Langham launches sentence appeal

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Actor Chris Langham is appealing against a 10-month prison sentence for downloading images and videos of child abuse from the internet.

Papers were lodged with the Court of Appeal on Tuesday.

The 58-year-old Bafta winner, from Golford, Kent, was jailed in September after being found guilty of 15 counts of making an indecent photo of a child.

He had admitted viewing images but denied the charges. Langham is due to be released from prison in early 2008.

The father-of-five was convicted at Maidstone Crown Court on 2 August.

The jury cleared him of having sex with an underage girl.

Computer and laptop

Sentencing him on 14 September, Judge Philip Statman said: "Your activity took place in the comfort of your own home, no doubt at the time feeling safe in the knowledge that you would never be caught."

Langham is currently due to serve about half of his 10-month sentence.

He was arrested in November 2005 when video files of child abuse were found on a computer, a laptop and an external hard disk drive at his home.

The actor claimed during his trial that he was researching a paedophile character for the TV series Help, and was also trying to make sense of sexual abuse he said he had suffered as a child.