Zak Starkey, Ringo Starr‘s son, recently found himself embroiled in a dispute regarding allegations against Pete Townshend.
Last week, Zak posted a video of Townshend performing live and commented, “Never seen Pete sing without a guitar before; he looks pretty cool doing it.” However, this led to criticism from users on the platform due to accusations against Townshend regarding sex offenses. Zak initially responded to these criticisms in the comments and later shared a video addressing the issue, which has since been deleted.
In one of his responses to a commenter, Zak stated:
“No, he’s not [a sex offender]. You’re misinformed. Check on Google and also Google ‘A Different Bomb’ by Pete Townshend published a year before the allegations. It is about policing the internet and what people/kids can see without censorship. Pete informed the Child Protection Agency before he accessed the site with his credit card… Do you really think Pete Townshend would willingly put his credit card, with his name, into a pedophile website?”
Zak further explained:
“He was demonstrating what was available to anyone. The police seized 17 of his computers, all of which were clean. He accepted a caution because of the zero-tolerance policy. You don’t know anything read ‘A Different Bomb’ and then come back to me with your thoughts. Could you also explain how you formed this opinion without knowing the facts? Headlines can be misleading do your research.”
In response to continued criticism, Zak added:
“There was no downloaded child pornography on any of Pete’s computers. He only accessed the website with his credit card—do your research.”
The controversy surrounding Townshend stems from an incident in 2003 when he was arrested for using his credit card on a website with child abuse images, despite previously writing about trying to alert authorities about such content. In a conversation with The Independent last year, Townshend acknowledged his mistake but maintained that he was trying to combat child abuse. He also mentioned that the incident had a detrimental impact on his reputation, although he and his wife stand by the truth of the matter.