Bruno Langley molested two women 'to prove that he isn't gay like his Coronation Street character'

Coronation Street star Bruno Langley pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault in court yesterday [28 November], and now it has been claimed that the star committed the assault to ‘prove’ that he is heterosexual – unlike his Corrie character.

Bruno, 34, has been playing gay character Todd Grimshaw on the ITV soap for 16 years, and his lawyer previously claimed that the “stress” of portraying Todd was a factor in his behaviour.

A friend of the star has now told The Sun: “Bruno played a high-profile gay character for 16 years.

“People often think he’s gay in real life. He sometimes feels he needs to act more of a lad than he is to stop assumptions about his sexuality.”

Speaking in court yesterday, Bruno’s lawyer Simon Hancock said that molesting the two women was “completely out of character”, adding: “Something happened that night, most possibly in relation to the character he was playing.”

Bruno avoided jail for the assaults, which took place at the Band On The Wall music event in Manchester’s Northern Quarter on 30 September, and was instead given a 12-month community order and ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register for five years as well as pay £500 in compensation.

The judge heard how the actor grabbed the first victim by her crotch after she collected her coat from the cloakroom, with the woman saying that she was “too shocked and angry” to react before she reported the incident to the police.

The second victim said that she was “forcefully touched” in an “intimate place” by the star.

Bruno, who was drunk at the time of the assaults, admitted to having a problem with alcohol and pleaded guilty to both assaults.

The star was fired from Coronation Street following an internal investigation.

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