The Who star Pete Townshend has responded to child pornography allegations made against him in the press over the weekend. Confirming he had given his credit card details to view a child porn website he told the Sun he did so as part of the research for a book he is writing, that he only looked at a handful of home pages, and that he will hand over his computer to police to prove it.
The allegations followed an investigation into the people who allegedly gave their credit card details to a US child porn site – word is the list of 6000 subscribers also included two MPs, a second rock star and a television presenter.
Townsend, who says he has heard nothing from the police regarding the allegations, told the tabloid: "I would be prepared to have the hard drive of my computer analysed by the police. It is important they are able to convince themselves that, if I did anything illegal, I did it purely for research. I am not a paedophile." Explaining his research work Townsend says he was looking into his possible abuse as a child for his autobiography.
Friends of Townshend spoke in defence of the rocker after allegations surfaced. Jerry Hall said: "Pete Townshend is the least likely profile of a child abuser it is possible to construct and that is because he isn't one.” Paul Gambaccini BBC London: "He himself says that he was abused as a child and indeed he went on the record about this in Tommy with the song Uncle Ernie. I therefore do trust him implicitly."
The Internet Watch Foundation - whose aim is to eliminate child porn on the net - said Mr Townshend had been "incredibly foolhardy, naive and misguided" to enter such a website.