From Julian Stockton:
(For those of you not following the news via this site, Julian Stockton is Pete's solicitor. Kevin Toal, a freelance journalist who has provided this site with a large quantity of excellent material, has been in touch with Mr. Stockton throughout the period of these allegations.

Pete Townshend Press Statement

After months of investigation officers from Scotland Yard's Child Protection group have confirmed that they have not found any downloaded child abuse images on rock guitarist Pete Townshend's computers. They added that Pete co-operated fully with the investigation and that the decision to caution was made in accordance with the MPS Case Disposal Policy for this investigation.

Pete stated "From the very beginning, I acknowledged that I did access this site and that I had given the police full access to all of my computers". He added "As I made clear at the outset, I accessed the site because of my concerns at the shocking material readily available on the Internet to children as well as adults, and as part of my research toward the campaign I had been putting together since 1995 to counter damage done by all kinds of pornography on the internet, but especially any involving child abuse"

The Police work closely with the Internet industry through the Internet Watch Foundation to monitor paedophile activity and any member of the public accidentally discovering such images should notify the IWF through their website.

Ironically Pete later contacted the Internet Watch Foundation on the subject of the offensive site. He pointed out that "The police have unconditionally accepted that these were my motives in looking at this site and that there was no other nefarious purpose, and as a result they have decided not to charge me. I accept that I was wrong to access this site, and that by doing so, I broke the law, and I have accepted the caution that the police have given me."


MAIN