Chris Langham - Arrest and Conviction

Arrest and Conviction

On 29 November 2005, Langham was arrested by Kent Police in connection with Operation Ore, a multi-agency, international investigation into credit/debit card customers paying to access/download indecent/abuse images of children on the internet. The arrest was first reported in the press on 16 December 2005, in response to which Langham's lawyer read a statement in which he said that he was innocent, and pointed out that he had not been charged. On 11 May 2006 he was charged with 15 counts of "making indecent images" (a technical legal term actually meaning to download and store abuse/indecent images as distinct from the act of photography) of children.

The trial took place during July and August 2007. Part of Langham's defence to these charges in court was that they were research on a paedophile character "Pedro" for a television comedy. Langham's former Help co-star/writer Paul Whitehouse confirmed that the character was referred to as a "peeping tom" who was prone to highly dubious sexual behaviour. "It was implied he had rubbed up against someone on a train" Whitehouse stated in court. Whitehouse stated that he was unaware that the character was intended to be a paedophile, nor was he personally aware of Langham obtaining such material for the development of the programme's script. However, a script was read out in which Pedro ogles young women and says: "God sent these young girls to me as temptation and I failed."

A selection of files and images found on Langham's laptop computer was shown to the jury on 25 July 2007. Langham stated under oath that he had been sexually abused by a stranger as a child, and admitted having pornography to help him "work through" his own psychological difficulties which resulted, but denied being himself a paedophile. He stated of one pornographic film downloaded that "I talked to my wife about it. I’m one of the children in the photographs. That’s the problem I have with it. I don’t know how to react to it," adding:

On 2 August 2007 Langham was found guilty on charges of possessing child pornography and made to sign the sexual offenders register. He was remanded in custody pending sentencing on 14 September. Langham was also charged with eight sexual offences against an unnamed woman who was below the age of 16 at the time the assaults supposedly happened. Langham was acquitted of all these charges in the same trial where the pornography offences were considered. He was sentenced to ten months in prison on 14 September 2007.

Langham stated throughout that he was determined to clear his name but withdrew from all BBC projects pending the outcome of the case. On 5 December 2006 it was reported that he was banned from attending the 2006 British Comedy Awards despite his current show, The Thick of It, being a contender for an award. Many industry commentators suggested that the jailing of Langham would bring an abrupt halt to the actor and writer's 30-year comedy career, just as it was peaking.

He was released on 14 November 2007 after his sentence was reduced to six months on appeal. Dame Heather Steel, who gave the Appeal Court's decision, said that the court viewed Langham's explanation as "highly improbable" but could not actually reject it, although he was still guilty of encouraging "despicable acts" through downloading the pornography. On his release, Langham stated "My life has been ruined but my conscience is clear" and complained that the media "completely ignored" the court's "acceptance based upon all the evidence and expert opinion that I have no sexual interest in children".