Since I have never heard of this story until yesterday, hence the OP, I have one question. I take Pete as his word that he was investigating this issue for a book and to help try and stop it. But did his efforts to try and stop it start there? Or had he spoken on this topic before, and, more importantly, is he still trying to help stop it?
I actually think the guy is innocent. But last night someone on TV compared him to OJ, who claims to be still looking for the murderer of his ex-wife; but you could hardly tell. (especially since he is in jail anyway)...But before OJ landed in jail, I didn't really ever see him 'searching for her killer' as he claimed he would...
Rob
Checking up on this story, it seems he accsessed the site in 1999, the police went after him in 2003 and after an investigation of the computers and materials in his home no child porn was found. So it seems all we have is this one instance of him using a credit card on one site 10 years ago.
First of all, yeah, it's illegal to go to these sites so he fudged up there. But he deserves the benefit of the doubt he was on the site for research for a now abandoned book and that the man is not a fan of child pornography.
In the grand scheme of things it seems foolish for American officials to ask that he register as a sex offender for one website he visited 10 years ago following which no further abuse of child-porn laws has ever been found.