Bruno Langley: Ex-Coronation Street actor who pleaded guilty to sexual assaults sentenced to one year of community service
Actor admitted groping two women at a Manchester music venue
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Your support makes all the difference.Former Coronation Street actor Bruno Langley has been sentenced to a year of community service after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting two women.
Langley, who played Todd Grimshaw in the soap for more than a decade, groped one woman's crotch and touched the "boobs and bum" of another, Manchester Magistrates' Court was told.
Prosecutors said the actor was "clearly intoxicated" when he assaulted the women at the Band on the Wall music venue in Manchester on October 1.
Langley, 34, admitted the charges. He had been told he could face a jail sentence but was instead given a 12-month community order. The actor will also be subject to a 12-week 7am to 7pm curfew, and was told to pay £250 to each of his victims and sign the sex offenders register for the next five years.
During sentencing, the judge 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."
Langley's relatives wiped away tears as he pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault. He sexually touched two other women on the same night but was not charged in relation to those incidents, prosecutors said.
Earlier, prosecutor Karen Saffman told the court that Langley had assaulted the first woman when she went to collect her and her husband's coats from an upstairs cloakroom.
She said: "As she walked back towards the stairs Mr Langley grabbed her in the crotch area over her dress.
"Even though it was through her dress and tights she could feel two or three fingers.
"She was clearly in shock. She was thinking about hitting him. She said, 'Did you do that on purpose?' But he did not reply."
Quoting the victim, Ms Saffman said: "He grabbed me. Properly grabbed me. It was a rough grab, really right in. Lots of pressure."
A man who was with Langley reportedly then apologised, saying: "Oh my God, I'm really sorry."
Ms Saffman said the second woman had told police: "He grabbed me in the crotch. Quite a lot of pressure. This lasted for a couple of seconds."
Langley made his Coronation Street debut in 2001 as Todd Grimshaw, the soap's first openly gay character. He left the show last month following an internal inquiry into the assault allegations.
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