Townshend was an ''avid supporter'' of child welfare groups and a commentator on the Internet about the dangers of child pornography. Townshend's friends who spoke up in his defense was Jerry Hall, the model and former wife of Mick Jagger, who said Mr. Townshend's 1969 rock opera, is a ''deaf, dumb and blind'' pinball wizard who is sexually abused by an uncle.Īmong Mr. ''I cannot remember clearly what happened,'' he said, ''but my creative work tends to throw up nasty shadows - particularly in 'Tommy.' Some of the things I have seen on the Internet have informed my book.'' He told the newspaper that he had been ''deeply wounded'' by suspicions that he was a pedophile. ''But I have only entered once using a credit card, and I have never downloaded.'' ''I have looked at child porn sites maybe three or four times in all, the front pages and the previews,'' he told The Sun. He said he had been writing his childhood autobiography for seven years and had discovered evidence that he had been sexually abused between the age of 6 and 6 1/2, when he was in the care of his maternal grandmother, who was mentally ill. The British police have arrested 1,300 suspects as part of the sweep. Townshend's name was included in a list of 7,000 people in Britain whose identities were passed on to the British police by American investigators of a pay-per-view service in the United States. He has not been charged with anything and has been bailed to a future date when he may be required to answer some questions.'' Townshend has been interviewed this evening by police.

Townshend was questioned for an hour and a half at a local station house.

The who guitarist