/ Entertainment

01/11/2003

Associated Press

LONDON - Who guitarist Pete Townshend says he's not a pedophile, but he acknowledges studying child pornography on the Internet as research for dealing with his own suspected sexual abuse as a child.

Townshend went public after a London newspaper (the Daily Mail) reported that police were investigating an unidentified British rock star for downloading child pornography.

Townshend says he informed police of his activities.

Townshend, 57, says in writing his autobiography, he came to believe that he was sexually abused when he was 5 years old by his mentally ill grandmother.

He says he doesn't remember clearly what happened but says his work "tends to throw up nasty shadows" – particularly in the rock opera "Tommy."

"Tommy" is a deaf, dumb and blind pinball wizard who is sexually abused by an uncle.

Townshend says he was shocked and angered by the pornography he saw on the Internet.