What heppened to his pedophilia ''research''?

He regretted his actions, but admittedly his explanation ("I was doing research into how many British banks were complicit in funnelling the profits from pedophile rings") was extremely dubious. At best, he was an idiot for doing such research on his own, even if he believed the police were somehow complicit in covering up pedo rings.

You DON'T stop people downloading child abuse imagery, *by* downloading child abuse imagery (at least not as a private citizen, as opposed to an officer of the law acting in that very capacity).

It's unfortunate. I don't know how to think of him, speaking as a fan of The Who and much of Townsend's solo work. Then again, he doesn't seem to be regarded/treated as a pedo by the press, and it's clear that he hasn't committed any other acts that fit the profile of a child abuser.

😂😂

The police raid fiasco killed any hope of him doing any legitimate work on the issue, if that was ever what he was doing. But he had already published an essay on his website over a year before the allegations broke. It was called "A Different Bomb" and dealt explicitly with the availability of child pornography on the internet. A child abuse organization also came forward in his defense to say that he had been in touch with them over the preceding years.

The whole reason the story broke was because of Operation Ore. Pete's name was on the list due to his one-time access of a website, but people with one-time access were not the focus of prosecutions. Unfortunately for Pete, he was a celebrity, so a shady cop spotted his name and subsequently shopped the story to a British tabloid. With the allegation now public, the police were forced to act, and they did, confiscating his computers and subjecting them to a four month forensic investigation. The investigation turned up zero evidence, so police gave Pete Townshend a "caution" for his admission of the one-time access of the website, which may or may not have ever had any images of child abuse on it.

Is he guilty? I don't know. No one has ever come forward to accuse Pete Townshend of abusing them. His one-time access of a website doesn't fit the profile of a pedophile, which is why the police wouldn't even have pursued him if the tabloids hadn't gotten wind of it. I'm inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt.

I bet he did. But the law for the rich...?

RE - https://www.amazon.com/Who-Am-Memoir-Pete-Townshend/dp/006212725X