My sick accuser deserves pity, Langham tells sex trial

He added that her family "don't have relationships, they take hostages".

The 58-year-old comic actor was in the witness stand for a third day in his trial, accused of abusing the woman when she was a teenager and downloading a string of 'vile' images of child pornography.

Langham hit back after being accused of making 'outrageous' allegations against his young 'victim'.

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Prosecutor Richard Barraclough QC accused Langham of 'torturing' the girl, whom he met when she arrived, aged 14, at London's Palace Theatre, where he was performing in Les Miserables.

Langham claims his alleged victim, who is now 25, jokingly told him that she wanted to kill his children and later told him she had violent fantasies about him punching her in the face.

Confronted by Mr Barraclough, Langham told Maidstone Crown Court: "She's a sick person. I mean that in a completely compassionate way. It's not a criticism or judgment.

"I can't say I like her very much but everybody deserves compassion."

He added: £I think I'm the only person who didn't do anything to her. I tried to behave in an honourable way with her."

In a pointed dig at her family, however, he said: "I have to say, this is a family that don't have relationships, they take hostages."

The jury has heard that Langham, a married father of five, gave acting lessons to the girl in his dressing room. She claims she lost her virginity to him shortly afterwards in a London hotel.

As the trial entered its third week, Langham said the woman, whom he admits having sex with once when she was 18, phoned him after his arrest on child pornography charges in November 2005.

The actor, who won a Bafta award for his role as a harassed government minister in the BBC political drama The Thick Of It, said: "She was very upset by the charges ... and she said she thought I was guilty.

"She wanted to know if my relationship with her was not affected by a sexual interest in children."

The defence claims that Langham had been helping the young woman with problems, including an eating disorder.

And a series of defence witnesses told how Langham had helped them as they battled with alcoholism and other difficulties.

His former family GP Dr Michael Wilks, now a forensic physician, said he would have died if he had not stopped drinking.

Langham, a married father of five, was his sponsor when he joined Alcoholics Anonymous.

"I've always known Chris as someone prepared to go the extra mile for people in need," he said.

But Dr Wilks, former chairman of the British Medical Association's medical ethics committee, said he had been concerned when he realised Langham had become close to the young woman.

"I had concerns, but not that he was in any way taking advantage of her.

"My concern was that he was behaving like Chris, in a way that was slightly overly compulsively caring.

"Both of us are exactly the same age. A person in our age group having a young girl around the place a lot might raise some questions for other people."

Langham, of Golford, Kent, denies making indecent photographs of children, indecent assault and other sexual offences. The case continues.