The encounter took place just a few months after he "stunned" her by kissing her
during an acting lesson in his dressing room, it was claimed. At the time he
was performing in Les Miserables at the Palace Theatre in the West End of
London.
The alleged victim, now aged 25, said Langham bought her gifts, took her to
restaurants, including A-list hangout The Ivy, and provided emotional support
during hard times. Giving evidence from behind screens at Maidstone Crown
Court, she broke down in tears as she described him as "always being nice" to
her.
She said the actor - star of the hit BBC political satire The Thick Of It -
first had sex with her during an afternoon at the Kensington Gardens Hotel in
London. As time passed, she said they had sex on almost every occasion they
met, usually in his dressing room. The woman, who cannot be named for legal
reasons, also recalled having sex in Langham's black Mercedes and at his home
in Kent.
She said they showered together "four or five times" in hotels and that they
had sex in the shower. And she said she met his wife at a party in the
exclusive members' club Soho House to mark his 10th anniversary of being free
of alcoholism.
The 58-year-old actor, dressed in a navy suit, yellow shirt and purple tie,
scribbled notes in the dock as his alleged victim gave evidence. Langham, of
Golford, near Cranbrook, Kent, denies 10 counts of indecent assault and two
counts of buggery between January 1996 and April 2000. He also denies 15 counts
of making an indecent photograph of a child between September and November
2005.
The alleged victim said Langham knew about her troubled background, which
included being bullied at school, parental problems and anorexia. She said:
"When you're a 14-year-old, you feel the world is against you but with him it
was different. He was a good friend. I looked up to him. At the time, I saw him
as one of my best friends. He was extremely kind. I had never known anyone to
be so kind.2
Describing their sexual encounters, she said: "He was always gentle with me,
always. He used to say nice things to me."
The alleged victim also revealed she had "two or three" pregnancy scares, and
recalled discussing it with Langham in a Chinese restaurant. She said: "I
remember him saying to me there was a small chance I could be pregnant and if I
was he would arrange an abortion."
On one occasion she recalled allegedly having sex on the floor of the lounge at
his home while a video of a young girl taking a shower played in the
background.
