Pete Townshend May Have Proof Clearing Him In Child-Porn Investigation

[Ken in MD <seahawkman2001@xxxxxxxxx>]

Entertainment - LAUNCH Music 
 
Pete Townshend May Have Proof Clearing Him In
Child-Porn Investigation
57 minutes ago  
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030130/143/35kcz.html

(1/30/03, 7 a.m. ET) -- Pete Townshend may have some
proof in his battle to clear his name against
child-pornography allegations. 

Britain's Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), which works
"to minimize the availability of illegal Internet
content, particularly child abuse images," has
announced that Townshend contacted the organization
last year regarding some of the websites he had found
while allegedly doing research into pedophilia. The
IWF denied any such communication when Townshend was
arrested earlier this month, but has now been able to
produce some emails from last summer and autumn that
seemingly back up the Who leader's claims. 

Townshend issued this statement on his website
(petetownshend.com): "You may recall that among the
media frenzy of a couple of weeks ago, representatives
of the Internet Watch Foundation told the press and
the news stations that they had never heard from me.
I, of course, know that I did communicate with them
several times last year, and they have now supplied to
us copies of my emails to them, one in August and the
rest in November. My lawyers have written to the
founder of the IWF, Mark Stephens, who was adamant
that they had never heard from me, asking for an
explanation." 

For it's part, the IWF says it had no choice but to
deny any prior contact with Townshend: "Because of the
provisions of the Data Protection Act, we are unable
to comment or disclose information about the personal
details of individuals who make reports to us unless
they give their permission." 

Townshend was arrested and released on bail on January
13 after British police searched his house as part of
Operation Ore, an ongoing pedophilia investigation. He
has so far not been charged with any crime. He was
taken in as part of an ongoing investigation into
Internet child pornography around the world after his
name and credit-card information was found at a
pedophile website. Townshend has admitted visiting a
handful of child-pornography sites and using his
credit card to enter one, although he claims he was
doing research for his upcoming autobiography, and
that the book will include a claim of sexual abuse
between the ages of five and six-and-a-half years old
while he lived with his maternal grandmother (the
alleged abuse came from a male friend of his
grandmother's). 

In an interview with the British tabloid The Sun
published before he was taken into custody, Townshend
said, "I am angry about child porn on the Internet,
and deeply wounded at the inference that I might be a
pedophile. I have looked at child porn sites maybe
three or four times in all, the front pages and
previews. But I have only entered once using a credit
card and I have never downloaded. With hindsight it
was very foolish, but I felt so angered about what was
going on, it blurred my judgment...I have never
purchased any forms of child pornography or wished to
own any...I was stupid to try to deal with my anger
about child porn on the Internet alone. We must try to
stop it but if we can't do that we should invest our
energy in helping victims of abuse...it is important
that the police are able to convince themselves
that--if I did anything illegal--I did it purely for
research. I am not a pedophile...I sincerely believed
that the police would know my history as someone who
works tirelessly to help the abused, and that since
1978 I have run a charity which has contributed
millions to organizations working to prevent violence
and abuse." 

-- Bruce Simon, New York 
Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now.
http://mailplus.yahoo.com