What seemed this morning like much a media-scandal-to-sell-papers-and-distract-us-from-talk-of-war do about nothing, appears to have turned into a lot more. According to news source Reuters, "Scotland Yard said on Monday that the 57-year-old guitarist with The Who was in custody at a London police station."
The arrest follows Pete's statement in The Sun today which read: "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 judgement."
A police 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."
This is all really weird and there aren't a lot of details. Although it's worth bearing in mind that Townshend has worked to help the abused in many ways and appears to be be doing research - which is understandable, wanting to know about what you dislike, rather than just blindly hating it. And not everyone is a computer nerd who's aware of what kind of internet police there are.
Several people have stood up for him today, including Jerry Hall, talking about how he had advised her how to prevent her children accidentally accessing child pornography sites. She also said "Peter Townshend is the least likely profile of a child abuser..because he isn`t one."
DiScuss: How out of control is our modern day media? What is the fascination in this country with kicking anyone who's ever had the balls to get up there and do something and then acheive success? What can be done to stop so much extreme porn being so easily accessible and often marketed directly and regardless of who you are?