Why the NFL and Bridgestone should not have invited Pete Townshend of the WHO to play the Super Bowl XLIV Half-Time
 

Updates Click

To view the media files click here

Our Position: Child AbuseWatch is objected to the hiring of Pete Townshend of the WHO by the NFL as the half-time act for Super Bowl XLIV. Townshend was arrested by British police in 2003 for accessing and paying for viewing a Texas-based child pornography website.

Background: Townshend confessed and pleaded guilty to the crime of accessing and paying for viewing child pornography online and received a 'caution' (approximate U.S. equivalent of a guilty plea with adjudication withheld) from the police and avoided a formal trial. He was never cleared of any charges pertaining to his caution and resulting sex offender status. Townshend was listed as a sexual offender on the British Violent and Sex Offender Register (ViSOR) from 2003 to 2008.

In a statement issued by his solicitor, Townshend said at the time, "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."

The police did not detect child rape images on his computers despite his guilty plea of accessing child pornography. His excuse of conducting 'research' is one well documented by the FBI when they make arrests for child pornography (see under the following sections Facts of the Townshend child porn case and Research).

Other points of interest:

• In 2002 he wrote in a paper (see Smoking Gun article) 'that the "pathway to 'free' pedophilic imagery is--as it were--laid out like a free line of cocaine at a decadent cocktail party: only the strong willed or terminally uncurious can resist.'

• In 2006 he wrote and subsequently withdrew a graphic teen sex story on his website (See London Times article 2006).

'Fact is (that) even someone looking for a job as a groundskeeper at Land Shark stadium
wouldn't get hired with a sex offender status in his past; why then does Townshend?'
(E Daly, CEO, Child AbuseWatch in a Yahoo Shine article January 11, 2010)

Facts of the Townshend child porn case derived from the UK media
 

Florida, Miami-Dade Sexual Offender and Sexual Predator Ordinance 05-205
 

Media Coverage

There has been so much media coverage of this story that we have put the links on a separate page. To view the media files click here

Correspondence with the National Football League

(also see 'Updates' above)

Letter to Roger Goodell/NFL Commissioner 020610
"You have single-handedly done more to set back the cause of child sexual abuse prevention than any pedophile support-group could ever dream..."
 

Child AbuseWatch letter to NFL calls for Goodell's resignation (pdf) 021010
 

Open letter to NFL Exec VP, Roger Goodell January 4, 2010 (Third Letter) New
 

NFL letter to Child AbuseWatch December 17, 2009
 

Open letter to NFL Exec VP, Roger Goodell November 25, 2009 (Second Letter)
(copies to NFL senior management and to Leslie Moonves, President, CBS Corporation and Peter Dunn, President, CBS Television Stations)
 

Letter to NFL Exec VP, Roger Goodell November 16, 2009
(copies to NFL senior management and to Leslie Moonves, President, CBS Corporation and Peter Dunn, President, CBS Television Stations)
 

We have also written to Charlie Crist, Governor of Florida, Tomas P. Regalado, Mayor of Miami, Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and host of other people of influence. A general media campaign is underway explaining our objection to Townshend.
 

Research - Back Story, Video

Research and backup documents and video here
 

Protect Our Children (Selected Correspondence)

We are grateful to the group Protect our Children for giving us access to the following
select correspondence files:

Letter to Florida Attorney General McCullom December 24, 2009
 

Letter to Assistant Secretary John Morton Immigration and Customs Enforcement December 7, 2009
 

Letter to Bridgestone November 30, 2009

Advisory

Contact the NFL

Write: Roger Goodell, Executive Vice President, NFL, 280 Park Ave, New York, NY 10017
Or email: GoodellR@nfl.com, info@nfl.com
 

NFL Sponsors

Burger King, Campbell’s, Canon USA, Coors Brewing, Dairy Management Inc., FedEx, Frito-Lay, Gatorade, General Motors, IBM, Masterfoods, MBNA, Motorola, News America, PepsiCo: Diet Pepsi, PepsiCo: Tropicana, Procter & Gamble (Prilosec), Schering-Plough (Levitra), Southwest Airlines, Sprint, Visa,

[From the NFL 'Sports Business Resource Guide & Fact Book' at www.nfl.com]