Accused actor 'fine' says mother

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The mother of a woman who claimed actor Chris Langham took her virginity at the age of 14 trusted him, she told a jury.

"My daughter would go on auditions. She always seemed to end up back at the Palace Theatre with Chris, which I thought was fine," said the mother.

Mr Langham, 58, from Kent, has denied 10 counts of indecent assault and two counts of a serious sexual offence on a girl under 18 between 1996 and 2000.

He also denies 15 counts of making an indecent image of a child in 2005.

Mr Langham is alleged to have taken his accuser's virginity in a London hotel room while he was appearing in Les Miserables at the theatre.

I never thought they were having a relationship Actor James Urquhart

The mother of the woman, who is now 25, told Maidstone Crown Court on Thursday that her daughter was an unhappy girl who did not like being alive much.

She said she was gifted at art, but moody and depressive and admitted she wanted to put her into care when she was 11 and "unbearable".

She said Mr Langham was concerned about the girl and took care of her and that she thought of him as a family friend.

"He took a great deal of interest in her," she said.

The actor drove them both to Clapham railway station one day and the mother said she left Mr Langham and her daughter alone "to say their goodbyes".

The actor rang the next day to say he was worried about her comment.

"I'm concerned, I promise I would never, ever, ever do anything like that," he said, she told the court.

'More connected'

The woman also recalled her daughter telling Love Actually star Bill Nighy during a party thrown by Mr Langham at Soho House: "Chris brings me here all the time."

Actor James Fraser, a former front-of-house employee at the Palace Theatre, told the jury he had gone out for drinks on one occasion with Mr Langham and the alleged victim.

"Chris was always the model of decorum around her but there was a sense of a frisson between them," he said.

Chris Langham starred in BBC TV series The Thick of It

"They were always more connected than the rest of the group."

The star performer in Les Miserables, actor James Urquhart, who uses the stage name Jeff Leyton, told police he had seen the alleged victim at the theatre about three times.

"I never considered any of her visits to be suspicious and I never thought they were having a relationship," he said.

A former boyfriend of the alleged victim, a 49-year-old man who began a five-year relationship with her when she was 18, told the hearing about a phone conversation he had with Mr Langham.

"I said that I was aware of what he had done to her and the fact that I felt it was wrong for a much older man to do that to a girl that was so young," he said.

"Did he respond?" asked prosecutor Richard Barraclough.

"He just went quiet, there was no comeback of any sort," the man replied.

The case continues.