Crazy?

Pete Townshend has acknowledged his error in logging onto a child-porn site in an attempt to do research.

Pete Townshend has acknowledged his error in logging onto a child-porn site in an attempt to do research.

In 2003, Townshend rocked the music industry when he was arrested and charged with possessing child pornography. He was eventually cleared of all charges, but was placed on the sex offenders register for five years. He claimed he was looking at a website while conducting research for a campaign against images of child sex abuse on the Internet, and for his memoir, Who I Am, which will be published on October 11th. He logged into a pornography site with his credit card in what he calls an attempt to reveal the financial trail of child abuse from Russian orphanages to British banks.

In an interview to promote the book, Townshend says, "It's a product of success. 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."