Who guitarist arrested over child porn

9.15am - By JASON BENNETTO

LONDON - Pete Townsend was arrested yesterday after admitting he paid to see child pornography on the internet.

The 57-year-old guitarist with the Who was held on suspicion of possessing, making and inciting the distribution of indecent images of children after police officers spent several hours searching his home in Richmond, west London.

Detectives removed several items including computers before taking him in custody for questioning at Twickenham police station.

The arrest comes two days after Mr Townshend issued a statement in which he admitted using his credit card to access a pay-to-view child pornography website on one occasion. He confessed to looking at what he described as "child porn sites" three or four times but said he did not download the images of abuse. He insisted he was not a paedophile and that he only looked at the illegal sites for research for his autobiography.

Yesterday's operation is part of Britain's biggest paedophile inquiry in which 1,300 people have so far been arrested. Mr Townshend's details were on a list of 6,500 people in Britain which was passed on to the police by US authorities investigating a child pornography site based in Texas. The maximum penalty for possessing indecent images of children is five years' jail and an unlimited fine.

Officers from Scotland Yard's paedophile unit, major investigation team, and child protection units, arrived at Mr Townshend's Georgian mansion at 3pm and carried out a search of his computers and other documents.

A police spokeswoman said: "Therewill be a thorough and detailed search of the premises. Itwill take as long as necessary."

Shortly before the police issued a search warrant atMr Townshend's home, his solicitor, John Cohen, told reporters: "We approached the police this morning and said that we should meet."

- INDEPENDENT