Townshend Arrested for Porn
British police arrested Pete Townshend today at his London home on
suspicion of possession of and incitement to distribute indecent
images of children. The Who guitarist submitted to questioning and
a search of his home after admitting that he had paid to enter a
Web site selling child pornography. The Metropolitan Police had
obtained a warrant to enter the premises. Townshend has not yet
been charged.
If convicted, Townshend, 57, would face up to a five-year jail
term for viewing child pornography on the Internet — considered
“possession” — but the punishment can be mitigated if he offers a
credible explanation.
Townshend maintains he was interested in the pornography only as
research for his autobiography, claiming that he suspects that he
was abused by his mentally ill maternal grandmother when he was
five. “I can’t remember clearly what happened,” he said in a
statement released Saturday, “but my creative work tends to throw
up nasty shadows — particularly in Tommy.”
The statement followed reports in the British press that
authorities were investigating an unnamed “legendary British rock
star” for child porn connections. Townshend positioned himself as
an avid opponent of child pornography and pedophilia caught in a
misunderstanding, saying, “I am not a pedophile . . . I hope you
will be able to see that I am sincerely disturbed by the sexual
abuse of children, and I am very active trying to help individuals
who have suffered, and to prevent further abuse.”
Townshend is only one of the 1,300 offenders Scotland Yard has
cracked down on through Operation Ore, the British branch of an
FBI-led campaign that traces pedophiles through their credit card
numbers. Officials from that team were among those who searched the
guitarist’s home.