The Who guitarist Pete Townshend has spoken for the first time about the 2003 child porn scandal which landed him on the sex offenders register.
The star has always denied he is a paedophile, but was placed on the sex offenders register for five years after paying to join a child pornography website. Townshend claims he joined the site planning to help youngsters after a traumatising incident in his youth.
"I had experienced something creepy as a child, so you imagine: what if I was a girl of 9 or 10 and my uncle had raped me every week? I felt I had an understanding, and I could help," he tells The Times in a new interview promoting his biography, Who I Am.
He claims he cancelled his subscription to the website in question as immediately, but claims he did not speak of the incident before now because he felt there was little chance of public forgiveness.
"There was no sense of 'the truth will out'," he adds. "I've had the misfortune to read online comments where I'm judged as a paedophile because I've got a big nose."
When police investigated Townshend's computers in 2003, they found nothing incriminating.
The guitarist revealed earlier this week that Mick Jagger made him question his sexuality, saying that he was the only man he ever wanted to 'f**k'.
