According to British police, maybe the kids aren't all right when Pete Townshend's around.
The mastermind behind the Who was arrested Monday on suspicion of possessing kiddie porn, Scotland Yard has confirmed.
Officials said the 57-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Famer had been taken into custody on counts of making and possessing indecent images of children and of incitement to distribute indecent images of children.
Per British law, Townshend hasn't yet been charged. But he remains jailed.
On Saturday, London's Daily Mail newspaper reported that British police were investigating an unnamed rock star for allegedly paying to gain access to a kiddie porn Website. It was widely rumored that the rocker in question was Townshend, and he immediately issued a statement defending himself.
"I am not a pedophile. I have never entered chat rooms on the Internet to converse with children. I have, to the contrary, been shocked, angry and vocal (especially on my Website) about the explosion of advertised pedophiliac images on the Internet," the musician said.
He claimed he did use his credit card to gain entry into one site, which he viewed "maybe three or four times in all," but it said was purely for research purposes.
"I have been writing my childhood autobiography for the past seven years," the musician said. "I believe I was sexually abused between the ages of five and six and a half when in the care of my maternal grandmother who was mentally ill at the time.
"I cannot remember clearly what happened, but my creative work tends to throw up nasty shadows--particularly in Tommy," he added. "Some of the things I have seen on the Internet have informed my book, which I hope will be published later this year."
The 1969 rock opera Tommy features an abused deaf and blind kid who transcends his miserable state to become a pinball wizard.
He also invited police to search his hard drive so he could be cleared of any wrongdoing.
On Monday afternoon, the cops showed up at his house and began searching with Townshend's cooperation. They also searched an unnamed business in the suburban London town where he lives. The police confiscated computers from both locations.
Townshend was arrested as part of the wide-ranging Operation Ore, a sweep conducted with the help of the FBI (news - web sites) that has netted a reported 1,300 Brits, including several politicians, judges, doctors, police officers and others who have violated the U.K.'s Protection of Children Act by viewing child pornography on the Internet.
Townshend's Who bandmate Roger Daltrey said he stood by his longtime friend.
"Pete was very angry about how easy it was to get hold of child pornography on the Internet," Daltrey told London's Sun. "My gut instinct is that he is not a pedophile, and I know him better than most."
Also speaking out on Townshend's behalf was model Jerry Hall (news), ex-wife of Rolling Stone Mick Jagger (news). She said she once received advice from Townshend on how to protect her kids from viewing kiddie porn on the Web and he was an "avid supporter" of children's welfare charities.
"Pete Townshend (news) is the least likely profile of a child abuser it is possible to construct, and that is because he isn't one," Hall said in a statement.
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