FW probe led to Townshend's arrest
Posted on 01/14/2003 1:13:11 PM PST by MeekOneGOP
FW probe led to Townshend's arrest
01/14/2003
FORT WORTH - The arrest of rock legend Pete Townshend on suspicion of possessing child pornography has a link to North Texas.
Mr. Townshend's arrest Monday stems from a 1999 investigation in Fort Worth. That probe was called Operation Avalanche, a reference to Landslide Productions, Inc., a Fort Worth-based Internet company that ran a multi-million dollar child pornography business.
It has turned into the world's biggest child porn investigation ever.
"We collected a database that Landslide had and then we shared that information throughout this country and throughout the globe," said former Assistant U.S. Attorney Terri Moore, who prosecuted the Operation Avalanche case.
AP Pete Townshend of The Who (right) leaves his home on the outskirts of London in a police car Monday evening. |
Ms. Moore said Thomas and Janice Reedy ran the Landslide company, which collected fees from Internet users. Those fees were then shared with other individuals who produced the content for the pornographic Web sites.
At its peak, postal inspectors said Landslide collected more than $1.4 million a month. The Reedys were convicted on child pornography charges in 2001; Mr. Reedy received a life sentence and Mrs. Reedy got a 14-year term.
Police arrested Mr. Townshend, a guitarist and co-founder of The Who, at his suburban London home based on leads from Operation Avalanche.
"We were giving the information to the British authorities, to the Italian authorities, to the German authorities, Russian... I mean, you name it," Ms. Moore said. "We had over 350,000 subscribers to child porn, and that was worldwide."
Mr. Townshend admits he visited a web site advertising child porn, but he said it was for research on an upcoming autobiography. Mr. Townshend said he was abused as a child said he has campaigned against child pornography.
Ms. Moore said she worked with a British investigator who is now handling the case involving Mr. Townshend.
No charges have been filed in Mr. Townshend's case.
So far, Operation Avalance has resulted in some 4,000 search warrants in the U.S. and overseas. An estimated 7,000 suspects are under investigation in Great Britain.
The real victims are children, Ms. Moore emphasized. "They're not virtual children made up in the mind of a computer; they were real kids that suffered."
Given the memos, a written client request, the nature of your job and a history of not visiting other suspect sites, a jury of peers would never convict you...at least if I were on the jury. Pete Townshend better not have BEGUN his "book research" by visiting these sites.....
...sorry, i can't resist any pun, regardless how bad, lol !
Couldn't they access the website on their own servers??? Or am I missing something here?
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