Rock star claims that he was acting as a 'vigilante' against child porn on the net

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In defending himself against allegations of paedophilia yesterday, Pete Townshend was forced to reveal the childhood abuse he claims was the true inspiration for The Who's classic rock opera Tommy.

In a statement issued to re-porters waiting outside his south-west London mansion, the 57-year-old songwriter said that he had been sexually abused by his maternal grandmother as a young boy.

Admitting he had once entered a credit card website advertising child porn, he insisted that he had done so as part of "research" for a forthcoming autobiography focusing on his childhood.

"I believe I was sexually abused between the age of five and six-and-a-half when in the care of my maternal grandmother, who was mentally ill at the time," the statement read. "I cannot remember clearly what happened, but my creative work tends to throw up nasty shadows – particularly in Tommy."

Anyone familiar with Townshend's work will instantly have recalled the plight of his most famous creation Tommy. In the rock opera, made into a film in 1975 by Ken Russell, Tommy, "the deaf, dumb and blind kid", is left alone by his parents only to be abused by a drunken, groping Uncle Ernie.

In his lengthy statement, Townshend claimed that it was not only his personal experience of paedophilia that had motivated him to explore child porn on the internet. His research had also been inspired, he said, by his grief over the death of a friend, Jenny, who committed suicide because of sexual abuse she suffered as a child.

"On one occasion I used a credit card to enter a site advertising child porn," he said. "I did this purely to see what was there. I spoke informally to a friend who is a lawyer and reported what I'd seen."

As proof of his sincerity, the statement invited reporters to read an "enclosed" article about Jenny, purportedly taken from Townshend's personal website. However, last night, editors were still waiting to be supplied with the piece, and it could not be found on the site to which they were directed, www.eelpie.com.

As Townshend first emerged in a white dressing gown from his home in Richmond yesterday lunchtime, he cut a forlorn figure. He seemed a far cry from the arm-swirling, guitar-smashing "Birdman" of legend.

His initial statement professed total innocence. There were bursts too of indignation and expressions of revulsion at the mere thought of paedophile activity. "I've been in touch with Scotland Yard to tell them what I was doing. I have contacted them but no police officers have contacted me," Townshend explained. "I have done a lot of work on paedophilia and my website has highlighted it. I have looked into the abuse that children have suffered in Chechnya and Kosovo and the portrayal of these children on the internet and it appals me."

The written statement went further. In it, Townshend spoke of fears he claimed to have held for years that the internet would become a tool to "subvert, pervert and destroy the lives of decent people".

While Townshend has never before spoken as publicly as he was forced to yesterday about child abuse, he has long claimed to be concerned about the issue.

In an entry for an online diary aimed at his fans, dated 12 October 2002, Townshend writes: "I ... run a really good charity which usually keeps a low profile, but does a lot of valuable work with addicts, alcoholics and both the victims and 'recovering' perpetrators of sexual abuse."

The charity in question, though not named by Townshend, was presumably Double O, a global network whose work is targeted at youths struggling to beat drug and alcohol addiction. Townshend is also known to have played benefit concerts for the Maryville Academy, a charity based in America that helps young people – including those who have suffered abuse.

Back in his wild-man heyday, Townshend himself, like his late bandmate Keith Moon, who died of an overdose, could have done with such support. For much of the 1960s, he was addicted to LSD and he battled with alcoholism intermittently until the mid-1980s. Now a fierce teetotaller, he devotes himself to more cerebral pursuits. Among his many sidelines are novel writing and publishing, in which capacity he is a consultant with Faber and Faber.

Townshend's neighbours, used to having high-profile celebrity locals, including Mick Jagger, were both supportive and dumbfounded. One, Richard Hunt, a lifelong Who fan, said: "We have to give him the benefit of the doubt. Hopefully it's not true and he's proven innocent."

Another neighbour, a film industry executive, said: "I think that you are innocent until you are proven guilty. I guess that the more heinous the offence, the more unbelievable it is and the more difficult it is to be believed innocent."

Pete Townshend's statement:

I am not a paedophile. I have never entered chat rooms on the internet to converse with children. I have, to the contrary, been shocked, angry and vocal (especially on my website) about the explosion of advertised paedophilic images on the internet.

I have been writing my childhood autobiography for the past seven years. I believe I was sexually abused between the age of five and six-and-a-half when in the care of my maternal grandmother, who was mentally ill at the time. I cannot remember clearly what happened, but my creative work tends to throw up nasty shadows – particularly in Tommy.

Some of the things I have seen on the internet have informed my book, which I hope will be published later this year, and which will make clear to the public that if I have any compulsions in this area, they are to face what is happening to young children in the world today and to try to deal openly with my anger and vengeance towards the mentally ill people who find paedophilic pornography attractive.

I predicted many years ago that what has become the internet would be used to subvert, pervert and destroy the lives of decent people. I have felt for a long time that it is part of my duty, knowing what I know, to act as a vigilante to help support organisations like the Internet Watch Foundation, the NSPCC and Scotland Yard to build up a powerful and well-informed voice to speak loudly about the millions of dollars being made by American banks and credit card companies for the pornography industry. That industry deliberately blurs what is legal and what is illegal, and different countries have different laws and moral values about this. I do not. I do not want child pornography to be available on the internet anywhere at any time.

On one occasion I used a credit card to enter a site advertising child porn. I did this purely to see what was there. I spoke informally to a friend who was a lawyer and reported what I'd seen ...

I hope you will be able to see that I am sincerely disturbed by the sexual abuse of children, and I am very active trying to help individuals who have suffered, and to prevent further abuse.

By Sophie Goodchild, Home Affairs Correspondent

Pete Townshend is one of the highest-profile figures so far to be caught up in Operation Ore, the largest ever British police investigation into internet paedophilia.

The name, credit card number and email address of the Who guitarist were contained in a dossier passed to the National Crime Squad and the National Criminal Intelligence Service by US officials in spring last year.

His name was among a list of 7,300 British suspects who allegedly paid for access to a US pay-per-view website featuring pornographic pictures of children and babies.

Of those suspects, around 1,300 have already been arrested including teachers, doctors, a judge and soldiers.

Fifty police officers have also been arrested, including Detective Constable Brian Stevens, one of the family liaison officers taking part in the Soham murder inquiry. DC Stevens had read a poem at the memorial service in August last year for Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman. He has already been charged with making indecent images of children and indecently assaulting two girls.

Forty children have been taken into care because they have been abused or there are fears that they might be at risk from parents or professional workers. Ten men have been charged with abuse including a father of three children. Police discovered he had taken Polaroid pictures of the child he abused.

Although Townshend said yesterday that he visited a website "advertising" child pornography only once, police say that the British suspects are all repeat users of the website and their names have been passed to police forces across the country. There are 1,100 in London, 700 in Scotland, 279 in Cambridgeshire, 200 in Kent and another 200 in Surrey.

Investigations began more than six months ago but police have been overwhelmed by the scale of their task. They have prioritised the list of alleged subscribers into three categories in an attempt to speed up the investigation.

The most serious category is for anyone with direct access to children such as teachers and social workers. The second category is for people holding positions of authority such as police and magistrates. The 1,300 already arrested represent 90 per cent of the names in the two most sensitive groups.

Police have still spent weeks ensuring that they have identified the right person before calling them in for questioning. In some cases, officers have spent up to 15 hours searching computer hardware for evidence.

In December last year, the Metropolitan Police said that it would take up to nine months to investigate all the 7,300 British suspects.

Operation Ore began after the US Postal Service uncovered a subscriber website for paedophiles called Landslide. This was being run in Texas by a couple making millions of dollars a year from more than 75,000 worldwide subscribers.

Thomas Reedy was involved in running the website, which operated in 1998 and 1999. He is now serving several life sentences in the United States.