Rock legend Townshend arrested

ROCK legend Pete Townshend was last night arrested by police in connection with child pornography offences.

The 57-year-old Who star, who admitted paying to access a website advertising child pornography but claimed it was purely for research purposes, was escorted by officers to a south-west London police station.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: “He has been arrested under the Protection of Children Act 1978 on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children, suspicion of making indecent images of children and on suspicion of incitement to distribute indecent images of children.”

The spokesman said two arrest warrants were yesterday executed at separate addresses in Richmond, Surrey.

Townshend, unshaven and wearing a black jacket, left his house by a side entrance at 7.20pm and was driven off in a metallic blue Toyota Corolla.

Townshend, whose home was searched by police officers, admitted using his credit card on one occasion to view a site advertising child porn “purely to see what was there” and insisted he was not a paedophile.

Police had arrived at Townshend’s south-west London mansion shortly before 3pm, following a prior arrangement with the rock star.

The Scotland Yard officers from its paedophile unit, major investigation team, and child protection unit are all attached to Operation Ore, the largest ever police investigation by British officers into online paedophilia and child pornography.

The probe has targeted Briton’s looking to pay to access child pornography web-sites following tip-offs from the US.

Townshend’s name was included in a list of 7,000 people in Britain whose identities were passed on to British police by the American authority who smashed a US pay-per-view service.

A Scotland Yard spokeswoman at the scene said: “There will be a thorough and detailed search of the premises. It will take as long as necessary.”