Langham freed after sentence cut

After his release from Elmley Prison, Kent,.the actor said: "My life has been ruined but my conscience is clear."

The 58-year-old Bafta award-winner was sent to prison for 10 months in September after being found guilty of 15 counts of making an indecent photograph of a child.

His second application for a sentence reduction was successful at a hearing before three judges at the Court of Appeal in London. Langham, who denied the charges, was not present for the hearing.

In a prepared statement, Langham said: "I have a few words to say but I need to reflect before I make a longer statement.

"The court's acceptance based upon all the evidence and expert opinion that I have no sexual interest in children has been completely ignored in the reporting of the case.

"However, perhaps the media cannot be blamed for this misrepresentation when the judge, having accepted that I'm not a paedophile, then sent me to prison for 10 months as if I was.

"To set the record straight, I never paid to look at the material. I saw a tiny number of images of child abuse which I have always said were distressing, sickening and atrocious.

"I looked because I was writing about the subject of child abuse. My own abuse as a child made it important for me to attempt to address this subject in my writing.

"I was wrong to do so but I believe the price I have been asked to pay is out of all proportion."