a paedophile character for a television drama and said he was trying to make sense of the sexual abuse he suffered as a child, but a jury convicted him last month of 15 counts of making an indecent photograph of a child. Langham will serve five months, less the 43 days he has already spent in custody. Judge Philip Statman said one of the victims was aged around eight-years-old, while others were between 11 and 13-years-old: "Some of the children viewed are clearly prepubescent, others are fully developed, some of the children are clearly of Filipino extract. Scroll down for more... Family solidarity: comic actor Chris Langham with his sons, from left, Dafydd, Siencyn and Glyn outside Maidstone Crown Court Read more... Timeline: How Chris Langham went from West End stage to courtroom dramaLangham: How he tried to cover his tracksLangham brought down with a crash as career peaked "All have had inflicted upon them horrifying sexual abuse and, I want to make this absolutely clear to you, I must think first of those children. They are too young to consent. "When one sees their faces, in my judgment, they are vacant and lacking in expression ... you never ever see the faces of the perpetrators. "Your activity took place in the comfort of your own home, no doubt at the time feeling safe in the knowledge that you would never be caught." When police raided the 58-year-old star's home in November 2005 as part of Operation Ore they seized three computers with files called "Lolita", "incest", "rape", "whore" and "hussy". There were also videoclips entitled "Kiddy 11-year-old", "13-year-old preteen underage" and "preteen sex education". Scroll down for more... Langham won a Bafta for his role in The Thick Of It Langham, who won a Bafta for his role in the BBC drama The Thick Of It, admitted looking at child porn but pleaded not guilty to the charges against him because, he said, he wanted to make a public declaration that he was not a paedophile. His defence was that he was conducting research for the BBC television series Help. Langham told Maidstone Crown Court he and a co-writer had created a paedophile character called Pedro whose catchphrase was "I'm only a minor offender", and wanted to explore the way society viewed sex offenders through him. The episodes, however, were never made. During his time in the witness box, Langham said he also looked at indecent images of children because it helped him to come to terms with his own sexual abuse. Scroll down for more... Langham with second wife, Christine, and daughter Emily He sobbed and sank to his knees when describing his ordeal as an eight-year-old. "I'm one of the children in the photographs," he said. He also said that the abused children were "the only brothers and sisters I have". But the jury convicted him of 15 counts of making an indecent photograph of a child between September and November 2005 after a three-week trial which finished last month. Langham, of Golford, near Cranbrook, Kent, was also accused of having sex with an underage girl in upmarket hotels, his West End dressing room, his car and his home. Their relationship began when he gave the girl acting lessons in his room at the Palace Theatre while he was starring as Thenardier in Les Miserables in 1996, the court was told. But the jury accepted his account that he only had sex with her when she was 18 and cleared him of six counts of indecent assault and two counts of buggery between January 1996 and April 2000. Langham had denied all the charges. Remanding him in custody until sentencing, Judge Philip Statman said he had viewed such serious indecent images of children that the custody threshold had been "well and truly passed". He said a pre-sentence report would help him assess the danger Langham posed to children, adding: "I will also be looking at punishment and deterrence." The judge also ordered Langham to sign the sex offenders' register. Langham's barrister, David Whitehouse QC, said at the time that he hoped the judge might show "mercy" and hand him a suspended sentence, given the "special circumstances in this case".
September 15, 200718 yr Author Free by New Year: Outrage at paedophile actor Chris Langham's short prison sentence By CHARLOTTE GILL and BETH HALE - More by this author » Last updated at 00:10am on 15th September 2007 Comments (7) Chris Langham could be free by the New Year after he was jailed for only ten months for downloading child porn. Once the 43 days he has spent in jail since his conviction are taken into account, the actor will serve just over three and a half months. Police described the internet images viewed by Langham as some of the most shocking they had seen. Scroll down for more... Chris Langham: Blew kisses at his sons as he left the court The sentence outraged child protection groups. One video found at his home featured a girl of eight who was being abused by her father and has since been rescued by police. She had been subjected to what is known as 'level 5 abuse' - the most extreme level and which can include sadism and bestiality. In the film she was bound, naked and blindfolded, and tied to a ceiling. Her father, who shot the images, has now been prosecuted. Michele Elliott, director of Kidscape, called Langham's sentence 'derisory'. She added: "The message this sends out is that it's not that serious. People who commit offences against animals get longer. "Judges don't seem to understand that people like Langham create a market for sexually abused kids." The pictures were so depraved that the jury were spared having to view them in their entirety but those they did see brought one woman to tears. Langham, 58, claimed he downloaded them for research as his role as a psychiatrist in the BBC2 series Help, in which he starred with comedian Paul Whitehouse. Scroll down for more... Second wife, Christine, with daughter Emily, was 'shocked and angry at his stupidity' He tried to convince the jury he wasn't a paedophile, saying that, as a victim of abuse himself as a child, had wanted to 'look into the eyes of an offender'. But as Judge Philip Statman pointed out, only the eyes of tortured children could be seen. He told him: "All have had inflicted upon them horrifying sexual abuse and, I want to make this absolutely clear to you, I must think first of those children. "When one sees their faces, in my judgment, they are vacant and lacking in expression. You never ever see the faces of the perpetrators." Langham sat with his head bowed during most of the lengthy hearing, at one point breaking down in tears. As he left court he blew kisses at his father and three adult sons from his first marriage to actress Sue Jones-Davies. He will be on the Sex Offenders' Register for ten years and be subject to a fiveyear prevention order. Scroll down for more... Family solidarity: Comic actor Chris Langham with his sons, from left, Dafydd, Siencyn and Glyn outside Maidstone Crown Court His second wife, actress and choreographer Chrissie Cartwright, was not in court to see him sentenced. But she said in a statement she was 'shocked and angry at his stupidity and thoughtlessness' but described him as a 'wonderful father'. She added: "When I ask the children what they think about their father all they say is that he would not hurt anyone, he would not hurt a fly." Outside court, Langham's solicitor, Angus McBride read an extraordinary statement in which the actor claimed the court had confirmed he was not a paedophile. It was the final chapter in the downfall of a man who had taken four decades to reach the pinnacle of his career. Last year he won two Baftas for Help and the BBC political satire The Thick of It. Langham, from Golford, near Cranbrook, Kent, was found guilty of 15 offences of accessing child-abuse images last month after a three-week trial at Maidstone Crown Court. He was cleared of grooming and abusing a girl he met when she came to see him in the West End production of Les Miserables as a 14-year-old. The girl, now 25, contacted police after Langham's arrest in November 2005 as part of Operation Ore, which led to the arrest of high-profile figures including Who guitarist Pete Townshend. Jurors chose to believe Langham's story that he had taken the mixed-up teenager under his wing and only had sex with her once when she was 18. They were in no doubt, however, about his obsession with child abuse images. The night before his arrest, he downloaded files with names such as 'teenage girl raped on beach by five guys' and 'Philippine child prostitute'. Chris Langham's father (right) and actor Dudley Sutton (back) leave Maidstone Crown Court in Kent, after Chris Langham was sentenced to 10 months in prison Langham won a Bafta for his role in The Thick Of It Langham collects his Bafta for The Thick Of It
September 15, 200718 yr he got 10 months and 2 graffiti artists get 12 months & 15 months respectively?????????????
September 15, 200718 yr Author Without going into too many details, he has a "certain look", don't you think??:rolleyes:
September 15, 200718 yr he got 10 months and 2 graffiti artists get 12 months & 15 months respectively????????????? horrible
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