Rock legend Pete Townshend was last night arrested in connection with child pornography offences.

The 57-year-old Who star - who has admitted paying to access a website advertising child pornography but claimed it was purely for research - was escorted by officers to a south-west London police station where he was being held in custody.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "He has been arrested under the Protection of Children Act 1978 on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children, suspicion of making indecent images of children and on suspicion of incitement to distribute indecent images of children."

Townshend's mansion at the top of Richmond Hill, in south-west London, was searched by police officers yesterday following a prior arrangement with the star.

He has admitted using his credit card once to view a site advertising child porn "purely to see what was there" and insists he is not a paedophile.

The Scotland Yard officers involved in the inquiry are all attached to Operation Ore, the largest ever police investigation by British police into online paedophilia and child pornography.

The probe has targeted Britons looking to pay to access child porn web-sites following tip-offs from the US.

Townshend's name was included in a list of 7,000 people in Britain whose identities were passed to UK police by the US authority who smashed a pay-per-view service.

Teachers, doctors, care workers, police officers, magistrates and two senior Labour politicians are also reported to be on the list.