Townshend naive over child porn, says watchdog

LEGENDARY rock guitarist Pete Townshend was incredibly foolhardy, naive and misguided to enter a website advertising child pornography if he was, as he says, conducting research, an internet watchdog claimed yesterday.

The 57-year-old musician, who said he had done so "purely to see what was there", issued a frank admission on Saturday confirming he had used his credit card on one occasion to access a site, but was not a paedophile.

Campaigners yesterday condemned his actions as "wrong-headed and illegal" and described his explanation as no excuse.