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 57-year-old 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.


On Wednesday, Townshend acknowledged he had been wrong to access the Web site, but said police had accepted he had no "nefarious purpose" in doing so.


"As I made clear at the outset, I accessed the site because of my concerns at the shocking material readily available on the Internet to children as well as adults, and as part of my research toward the campaign I had been putting together since 1995 to counter damage done by all kinds of pornography on the Internet, but especially any involving child abuse," he said in a statement.


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."

Getting a caution and being places on the child offenders list isn't all that "clear".

Essence said:

Well, the full police statement said that he didn't download any of the images, and that he only looked at the site once. Townshend did, however, break the law and for that he's got the minimum punishment.

I personally think putting him on the sex offenders list is too harsh. He's not a paedophile, and I honestly believe - as the police have said they do - that he was looking at the site for research into a book and as part of his campaign against child porn on the internet.

JohnnyTheFox said:

Maybe not a chid offender but he funds the demand for images of child pornography as soon as he pays by credit card to peek at pictures.

Essence said:

Yes, very true, and that is why he has been punished. But get this - when Townshend paid for the site in 1999, it wasn't illegal to do so. The law was changed in 2000, so he was found guilty in retrospect.

Pete Townshend Press Statement

After months of investigation officers from Scotland Yard's Child Protection group have confirmed that they have not found any downloaded child abuse images on rock guitarist Pete Townshend's computers. They added that Pete co-operated fully with the investigation and that the decision to caution was made in accordance with the MPS Case Disposal Policy for this investigation.

Pete stated "From the very beginning, I acknowledged that I did access this site and that I had given the police full access to all of my computers". He added "As I made clear at the outset, I accessed the site because of my concerns at the shocking material readily available on the Internet to children as well as adults, and as part of my research toward the campaign I had been putting together since 1995 to counter damage done by all kinds of pornography on the internet, but especially any involving child abuse".

The Police work closely with the Internet industry through the Internet Watch Foundation to monitor paedophile activity and any member of the public accidentally discovering such images should notify the IWF through their website.

Ironically Pete later contacted the Internet Watch Foundation on the subject of the offensive site. He pointed out that "The police have unconditionally accepted that these were my motives in looking at this site and that there was no other nefarious purpose, and as a result they have decided not to charge me. I accept that I was wrong to access this site, and that by doing so, I broke the law, and I have accepted the caution that the police have given me."