Langham launches sentence appeal
Actor Chris Langham is appealing against a 10-month prison sentence for downloading images and videos of child abuse from the internet.
Papers were lodged with the Court of Appeal on Tuesday.
The 58-year-old Bafta winner, from Golford, Kent, was jailed in September after being found guilty of 15 counts of making an indecent photo of a child.
He had admitted viewing images but denied the charges. Langham is due to be released from prison in early 2008.
The father-of-five was convicted at Maidstone Crown Court on 2 August.
The jury cleared him of having sex with an underage girl.
Computer and laptop
Sentencing him on 14 September, Judge Philip Statman said: "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."
Langham is currently due to serve about half of his 10-month sentence.
He was arrested in November 2005 when video files of child abuse were found on a computer, a laptop and an external hard disk drive at his home.
The actor claimed during his trial that he was researching a paedophile character for the TV series Help, and was also trying to make sense of sexual abuse he said he had suffered as a child.
Comment: I can't for the life of me understand why Chris Langham is launching an appeal against sentence. A 10 month sentence is not the end of the world, he will only serve half of it anyway, 5 months, it is no great shakes. It may be that the Court of Appeal feels that the sentence was unduly lenient and increases it instead of leaving it as it is or decreasing it.
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What's the difference between art and porn?
This on the other hand is not child pornography. The picture, Klare and Edda belly-dancing, is part of a 139-image collection by the American photographer Nan Goldin.
I am surprised that the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead contacted the police to ask whether the exhibit was child pornography. Given that the photo has been around for awhile and shown in several art galleries around the world. Are we becoming the laughing stock of Europe? Welcome to Hicksville...
