Comic actor Chris Langham was tonight remanded in custody after being found guilty of downloading child pornography onto his computer.

A jury at Maidstone Crown Court convicted the father-of-five on 15 charges of making an indecent photograph of a child after being found with "horrific" images.

The actor, who starred in political comedy The Thick of It, was also cleared on six counts of indecent assault and two of serious sexual assault on an under-age girl, who claimed he took her virginity in a London hotel when she was 14.

Langham had refused to answer direct questions about the images and videos found on his computer in court.

Instead, in an 11-page statement, he had said that they were a vehicle of research for a character called Pedro he was developing for the BBC2 comedy show Help.

That claim was undermined by co-writer and Fast Show star Paul Whitehouse who testified he had been unaware of the need to do any such research.

Langham then introduced another reason for the downloads, claiming in his evidence that he was abused as a child and wanted to make some sense of his ordeal.

Despite the guilty verdicts on downloading images, the actor was acquitted of the serious sexual and indecent assaults alleged to have taken place between January 1996 and April 2000.

He had been accused by a 25-year-old woman, who could not be identified for legal reasons. She had also alleged they had sex in his black Mercedes, at his home and in his dressing room at London’s Palace Theatre, where he was starring as Thenardier in Les Miserables. She claimed they had met while he was starring in the musical in 1996.

The panel of four women and seven men returned their verdicts today after deliberating for around two hours and 40 minutes.

Langham, who wore a grey suit, turquoise shirt and patterned tie, took several deep breaths before the jury entered the court.

After the verdicts were returned, the judge decided to remand him in custody until sentencing on September 14 - a ruling which means he will be in prison for almost six weeks awaiting the hearing.

"In my judgment, and I have thought long and hard about this, it would a misplaced kindness to give you bail at this stage," he said. He also ordered Langham to sign the sex offenders register.

Speaking after the verdict, Detective Inspector Derek Cuff, of Kent Police, said that regardless of Langham's claims that the images had been used for research the downloading of child pornography was illegal and contributed to the problem of child exploitation.

"Viewing such images perpetuates child abuse," he said. "There was one unheard voice in that courtroom and that is of the children who were in those videos."

Ken Goss, a Crown Prosecution Service lawyer, described the images and videos of child abuse found on Langham's computer as "horrific".

"His defence was that it was only research. That was clearly wrong," he said. "Those pictures do not pop up accidentally on your screen, or by any other means.

"You have to make a conscious effort to download them."

On the steps of the courtroom Angus McBride, Langham's solicitor, said that the comedy actor was "delighted" that he had been found not guilty of the sexual assault charges.

Reading a statement from Langham he said: "I’m absolutely delighted my name has been cleared of all the charges I have consistently denied.

"I have been found guilty of charges I made admissions to from the moment of my first arrest. I’m grateful to the jury for their careful deliberation."

Mr McBride, asked how his client was after visiting him in the cells, said: "He’s okay, he’s surviving."

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