Chris Langham has admitted that he was guilty of looking at child pornography but said denied the charges to emphasise that he was not a paedophile.

At Maidstone Crown Court. prosecutor Richard Barraclough asked the Thick Of It actor: ‘You pleaded not guilty because you were labelled a paedophile?’

Langham: ‘Yes that's correct.’

Barraclough: ‘But you are guilty of the images counts?’

Langham: ‘Yes that's correct.’

Barraclough: ‘So your plea of not guilty is simply some sort of statement that you are not a paedophile?’

Langham: ‘Yes, that's absolutely correct.’

The prosecutor said Langham’s argument that he was looking at child porn for research while writing the BBC Two comedy Help was ‘ pseudo psychobabble’. ‘You weren't doing it for research but for your own personal motives,’ he said.

Langham, who revealed yesterday that he had been sexually abused when he was eight, said: ‘It's to do with resolving a longstanding psychological problem.’

He added: ‘I suppose it's very personal to me and something I didn't feel comfortable about, but I was also aware of the fact it was illegal. I was aware of the fact it was illegal and I did it anyway.’

The prosecutor accused him of being a ‘perverted individual’.

Langham, from Kent, denies 15 counts related to downloading child pornography, as well as six counts of indecent assault on a teenage girl and two counts of buggery.

The case continues.