Coronation Street actor Bruno Langley has claimed that the stress of playing gay character Todd Grimshaw led to him sexually assaulting women.
The disgraced soap star, who was abruptly written out of Coronation Street last month in the wake of sex assault allegations, pleaded guilty to two sex assault charges in Manchester Magistrates’ Court this week.
Langley had played Todd Grimshaw, who was one of the show’s first gay characters and had a number of on-screening same-sex romances with different men.
Mitigating in court, Langley’s solicitor claimed the stress of playing the character led Langley to assault women in a music venue on October 1.
Bruno Langley at Manchester Pride (Photo by Nathan Cox/Getty Images)
He said: “It was completely out of character. Something happened that night, most possibly in relation to the character he was playing.
“These two offences happened within one evening but are linked to alcohol. The result was despicable behaviour.”
A source close to the actor told The Sun: “Bruno played a high-profile gay character for 16 years…. he sometimes feels he needs to act more of a lad than he is to stop assumptions about his sexuality.”
The claims led to anger from LGBT people, who criticised Langley for using gay people as an excuse.
Langley escaped a custodial sentence, but was hit with a 12 month community order, placed on the sex offenders’ register, and ordered to pay his victims £250 each.
District Judge Mark Hadfield told him: “On that evening your conduct was quite disgraceful and degrading.
“Both of the victims would have been extremely shocked and upset as a result of your conduct.
“The fact that you were heavily intoxicated is not mitigation, it is a further aggravating feature.
“The consequences are serious for all concerned, the two victims but also for you.
“You have lost your good name and I know nothing of showbusiness but I imagine in the current climate I suspect it may be very difficult for you to gain employment in that industry in the future.”
In a statement, Langley said: “I sincerely apologise to the people involved and affected by my disgraceful behaviour on the evening of 30th September.
“I have absolutely no memory of what happened because of excessive alcohol consumption and it was for this reason that I behaved completely out of character.
“However, I take full responsibility for my actions that night.
“Since this incident I have been dealing with, and confronting some personal issues that I have never addressed, and I am also getting help for an alcohol problem, so that this does not ever happen again.”
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