Rock star Townshend arrested, out on bail

LONDON — Pete Townshend, the legendary rock guitarist and co-founder of The Who, was arrested yesterday on suspicion of making and possessing indecent images of children and of incitement to distribute them.

Over the weekend, Townshend had acknowledged using an Internet Web site advertising child pornography. But he said he was not a pedophile and was only doing research for an autobiography dealing with his own suspected childhood sexual abuse.

Townshend, 57, who was released on bail early today, was not charged with a crime. Under British law, suspects are not charged immediately upon arrest, and some people who are arrested are eventually released without charge.

Police said they arrested Townshend while searching a business and home in Richmond, Surrey, the town outside London where he lives. They said they took computers from the home and were examining them.

Townshend's attorney, John Cohen, said the search of the musician's home was by "mutual agreement."

"We approached the police this morning and said that we should meet," he said.

Townshend, unshaven and wearing a black jacket, left his house by a side entrance at 7:20 p.m., about four hours after police arrived, and was driven away. The musician was released five hours later after questioning at a southwest London police station, Scotland Yard police headquarters said.

A police spokesman said he was "released on police bail pending further inquiries and will return to the station later in January."

Reporters spotted Townshend leaving in a car, lying down on the back seat partly covered by what appeared to be a coat.

In a statement Saturday, Townshend said that on one occasion he used a credit card to enter a site.

"I have looked at child-porn sites maybe three or four times in all, the front pages and previews," he said. "But I have only entered once using a credit card and I have never downloaded. ... With hindsight, it was very foolish but I felt so angered about what was going on, it blurred my judgment."

Townshend, who helped form The Who in the early 1960s, said he believed he was "sexually abused between the age of 5 and 6½. ... I cannot remember clearly what happened, but my creative work tends to throw up nasty shadows — particularly in 'Tommy.'

"Some of the things I have seen on the Internet have informed my book, which I hope will be published later this year," he said.

The title character in Townshend's rock opera "Tommy" — a deaf, dumb and blind pinball wizard — is sexually abused by an uncle.

Townshend's friend, the model Jerry Hall, said Sunday that he was an "avid supporter" of child-welfare groups and had spoken at length about the dangers of child pornography on the Internet.

"Peter Townshend is the least likely profile of a child abuser it is possible to construct and that is because he isn't one," she said

Roger Daltrey, Townshend's bandmate from The Who, said: "My gut instinct is that he is not a pedophile and I know him better than most."

But Internet watchdogs have dismissed Townshend's explanation for entering an Internet site dealing with child pornography.

Mark Stephens, a lawyer and vice chairman of the Internet Watch Foundation, said: "It is wrong-headed, misguided and illegal to look at or download or even to pay to download pedophiliac material and if you do so, you are likely to go to prison."

Townshend was one of The Who's four founding members, along with bassist John Entwistle, singer Daltrey and drummer Keith Moon. Moon died in 1978 and Entwistle died last year.

The group was part of the British rock invasion along with the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. Its parade of hits included "I Can See for Miles," "Pinball Wizard" and "Won't Get Fooled Again."

The Who has been known for explosive shows that often culminated in the smashing of musical instruments on stage.

The arrest came as part of Operation Ore, a crackdown on people who view child pornography on the Internet.

British police have arrested 1,300 suspects as part of the sweep, including a judge, magistrates, dentists, doctors and a deputy school headmaster. Fifty police officers also have been arrested, and eight have been charged.

Operation Ore is the British arm of an FBI-led operation that traced 250,000 suspected pedophiles around the world through credit cards they used to pay for downloading child pornography.