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Pete Cleared in Kid-Porn Case
Looks like the kids are alright, after all--Pete Townshend has been cleared of child-porn charges.
London authorities announced Wednesday that the Who mastermind, busted in January during a high-profile Internet kiddie-porn sting, would not face any criminal charges. While Townshend did receive a good scolding--that is, he was given a formal caution and his name was placed on Britain's national register of sex offenders--he avoided a potentially damaging trial.
The news was not unexpected. In March, British newspaper reports suggested Townshend would get off with just a warning.
A four-month inquiry by a special panel called the Child Protection Group determined that the 57-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Famer had in 1999 viewed a Website containing images of abused children, but he never downloaded any of the pictures.
All along, Townshend had copped to visiting the site, saying he had done it while researching an upcoming autobiography that will delve into the abuse he allegedly endured as a child (an experience he says informed the Who's classic 1969 rock opera Tommy). He also said he immediately informed authorities about how easily available such pedophiliac content is available online and has since worked with watchdog groups to restrict access.
"From the very beginning, I acknowledged that I did access this site and that I had given the police full access to all of my computers," Townshend said in a posting on www.petetownshend.co.uk. "I accessed the site because of my concerns at the shocking material readily available on the Internet to children as well as adults."
But police and prosecutors said that when it came to such sites, there was no legal difference between research and prurient reasons--in either case, it violated the U.K.'s Protection of Children Act.
On Wednesday, a chastened Townshend admitted bad judgment in his Web surfing.
"The police have unconditionally accepted [my] motives in looking at this site and that there was no other nefarious purpose, and as a result they have decided not to charge me. I accept that I was wrong to access this site, and that by doing so, I broke the law, and I have accepted the caution that the police have given me," Townshend said.
"He has fully cooperated with the investigation and the decision to caution was made in line with police policy," Scotland Yard added.
Still, Townshend isn't skating. He had to provide a DNA sample to the cops and will be listed on the sex offenders register for five years.
Townshend's arrest was part of Brtain's nationwide crackdown on pedophiles code-named Operation Ore, which, with the aid of information supplied by U.S. authorities, nabbed a reported 1,300 Brits, including several politicians, judges, doctors, police officers and Massive Attack's Robert Del Naja, who, like Townshend was subsequently cleared.
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