Langham 'looked at child porn as his children lay asleep'

The comedian and writer was viewing "level five" images - the worst in police rankings - just hours before he was arrested, it was alleged.

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At the time, his wife was in Amsterdam and their two school-age children were sleeping in his room while building work was carried out on the home.

When police arrived, they found 58-year-old Langham's laptop computer in the bedroom.

The detail emerged as an increasingly strained Langham stood in the witness box at Maidstone Crown Court to face a barrage of prosecution questions.

At one point, the father of five ended up shouting at the prosecutioner - who, in turn, implied that he might be employing his acting skills in the witness box. In a tense confrontation, Richard Barraclough QC asked him: "Were you accessing this material in the bedroom with your children at the side of you?"

Langham claimed not to have seen the horrific image in question until he was forced to watch at the police station, and insisted he had been using the laptop in the living room, away from the children.

The actor claims he accessed the material as research for the comedy series Help, which he co-wrote with Paul Whitehouse.

He has also told the jury that in viewing the images he had relived his own childhood abuse by a man who took him sailing when he was eight.

In looking at the pictures, he said, he was trying to "break down the door" and get to the "eight-year-old boy".

But Mr Barraclough dismissed his evidence as "pseudo-psychobabble".

He told Langham: "You were doing it for your own personal motives. You were resolving a long-lasting psychological problem by perpetuating the horrible abuse these young girls were subjected to. You were giving not a jot of a thought to the suffering of these girls."

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Langham said: "I don't celebrate, take pleasure in, or approve of the treatment those children were put through - it's not something I would ever do."

He denied being addicted to porn. He said his wife knew of his adult porn habit, but had been unaware of his looking at child images.

When asked if he was a sick man, he replied: "I would describe myself as a human being, a work in progress, as we all are."

He said he had not thought it was a criminal act to look at material that was "posted openly", adding: "It just seemed to be sitting there with Robbie Williams videos."

Detailing his adult pornography habit, he confessed he had paid £2.50 to subscribe to a site called Rape Sex, with actors performing scenes. He said he would pleasure himself as he watched other porn.

Shown printouts from Web pages for a site called Lolita Sex - which he admits accessing but claims was not child porn - he read out sentences describing "fresh teens" and "youngsters" and "steamy hot bambinas".

He said such language was common on porn sites.

"You have a sexual interest in children don't you?" he was asked by Mr Barraclough.

Langham's voice rose to a shout as he insisted: "No, I don't, no I don't, no I don't."

Langham lost his temper at one stage of the questioning, yelling that he was "ashamed" of the abuse he had suffered.

After a break, Mr Barraclough asked: "They are genuine outbursts are they, because we know you are an actor?"

Langham, of Golford, near Cranbrook, Kent, denies 15 counts of making an indecent photograph of a child, as well as six counts of indecent assault and two of a serious sexual assault on a girl who says he groomed her for sex from the age of 14.

The trial continues.