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from the AP
I'm sure this has already been posted but just in
case:
Just in from AP !
" Townshend Cleared of Possessing Kid Porn
7 minutes ago
" LONDON - Rock guitarist Pete Townshend (news),
co-founder of The Who, was cleared Wednesday of
possessing pornographic images of children but still
was placed on a national register of sex offenders.
That registration was part of a formal police caution
Townshend received for accessing a Web site containing
images of child abuse.
Townshend was arrested in January on suspicion of
making and possessing indecent images of children. The
arrest was part of Operation Ore, an FBI (news - web
sites)-led crackdown on Internet child pornography.
After a four-month investigation, London's
Metropolitan Police said Wednesday the rocker "was not
in possession of any downloaded child abuse images"
but had accessed a site containing such images in
1999.
The musician acknowledged using his credit card to
enter a Web site advertising child pornography but
said he was doing research for his autobiography.
"I am not a pedophile," Townshend said at the time of
his arrest.
The title character in Townshend's rock opera "Tommy"
a deaf, dumb and blind pinball wizard is sexually
abused by an uncle, and Townshend said he believed he
was sexually abused as a young boy while in the care
of his mentally ill grandmother.
Police said it was not a defense "to access these
images for research or out of curiosity."
As part of the cautioning procedure, Townshend's
fingerprints, photograph and a DNA sample will be
taken by police and he will be placed on a national
sex offender registry for five years.
Townshend was one of The Who's four founding members,
along with bassist John Entwistle (news), singer Roger
Daltrey (news) and drummer Keith Moon (news). Moon
died in 1978 and Entwistle died last year, but
surviving band members continued touring.
The group, founded in London in the early 1960s, was
part of the first British rock invasion with the
Rolling Stones and The Beatles. Their hits included
"My Generation," "I Can See for Miles," "Pinball
Wizard" and "Won't Get Fooled Again."
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