British Sex Offender to Play Super Bowl XLIV Half Time Event?

Rumor has it that the remnants of the band the WHO, Roger Daltrey and Pete Townsend will be playing the half time gig at the Feb. 7, 2010, at Miami's Land Shark Stadium SuperBowl XLIV.

One has to wonder what the organizers, the NFL and CBS, are thinking in inviting the aged British Rocker Pete Townshend, fresh off British Violent and Sex Offender Register (ViSOR), to play at this, one of the most family centered events of the Sports calendar.

Townshend was registered as a Sex Offender in 2003, following a police investigation, for viewing online child pornography. Townshend admitted using his credit card to access child sex-abuse images, claiming that they were for 'research' for a book in 1999. The FBI lists 'research' as one of the more common excuses used by alleged pedophiles when caught.

Cleared of possession of child pornography he was ordered placed on the British Violent and Sexual Offender Register (Visor) for five years. He was admonished by child advocacy groups in 2006 for writing a graphic teen sex story on his blog which he retracted admitting it was "ill advised" to write. Townsend, despite being listed on VISOR, has been traveling to and from the United States with impunity since the incident.

'Inviting him to appear is an insult to child sex crime victims everywhere,' Evin Daly, CEO of Child AbuseWatch, the U.S. based child advocacy group said. "Child porn is not a victimless crime. Because Townshend admitted to his crime and avoided a charge does not make his actions any better." He went on to say that child sex crimes are a 'one strike and you're out.' Daly continued, "There is no understanding of child sex crimes, no excuses and no second chances; celebrity or not. Whatever efforts Townshend and his PR machine may have made to cover up his record and pretend it never happened, the facts can not be changed; Pete Townshend is a sex offender."

Child AbuseWatch is contacting the NFL and CBS requesting that they drop Townshend from the line up and replace him with someone without a child sex crime history.

Story Background

Pete Townshend of the WHO and his child porn connection (080108)
http://www.butlerreport.com/BREditorialChildPornandWHO.html Pete Townshend Should Not Be Given Kennedy Center Award (Dec 08)
http://www.abusewatch.net/Kennedy_Townshend.php