Chris Langham

[cymrococh]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2214015,00.html

 

The comedy actor Chris Langham today claimed he was being "compassionate and sympathetic" when he looked at the child porn that put him in prison.

The Bafta award-winner, who was released early from jail last week, denied he had any sexual interest in children but admitted looking at the images was "completely wrong".

 

In an interview with Sky News, the disgraced star of the TV series The Thick Of It revealed he may have been filmed by the man who abused him as an eight-year-old child.

 

 

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He also described how a chance call from an old friend was the only thing that had stopped him killing himself after being charged by police.

"It was wrong of me to look and I'm sorry that I did, and I paid a heavy price for it," he said.

 

"I found them (the images) too upsetting and distasteful and disturbing. So I looked because I felt that I was going to tell the story with a responsible and caring attitude.

 

"In my mind was that because I knew that I was doing it in a compassionate and sympathetic way, I didn't feel at the time a bad person. But I knew it was against the law."

 

Langham, 58, revealed that he had not paid for any of the images he downloaded and had looked at only four of them.

 

He said that when he logged on to the child porn sites, he feared he might see images of himself being abused.

 

"I had 15 (images), only four of which I've ever seen. Of the four that I saw, I only saw the first few seconds of them because I couldn't bear it," he said.

 

"The guy who abused me had a cine-camera so when I accessed those images, the four images that I saw, there was always the thought in my mind, 'I wonder if it's going to be me'."

 

Langham told how an alcoholic friend who he had helped to get treatment had phoned him as he was preparing to kill himself.

 

He said he was looking for a pipe to attach to his car exhaust to gas himself when the friend, who was himself suicidal, asked for help.

 

As he persuaded the man not to kill himself, Langham said he heard himself "talk myself out of it".

 

Langham was sent to prison for 10 months in September after being found guilty of 15 counts of downloading child pornography. He was later freed after the Court of Appeal cut his sentence.

 

The TV star will remain on the sex offenders' register for 10 years and be subject to a five-year sexual offenders' prevention order.

 

He added: "I had the feeling that because of the terrible taboo and the shame around this particular subject ... maybe I'll never work again.

 

"I've only been out of prison a few days and already people are saying 'So, you know, are you ready to work yet?'

 

"I've been very gratified to find that there are people who are still interested in working with me."

[Ostrich Man]

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