How do you make a serious offence of paying for child porn and being registered as a sex offender seem like it never happened? By pretending it never happened, of course! In the words attributed to Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda for the Nazi regime, "If you tell a lie long enough, it becomes the truth."

The truth is that Pete Townshend was a registered sex offender in the UK from 2003 to 2008 for his admission to accessing, viewing and paying for child pornography. He admitted it to the media and the police, for which he was arrested under suspicion of: 1. possession of child pornography, 2. inciting another to distribute child pornography. He told police that he had been doing research, an excuse long documented by both Scotland Yard and the FBI as a classic excuse by those caught accessing child rape imagery.  

Townshend was cleared of the first charge, that of possession. However, he admitted guilt to the “inciting another to distribute”, and in doing so received a formal police “caution” (adjudication withheld), enabling him to avoid a trial. With that caution came mandatory DNA and fingerprint recording and a 5-year registration as a sex offender.

Afterwards he triumphantly announced "The police have unconditionally accepted that these were my motives (research) in looking at this site and that there was no other nefarious purpose, and as a result they have decided not to charge me."

The Police seemed to have a different interpretation; A Scotland Yard statement stressed that access and payment for child abuse images was an offence. London Times May 8, 2003

What Townshend’s spin masters did was mix together two distinct issues – the charge of possession of child pornography which was dropped, and his admission to accessing and paying for child pornography which culminated in a guilty plea and a 5-year term as a registered sex offender. The emphasis of course was heavy on the ‘charge dropped’ part.

And in doing so it looked as though he had been completely cleared and he walked away an innocent man; maybe even a victim. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Here’s a quote from Bob McLachlan, former head of Scotland Yard's pedophile unit (who) slammed the caution as 'totally inappropriate.'  He said: 'Why is this rock star being given such lenient treatment when he has accepted a caution and therefore admits his guilt? Townshend claims he only did it for research, a common excuse used by pedophiles.'

A police caution in the UK is a misnomer. It isn’t a slap on the wrist, a quick wink and a ‘go-on get outta here you rascal.’ No, it is the U.S. equivalent of a guilty plea with adjudication withheld. It requires a DNA sample, regular check-ins with the police and notification to the police when leaving home. It also has a condition that if the subject steps out of line again they go to court on a charge.

A caution requires the suspect to admit guilt, which Townshend did. It also requires that there be evidence of guilt, which there was. And the result is a sex offender status for a given period of time during which the suspect is on the U.S. equivalent of probation. In 2006 Townshend wrote a graphic sexual piece depicting underage teen sex, it was hastily withdrawn, due to an outcry from child advocates. He told the Daily Mail: ‘I've taken down my story. I want to make it clear that I respect the requirements of the sex offenders register without condition.’

During the past month the NFL has been supplied with an abundance of disclosure about Townshend’s sex offender and child porn past by Child AbuseWatch. Despite this the league has steadfastly refused to drop Townshend from the Super Bowl line up. There had been a ground swell of opposition to his appearance. Many people didn’t know about his guilty plea and resulting sex offender status (well done PR people). 

So there you have it. Don’t ever say that public relations people aren’t effective; they are. In fact they are sometimes better than the best attorneys. They can even get an audience of millions to forget the truth and believe what ever they want them to. Well, most of the time.

Reference:

British Home Office guidelines on a caution (See conditional caution)
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/police/powers/cautioning/index.html

Child AbuseWatch Townshend research, media and back-story files files
http://www.abusewatch.net/CAN_NFL_Townshend.php

Latest media updates: Google ‘townshend super bowl’

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