Pete Townshend Autobiography Gives Inside Track On Arrest

Fans wanting to find out about Pete Townshend's arrest following a child pornography incident in 2003 can read all about it in his new autobiography, reports The Guardian.

The book - a candid insight into the rock star's life - features the detailed trail of events that lead to The Who star's arrest. Townshend said he intended to reveal the financial lines of child abuse from Russian orphanages to British banks by paying a £7 fee to access a child pornography site with his credit card. This, obviously lead so suspicions and his eventual arrest: "It's a product of success, he explained. "I had experienced something creepy as a child, so you imagine, what if I was a girl of nine or 10 and my uncle had raped me every week? I felt I had an understanding, and I could help. What I did was insane." Townshend was talking to The Times, who are serialising the book. "I've had the misfortune to read online comments where I'm judged as a paedophile because I've got a big nose," he added. The scandal landed him 5 years on the sex offenders register after he claimed to be looking at a website while conducting research for a campaign against images of child sex abuse on the Internet.

Following a four-month investigation, the Metropolitan police said Townshend "was not in possession of any downloaded child abuse images," but had accessed a site containing such images in 1999. Who I Am will be released on 11 October.