Pop star in porn probe
Massive Attack star 3D has denied using child pornography on the internet after being arrested by police who seized computer equipment from his home.
The dance musician said he had "total faith" that he would be cleared after spending six hours being questioned by police after a raid on his home in Bristol following a tip-off to police.
The 36-year-old, real name Robert Del Naja, was also questioned over an alleged find of class-A drugs, suspected to be ecstasy, before being released on bail.
His arrest came as part of the nationwide Operation Ore clampdown on child pornography which has already made 1,600 arrests in the wake of an operation in the US which discovered thousands of people using their credit cards to access child pornography websites.
Del Naja said he was co-operating with detectives and added: "I have never looked at child pornography in my life.
"I am fully co-operating with the police and I would ask everyone not to judge me prematurely. I have total faith in the justice system."
Avon and Somerset police said: "A man in his thirties from Bristol was arrested in connection with allegations of possessing class-A drugs and internet pornography offences."
Del Naja is one of the founding members of Massive Attack, regarded as one of the most influential alternative dance groups of their generation, and known as the "godfathers of trip-hop".
Their hits have included the single Unfinished Sympathy and the album Blue Lines, and they led the so-called Bristol sound branch of dance music alongside other artists and groups such as Tricky - a onetime member - and Portishead.
Del Naja founded the band with Andrew "Mushroom" Vowles and Grant "Daddy G" Marshall and although Vowles and Marshall have both since quit, Massive Attack has worked with a series of artists and groups including Madonna, David Bowie and Garbage.
The group remain a major influence on the club scene and Del Naja also owns a nightclub in Bristol, where his Italian-born parents are publicans. He has spoken in the past of his drug use, saying: "There's nothing like doing a couple of pills or whatever and getting off it."
He also had a confrontation with the Duchess of York when she presented the group with an MTV award in 1998, saying: "What the f*** has she got to do with music for a start?"
Earlier this year he lined up with Blur singer Damon Albarn in the campaign against war on Iraq, paying £17,000 to pay for pro-peace advertisements.
