Sean Langeland case: Sean Langeland's wife explains how he didn't receive a fair trial

'The Lady has turned her back on Justice' by Michael Naughton

In late Spring of 2019, I met my husband Sean Langeland over social media. He lived in England and I was in America, but it seemed so effortless with him and as the time went on, the miles between us seemed to melt away and so did any doubt that miles would keep us apart.  When he came to visit me the first time, the only way I can describe our connection is very rare and nothing short of magical. We found ourselves saying "I do" in January 2020, and I just knew this was the beginning of the rest of my life with the love of my life, and best friend. The fact that our lives would change so dramatically from pure bliss to our worst nightmare was unfathomable, but that's exactly what happened.

Sean had left a very volatile relationship with his ex partner, CM (aka CM Langeland) of over a decade in January 2019. She had twin daughters Twin 1 and Twin 2, that Sean grew to love as his own and played a crucial part stepping into a father role these girls desperately needed, until they betrayed him.

The next piece, the jury never heard.  Neither the prosecutor, nor Sean's barrister deemed it necessary to make it known.  Billie, Sean's youngest daughter, advised her dad that a couple weeks after leaving, CM had starting seeing DL, Sean's brother. In a police report and by CM's own admission she also claimed to have had an affair with DM during the course of her and Sean's relationship, but we were unaware of this until after the trial when I read the police reports. CM and DL are now married. They were married long before the trial started, however, she referred to as her maiden name during the trial, I'm assuming in an attempt to hide the fact she married the brother of the man she was trying to put in prison.  When Sean found out about the infidelity, he confronted DL and had a physical altercation on 27 January 2019 with him. This was so important as it showed motive to why CM, DL, and her girls came up with this elaborate, but false story.  

29 January 2019, Twin 1 went to school and told a counsellor that Sean had been sexually assaulting her for a period of time during 2018.  When the police went to interview Twin1, it was documented in the police report that Twin 2 had also been hurt by Sean, but she wasn't ready to talk about it that day. On Feb 8, 2019, Twin 2 was ready to give her statement to the police.

Late February 2019, Sean was arrested and pulled into the police station. Sean adamantly denied all of it and honestly thought there would be no further action because he wasn't questioned again by police until he was served with the paperwork on June 28, 2021. He had been charged with 11 counts of sexual and physical assault on Twin 1 and Twin 2.

Sean's trial began in late Jun 2023.  Before Sean's trial, he made many attempts to contact Osler's, his solicitors to no avail. Sean had no communication with them leading up to the trial. He wasn't able to discuss the game plan and what to expect prior to the day of his trial. He was not able to discuss how he wanted to be defended.  Sean wanted the whole truth to come out, but the barrister went with her own agenda with a defence of both Twins had mental health issues, and this is why they made up these false allegations.  Sean questioned this approach. Her reply was "I know what I'm doing" and dismissed all of Sean's concerns surrounding this. Sean didn't feel he had a choice, but to trust her.

The jury took 2 days for the verdict and a 10 - 2 decision found Sean guilty on 8 of the 11 counts. 7 for sexual assault and 1 for causing physical harm on Twin 2.  Sean, myself, and Sean's kids were crushed.  Sean was sentenced to 15 years.

After his trial, Billie was cleaning out his flat and found an old broken iPhone that Sean used from 2017 - 2021. I had her send it into Evidence Matters in hopes it would recover missing text messages Sean remembers having with Twin 1. The report showed 0 recovered text messages, but what it did recover was a note Sean had written the day he was arrested stating how shocked he was that these girls could have done this. He wrote about an Instagram conversation he had with Twin 1.  Fortunately, Instagram doesn't delete message exchanges even though they were deleted from Sean's view. I was able to recover the messages and sure enough the conversation Sean had with Twin 1 continued up until 25 January 2019 and it was an exchange you would expect to see between a father and daughter, but more importantly it contradicted Twin 1's testimony of not having any contact with Sean after December 2018.

What was also shown in the forensics report was the last time Sean's phone had been backed up was done so mid Sept 2018 to a computer named "Chez" and the user logged in was "CM".  Sean was unaware that she had done this. This gave her full access to his phone and iCloud account. Mystery solved of all the deleted text messages from his phone/iCloud account.

I hired a Direct Barrister and he filed the appeal. On December 17, 2024 Sean's appeal went before the 3 judges at the Royal Courts of Justice. The prosecutor, Ms Nash, also attended. The judges blocked and denied the appeal from moving forward. They agreed with the prosecutor that this evidence could have been made available at the trial. They also said that the messages sent between Sean and Twin 1 was "normal behaviour" due to Sean and Twin 1 being so close up until the alleged abuse started to happen. The judges also said that it was "normal behaviour" for Twin 2 to visit Sean at his flat 2 days prior to the allegations coming out because Twin 2 testified that Sean and CM would break up and get back together all the time and she didn't think this time was different. It was also said that this visit took place prior to Twin 2 going to the police and this was also "normal behaviour" (more on this later part below).  

Another devasting blow to us all.

Sean's Direct Barrister then mailed me all of the case files from Sean's case. Something we hadn't been privy to until that time. From these case files we now get to see everything that wasn't divulged to Sean during his trial. We see the lies and contradictions this family made to law enforcement, then under oath at the trial and victim statements.

So, what went wrong?

1. Sean had to use legal aid. This was our first mistake. Absolutely no effort was put into his defence.  

2. Sean's defence barrister did not disclose crucial information that she was fully aware of prior or during the trial to Sean. Had she been forthcoming with Sean, Sean would have definitely asked for intentionally hidden witnesses to testify on his behalf.

   1. PS was implicated by Twin 2 when she gave testimony to a time where she says Sean threw her to the ground causing her to hit her head and ribs on a radiator, and strangled her to which she ran to a neighbour's house, PS, and told Ms S what had happened to her. This was the 1 count of physical assault Sean was found guilty on. The police interviewed PS and didn't use her statement because they deemed her "old" and "didn't remember" when Ms S told the police that she saw Twin 2 outside one afternoon, but couldn't recall the exact day. Sean knew PS.  She is older, but her mind and memory are not compromised at all. Bottom line, PS did not corroborate Twin 2's story so her and her witness statement was dismissed by the police.

   2. The second witness statement for the prosecution wasn't used either. IC told the police she and Twin 2 went to Sean's flat on 26 January 2019 and stayed for    approx. 20 minutes. Later that evening Twin 2 told IC that she was being picked up by her brother, and IC watched Twin 2 get into the car with an adult male. Twin 2 doesn't have a brother. Also, this visit occurred just 2 days before Twin 1 came out with her allegations. In Twin 2's allegations, she claims the last time Sean abused her was 31 December 2018. Why would a young girl that had just been abused bring her friend over to his flat just weeks after the last alleged incident, and 2 days before Twin 1 made came out with her allegations? This was never questioned at the trial, but it was brought up at Sean's appeal and deemed "normal behaviour" by the 3 appeal judges and the prosecutor.

   3. Twin 1 was crossed examined about an incident at school with a male teacher. Twin 1 blew it off and said she was angry and would say anything out of anger. No further questioning was done. What was listed by the school counsellor in the court paperwork was Twin 1 had 2 incidents with this male teacher, and the last incident she had to be removed from his class due to threats made by her. It sure would have been nice to put that teacher on the stand to question him on what that other incident was about and what she threatened him with.

   4. Sean's solicitors received medical records and police records for Twin 1 and Twin 2, but the girls were never questioned about anything in the records. In the medical records Twin 2 was being seen by a therapist. Twin 2 claimed that she had been hurt by her biological father when she was a baby and the scenes of this plays in her mind.  She also claimed that she had been raped by a young adult male in early 2018. Neither were reported to the police. In the therapist's notes, it was commented that she wasn't sure she believed the claims of sexual abuse. In none of the medical records or therapists records were any claims made by Twin 2 that she endured any physical or sexually abuse by Sean. This wasn't known to Sean so it wasn't questioned or cross examined. Twin 1's medical history contains stories of hallucinations, struggling with anorexia, struggling with school, and struggling with a teacher at school. Although Twin 1's medical and mental health history is very disturbing, there were never any claims made by Twin 1 to any medical professional that treated her that she endured any physical and/or sexual abuse by Sean either. Some of these incidents were not known to Sean so it wasn't questioned or cross examined.

   5. In the Police Schedule of Relevant Non-Sensitive Unused Material, it was evident Twin 1 was high risk for being sex trafficked and did participate in sex with adult males starting in 2018.  She had medically diagnosed psychological and behavioural indicators to include anger, aggressiveness, antagonistic, defensiveness, self harming, and substance abuse. Being a sex trafficked victim could have made her easily manipulated by her mother, and by DL to coerce her into making the false allegations of physical and sexual abuse against Sean. She was being abused by adult men, but Sean wasn't one of them. None of this was brought up at the trial.

   6. Twin 1's psychological and behavioural indicators of anger, aggressiveness, hallucinating, hearing voices, lack of energy, negative thoughts, anxiousness, and low self esteem due to diagnosed severe mental issues and anorexia, she could have been easily manipulated by her mother and DL to coerce her into making the false allegations of physical and sexual abuse against Sean. Although Twin 1's medical history was partly brought up at the trial, the prosecutor untruly stated that Sean took advantage of her when she was vulnerable. Sean's barrister made no attempt to defend him on this. Sean spent months taking care of Twin 1 during 2018 while she was sick with anorexia.

I filed Sean's case with the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) in February 2025 after his appeal was denied. They assigned a Case Review Manager (CRM) to his case in May 2025.  We were told it would be 6 weeks for them to make a determination. In January 2026, the CRM told Sean she was just waiting for a Commissioner to look at his case. We've been waiting ever since.

How all this has affected us? Because none of these circumstances were brought up at his trial to be questioned and/or addressed, Sean did not receive a fair trial. These false allegations have had, and will continue to have long lasting impacts on Sean and his basic human rights. He has been wrongfully imprisoned and taken away from me, his children, and his grandchildren unwillingly. Outside of missing out on yearly events like holidays and anniversaries, Sean was unable to support me when my father passed away. He was unable to attend the funeral of his own father earlier this year. He has missed births of grandchildren and watching them grow up.  He has missed out on everything.  

For me, this has been devastating and traumatizing. I can't reconcile being ripped away from him under these circumstances. I live 5000 miles away in Texas so I can't visit him regularly. Not being able to hold him, or see him everyday has turned my world upside down. This has drained me not only emotionally and psychologically, but financially as well.  We are coming up to retirement years, something we all look forward to. There are so many unknowns at this point that I can't even consider retiring anytime soon. Logically, I know truth always prevails, but the years that are passing in the meantime have been excruciating and painful. He doesn't deserve this. We don't deserve this. The only thing that keeps us going is our daily phone conversations, and the faith that justice will prevail. Our hope is if we can prevent this from happening to any other innocent men by speaking publicly about this, then all of this won't be for nothing.

By Shannon Lacy - Sean Langeland's wife

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