Actor Langham 'called a father figure by schoolgirl to hide relationship'

The alleged victim told a psychotherapist in 1998 that Langham was a "father figure" to her, Maidstone Crown Court heard.

She also referred to him as a "saint" and told doctors she felt Langham "loved, respected, cared and appreciated" her.

The 25-year-old woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, said: "People used to say to me 'I bet you're sleeping with Chris Langham' so I used to cover it up and say 'no, that would be like sleeping with your dad'."

The woman met the 58-year-old award-winning actor when he was appearing in Les Miserables in the West End of London.

She has claimed he took her virginity when she was 14 in a London hotel room and they had sex in his theatre dressing room, his car and his home over a period of several years.

Defence counsel David Whitehouse QC said: "Can I suggest that the real reason you didn't tell the psychotherapist and psychiatrist about the relationship with Chris Langham was because there was no sexual relationship with Chris Langham?"

She replied: "Mr Langham and I both know what happened. He is fully aware that there was a relationship, sexual, while I was at school so no, you are wrong."

The woman agreed she told a doctor she had sex with Langham when she was 16 - and over the legal age of consent - in order to protect him and to stop her mother finding out.

"She would have stopped it," she said.

And she agreed with Mr Whitehouse that she told a doctor about five "sexually-charged incidents" involving her stepfather, at three of which she accused her mother of being present.

Langham was "saddened" and encouraged her to seek help when she told him, she said.

Mr Whitehouse said: "During the period when you were making allegations against Chris Langham, you were making allegations against the man your mother still loved. Can you see that completely undermines your explanation for not telling your mother?"

The woman replied: "No it doesn't. It's different because at that stage of my relationship with my mother, we didn't have a close relationship so I had nothing to lose. However, with Mr Langham, if mum or people... had found out about our relationship, I would have lost something special that was important to me."

She also recalled a sex session in a hotel bathroom being interrupted when a cleaner entered the room.

Referring to buggery allegations, she said: "I'm about 90 per cent sure that that happened while I was still at school. The time I saw him most, at the time we had the most sexual contact, was while I was at school."

Mr Whitehouse said: "I'm going to suggest you are a fantasist. You're not just a screwed-up fan, you are a fantasist, aren't you?"

"No," she replied.

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.