Pete Townshend, guitarist for The Who, has been arrested on suspicion of child pornography charges.
According to a Scotland Yard spokesperson, “He has been arrested under the Protection of Children Act of 1978 on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children, suspicion of making indecent images of children and on suspicion of incitement to distribute indecent images of children.”
Currently, Townshend is in custody in a police station in Southwest London.
The Scotland Yard spokesman also says that two arrest warrants have been issued, one a residential address and one a business address, and that “A number of items, including computers, have been removed from the residential address for forensic examination.”
Townshend contends that he was using the internet to research his autobiography, which claims that he was sexually abused as a child.
“I have been writing my childhood autobiography for the past seven years,” said Townshend in a statement. “I believe I was sexually abused between the age of five and six and a half when in the care of my maternal grandmother who was mentally ill at the time.”
“Some of the things I have seen on the Internet have informed my book, which I hope will be published later this year.”
Townshend also adds that after he downloaded the material in question for his book, he informed the police of what he saw.
“I am not a pedophile,” said Townshend. “I have never entered chat rooms on the Internet to converse with children. I have, to the contrary, been shocked, angry and vocal (especially on my Web site) about the explosion of advertised pedophiliac images on the internet.”
