Facts and key points of the Pete Townshend
child porn case

 

Key Facts

Facts and key points of the Pete Townshend child porn case as taken from London Times article on May 8, 2003.

Original article: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article881976.ece
 

• PETE TOWNSHEND will be on the Sex Offenders Register for five years after receiving a police caution for viewing a website containing child pornography. (2003 – 2008)

• The 57-year-old rock musician and founder member of The Who will also have a lifelong criminal record for the caution, after a four-month investigation by Scotland Yard’s Child Protection Group. Police said yesterday that Mr. Townshend had viewed, but not downloaded, images of child abuse (rape) on to his computer.

• Mr. Townshend acknowledged in a statement that he was wrong to use his credit card to enter a website offering images of child abuse and said he accepted the police caution.

• During the investigation, Mr. Townshend was backed by Roger Daltrey, the band’s vocalist, who said: “He may have done something naive and stupid, but I’m telling you one thing. Pete did what he did for the reasons he said he did.”

• Townshend could find future trips to the United States curtailed by the country’s strict immigration laws. He would have to declare his criminal record.

• Mr. Townshend joins all those cautioned or convicted of a sex offence in being placed on the Sex Offenders Register. He will stay on the register for five years, the minimum spell. After registering with a local police station, where he will be fingerprinted, photographed and sampled for DNA, he must report back there every year.

• He is also obliged to contact police if he leaves his £4 million mansion in Richmond, southwest London, for more than two weeks within Britain, or if he travels abroad for more than eight days. The Home Office said the British authorities would not prevent him from traveling abroad for concerts.

• A Home Office spokesman said: “As long as he informs police, he has no restrictions on what he does. The Sex Offenders Register is not a punishment; it is a monitoring tool for police.”

Note: Townshend was confirmed to be on the British Sex Offender registry in 2006 when an essay he put on his blog got him in hot water with the British child advocacy group Stop It Now! as the topic’s focus had to do with underage sex. See article from London Times here: Townshend withdraws 'ill-advised' teen sex story - June 22, 2006
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/article677882.ece