Actor witness recalled in Langham sex trial over 'courtroom hug'

James Urquhart played the lead role in Les Miserables alongside the accused actor at London's Palace Theatre 11 years ago.

Langham's theatre dressing room is said by the alleged victim to have been the scene of numerous sexual encounters between them.

Mr Urquhart, who uses the stage name Jeff Leyton, told Maidstone Crown Court yesterday that he had seen the alleged victim at the theatre about three times.

He also said he was not suspicious of her relationship with Langham, and that he did not know her very well himself.

But today the court heard that Victim Support volunteer Sheila Rimmer went to the police after watching Mr Urquhart greeting the alleged victim yesterday in the Witness Room before he gave evidence.

Ms Rimmer told the jury she had provided support to the 25-year-old alleged victim for nine months and that she had "great admiration" for her.

Describing the incident, she said: "She let out an exclamation and ran into this man's arms and she gave him a big, big hug and they hugged for so long that someone from the Witness Service said 'let him go you'll crush him'."

Ms Rimmer said the alleged victim was crying. She said: "He was stroking her hand and patting her shoulder. It was very warm. He was consoling her very warmly and emotionally."

She added: "It appeared to me that it was a reunion of two people, who liked each other a lot, after a long time."

Ms Rimmer told prosecutor Richard Barraclough QC why she had gone to the police. She said: "I came out of the court very upset because Jeff Leyton had given the impression he barely knew her."

Mr Barraclough asked her: "How did that fit with what you had witnessed?"

She replied: "It didn't, it did not. It was a complete contradiction."

Mr Urquhart denied the prosecutor's accusation that he had tried to mislead the jury. He said: "She was crying on my shoulder." The actor admitted consoling her and said: "That's in my nature."

Comedy writer and actor Paul Whitehouse is due to appear as a prosecution witness on Monday.

Whitehouse appeared in the comedy drama Help, playing different patients seen by a psychotherapist played by Langham.

The alleged victim, who cannot be identified, claims Langham took her virginity in a London hotel room when she was 14.

Langham, 58, 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.